The James Bond saga has proven to be fruitful over the years, choosing the best of the bests to deliver to fans some of the most iconic arcs of the peerless spy – take Daniel Craig’s era as Bond, for instance. At the same time, the franchise has also turned down major talents that could have seriously launched it to extraordinary heights, including Gal Gadot.
Previously, Henry Cavill dominated the top position on the list of famous hotshots rejected by the Bond lore. But it seems like his DCEU co-star was yet another addition to it, as Gadot auditioned to become a part of the franchise as well. And while she didn’t end up being fished, it earned her quite a bit of experience before her casting as Wonder Woman in the SnyderVerse.
Gal Gadot’s Experience of Auditioning and Getting Rejected by the James Bond Saga
Over the years, Gal Gadot has donned innumerable roles across multiple genres, be it in action, superhero, or fantasy (she will soon be seen in the live-action Snow White as well). Through her performances, she has proven more than once that, no matter what the role requires of her – be it fight scenes or stunts – she could do it all.
That said, she would have been a worthy addition to the James Bond saga as well. And she did audition to become a part of it, too, for the record. But it seems like things weren’t all that in her favor, considering how she auditioned for it when she was just navigating through the industry and ended up getting rejected just like her DCEU co-star Henry Cavill.
Surprisingly enough, even Gadot wasn’t all that interested in joining the franchise back when she auditioned for Bond girl in Quantum of Solace. As she admitted to RSNG: “At first, I didn’t want to go to the audition. It was being held in London and I told my agent that my English wasn’t that good, I wasn’t an actress, and there was no way I would get the job.”
Additionally, back then, she had also just started delving deeper into studying law in Israel and “saw my life in a different way then.” This further stood as a reasonable cause behind her not wanting to audition in the first place. Nonetheless, at the continuous insistence and persuasion of her agent, Gadot eventually decided to get done with it once and for all.
Of course, she didn’t get cast for it, and all the things mentioned by the actress must have posed a problem as well. But, like they say, one must learn from their shortcomings, and so did the 39-year-old actress. To say the least, this rejection turned into a valuable experience for her as she realized just how much she wanted to dive into the entertainment industry as her primary goal.
As the Heart of Stone star continued to share during the same interview: “Even though I didn’t get the part, the entire experience and process of auditioning and working on my acting made me realize that acting was my next big goal in my life. Acting was something I knew instinctively that I could be good at, and all my friends told me that I should give it a shot.”
Needless to say, deciding to dive full-time into acting after facing rejection proved to be profitable for Gadot as well, considering how she went on to give one of the best performances of her life as Wonder Woman in the DCU. That being mentioned, the actress also shared how she believes scoring a role in Fast & Furious helped her get cast as Diana Prince for rather obvious reasons.
Gal Gadot Believes Fast & Furious Helped Her Bag Wonder Woman
Continuing in the interview, Gal Gadot then went on to talk about how, a few months after realizing it was truly acting she wanted to have her complete focus on, she scored the role of Gisele Yashar in 2009’s Fast & Furious. A fierce former intelligence operative who becomes a part of Dom’s team, Gisele knew how to pull all the right moves as a physically aggressive woman.
If anything, Gisele’s iconic intense personality and the way Gadot perfectly brought her to life was what exactly ensured people knew she could play the strong woman no one wanted to mess with – just like Diana Prince. That said, even the Red Notice actress herself credited this role of hers in the Fast & Furious franchise for landing her the fan-favorite superhero in the DCEU.
Sharing how she believes these Fast & Furious films, which “gave me the chance to show what I could do”, helped Zack Snyder identify her as the perfect Wonder Woman, Gadot continued in the same interview:
“I’m sure the work I did in those movies helped me get the role of Wonder Woman because Zack knew that I could play a tough and physically aggressive woman. There are lots of fight scenes and I had to learn to do swordplay as well as martial arts kind of stuff.”
Well, all of that hard work most certainly seems to have paid off, considering how Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince continues to be regarded as one of the best iterations of the superheroine to date.
Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman film series can currently be streamed on Prime Video.
