How Wonder Woman inspired Gal Gadot to make female-led action film Heart of Stone
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As a major fan of action movies, Gal Gadot always wondered why there was a severe lack of female-led films in the genre.
"So many male-led films were made brilliantly, and I just always felt like there's room for more female-led films," the actress tells EW in an interview conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike. "Bond, Mission: Impossible, Bourne Identity, Die Hard — these movies I devour, and I always wanted to play one."
Gadot is no stranger to starring in big-budget action movies, but it wasn't until the first Wonder Woman came out in 2017 that she realized her dream could become a reality. "I had an 'aha!' moment," she says. "I was like, 'Wait a second, men go to see [women-led action films too]. We can [make more], so let's do it.' I got some confidence and we decided we're going to start and develop Heart of Stone."
Robert Viglasky/Netflix
Working alongside her husband Jaron Varsano and their production company Pilot Wave, Gadot began working on Netflix's upcoming thriller, in which she stars as elite agent Rachel Stone who harbors a secret even bigger than her career with the MI6: She's the only woman who stands between an ultra-mysterious, powerful, global peace-keeping organization the Charter and the loss of its most valuable — and dangerous — asset, the Heart.
"I really wanted to tell a story of a real person that goes through a crazy journey and is told from a female perspective," Gadot says. "That was something that excited me, that I wanted to show, that I felt like I hadn't seen enough. And with Rachel Stone, she's such a woman of many contradictions. On the one hand, she's an incredible secret agent who enjoys the thrill of the adrenaline, but at the same time, she doesn't work well within the system. She finds it a bit difficult to follow the rules. She's like a loose cannon with a really strong sense of justice but she follows her heart. I felt like there were so many different layers and meat for this character for me to bite on, and it was delicious to play."
She was also excited to do something different with an action movie than what she'd done previously, not only as Diana Prince, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, but as Gisele in the Fast & Furious franchise.
"First of all, it's a real-life character, meaning the tone of the film is very different than anything I've ever done," Gadot explains. "The character is very much grounded and gritty and raw. That's something that I wanted to bring, something that is not polished and grand. When she's cold, you are cold. When she gets a punch, you feel the pain. You're right there rooting with her."
With an action movie pedigree as impressive as Gadot's, she thought she knew what to expect when it came to filming the stunts for Heart of Stone. But she says "the bar always goes up and up and up" with every new project, and this one turned out to be the most intense shoot she's ever worked on.
Robert Viglasky/Netflix Gal Gadot on the set of Netflix film 'Heart of Stone'
"It was the biggest take-on I've ever had," she adds. "It was a lot of work. Months and months of preparation and trainings and workouts and learning all the different choreographies. It was a lot."
And she did that all despite contracting COVID-19 during the shoot. "We were all waiting for me to test negative," she reveals. "As soon as I was negative, the same night I traveled to [the set in] Portugal, I slept the night, and I woke up really early to go and shoot a scene of me running a very long distance. And I just had COVID, so every time we cut, I couldn't breathe."
While it may have slowed her down, she didn't let it stop her. "You just go for it," Gadot adds. "There's something in me where once the red light in the camera goes on, I'm on. I think to myself, it's not like they're going to say in small letters, 'She just had COVID, that's why her running is not perfect,' or, 'It was a really hot day,' or 'She didn't sleep, or 'It was a really cold night.' You just have to do it."
Heart of Stone also stars Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt (making her US film debut), Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jing Lusi, and Paul Ready. The film debuts this Friday on Netflix.
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