Gal Gadot Wanted Wonder Woman to Have This Princess Diana Trait
Actors sometimes pull inspiration from surprising places to help create their characters. Gal Gadot revealed she wanted to bring one of Princess Diana’s traits into her on-screen Diana role. The Wonder Woman star revealed which one and more.
Gal Gadot wanted Wonder Woman to start off with naiveté
In 2017, Wonder Woman was released, putting Diana into the forefront. Audiences got to see her start on the hidden island of Themyscira with other Amazons. Captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) then crashes his plane there, and Diana leaves, leading her to learn about the outside world.
Diana understandably has a lot of questions about how things work. Gadot revealed how they wanted to approach this.
“We wanted to bring some naiveté,” she told the Rolling Stone. “Being the mother of two girls, I’m like, ‘We need more naiveté. Everyone is too in their head.’”
Of course, the movie also showed Diana dealing with sexism too. “We didn’t want to treat the misogyny in a preaching way,” Gadot said. “We wanted to surprise the audience.”
Gal Gadot wanted Wonder Woman to have this Princess Diana trait
Gadot’s Wonder Woman is obviously based on comic books. But the actor had another inspiration for her version of the character.
“I remember watching a documentary about Princess Diana, and there was a part where they said she was full of compassion and always cared for the people and that was like, ‘Ding, ding, ding,’ that should be the Wonder Woman we have,” she revealed at the virtual Vanity Fair Cocktail Hour Live! event, according to People.
The actor also revealed a goal she had for the superhero. “I wanted to show her vulnerabilities and heart,” Gadot said.
The character shares the same name as the real royal, but that’s more of a coincidence. Wonder Woman made her debut in 1941 and was created by William Marston. He was a psychologist who helped invent the lie detector and was in a polyamorous relationship with his wife and girlfriend.
Patty Jenkins fought for Diana to not be harsh
Director Patty Jenkins took charge of telling Diana’s story in standalone films. She revealed the studio wanted Wonder Woman to be gritter like Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight, but she pushed back on that.
“Even when I first joined Wonder Woman it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, okay, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off…. I’m a Wonder Woman fan, that’s not what we’re looking for,’” Jenkins said on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.
If the studio did get their way, it probably would have been harder for Gadot to include that compassion. Luckily for them, their vision of the superhero made it into the movie.
