Gal Gadot on feminism, her heritage & playing Wonder Woman

The Wonder Woman movie is out now, and star Gal Gadot spoke to Yahoo’s Katie Couric about feminism, her heritage and the pressures of taking such a loved comic book character to the big screen.

“I am definitely a feminist. I think all of us should be feminists. You know, I’m here because of this movement of the women that made sure that I can have a career, and I can choose when I want to have a baby, and what I want to wear, and you know. But I think that there’s such misunderstanding about what it means to be a feminist. Because people think that when you are a feminist, then you hate men. And you’re this bitter woman that has you know, burn your bra. And it’s not about men versus women or women versus men. For me, feminism is all about equality and freedom and choice. So yes, definitely I am a feminist. And I think that Wonder Woman is the most iconic feminist character ever.”

“The comics, it’s like a religion almost. And you do feel the pressure, because so many people care so much for this character. But at the end of the day, I focus on my mission, which is to tell her story in the most interesting way. And that’s what I do. And I’m just hoping that they’re going to like it. The Wonder Woman story is not just for women or girls. She has such a beautiful, universal story, period. So everyone can relate to it.”

“My grandfather was born in Czech Republic and he’s a Holocaust survivor. And he lost his entire family and he came to Israel by himself when he was just 16. And after everything that he’s been through, and he lost his entire family, seen the horrors and he always taught me that no matter how dark it gets, always, always do good. Good stick to good. And if you’re good and if you do good to the world there’s this, you know, karma and energy that will follow you. And I feel like, especially nowadays, this time of age…wow, it sounds like I’m doing the beauty queen thing here. No, but if we all… if we start small and all of us do some good to our immediate environment than we’ll have a better society.”