Some time ago, on this very day, a fierce queen was born. That’s right, today is the fabulous Gal Gadot’s birthday!
There are many reasons why we love the 33-year-old Wonder Woman star, but here are five reasons why we’re calling her our real life Wonder Woman.
1) She served in the military
In her native Israel, it’s customary to serve in the military. Gal spent two years enlisted in the Israel Special Forces under the role of combat instructor. While it surely created discipline, it also definitely helped her down the line when she was auditioning for roles in movies like Fast & the Furious and Keeping Up with the Joneses.
2) She stands up for what’s right
Just last year, during the Hollywood reckoning, it came out that Wonder Woman producer Brett Ratner was part of that disturbing club of sexual harassers. When the news leaked, Vanity Fair reported that Gal refused to come back for the Wonder Woman sequel if Ratner was still attached to the film. She risked the role of one of 2017’s most successful films for what she believed in. They sided with Gal and didn’t ask Ratner back. I mean, talk about bad ass.
3) She rebukes society’s beauty standards
Normally, when engaging in press or red carpets, there’s a certain standard celebrities are held to. They need to look completely polished and dressed to the nine. However, Gal Gadot decided that her Wonder Woman press tour and red carpet appearances weren’t the time for flaunting around in high heels. “I want to create this trend of doing red carpets in flats. I love wearing high heels, it’s beautiful, it’s sexy, whatever. But at the same time, especially stilettos, it puts us out of balance,” Huff Post reported her saying. “We can fall any minute. It’s not good for our backs. Why do we do it? I can wear high heels (despite having a sprained back). But I was like, ‘Let’s wear flats!’ I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
4) She seems to have mastered work/life balance
Okay, granted, she totally filmed part of Wonder Woman while she was pregnant—but she does strike a nice balance between her acting career and her many commitments with her beautiful family. Gal married an Israeli real estate developer named Yaron Varsano back in 2008 and they have two daughters together. She reveals little about her family, but she does often discuss how important they are to her.
5) She’s the only girl in a DC Boys Club.
It takes a lot to be able to hold your own when it comes to the superhero universe. It’s predominantly run by male characters and they often use the woman as a love interest rather than a cohort. Gal wonderfully stands out among the men in her DC Universe and proves that a woman can hold her own. Not to mention, Wonder Woman did better not only with test audiences, critics and general audiences around the world, but it smashed the box office. Talk about debunking the whole “no one will see a female lead superhero movie” idea.
From her birth in Israel to her super stardom as one of the most iconic comic book characters in the world, Gal has swooped in and swept us all off our feet. She has proven that you don’t have to live by certain standards, and that women can stand up and make their voices heard. Gal Gadot is influential in the paradigm shift in Hollywood and we haven’t even begun to see what she has in store for us.