Director Joss Whedon Denies Threatening Gal Gadot

Even though some Disney fans or Marvel fans might not be very familiar with Gal Gadot (even despite her recent show-stealing turn as an international art thief in the comedic action movie Red Notice), the Wonder Woman actress is about to become a big Disney name because she’s set to play the Evil Queen in the upcoming live-action adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Disney — and the Israeli actress has made headlines again recently by standing up to a director who allegedly exhibited some inappropriate behavior on set.

Director Joss Whedon is best known for his work on the Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and for his work on the show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the director also helmed the DC movie Justice League after its original director Zack Snyder stepped down due to a personal tragedy. On the set, Whedon managed to alienate both Gal Gadot, who was playing her crowd-favorite character Diana (Wonder Woman), and Ray Fisher (who played Cyborg).

While the main misconduct allegations from Cyborg actor Ray Fisher regarding Whedon seemed to revolve around the director’s insensitivity (Fisher alleged that he needed to “explain some of the most basic points of what would be offensive to the Black community”, and Aquaman co-star Jason Momoa supported this claim), Gal Gadot’s misconduct allegations against the director were particularly personal.

Justice League director Joss Whedon only just responded to the misconduct allegations from 2020 in a new interview; as he remembers it, “he joked about a scene [Gal] wanted to cut, noting she’d have to tie his body to a train track to cut it”, and recalls that he “was told that I had said something about her dead body and tying her to the railroad track”.

He attributed the actress’s offense to a misunderstanding from the language barrier, saying that “English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.” Gal responded concisely in an email to New York, saying that she “understood perfectly.” ⁠

Gal also told InStyle magazine that she is fluent enough in English to “dream in English”, even if mistranslations do sometimes happen, and she is always “eloquent” and articulate in Hebrew. She did acknowledge that “it took time to adjust to Hollywood — to understand the behavior, to read people, to be more polite and eloquent”, but the actress has now worked in Hollywood since 2009.

In an interview with ELLE magazine, it was also revealed that “Gadot said on Israeli TV in May that Whedon ‘kind of threatened my career and said if I did something, he would make my career miserable'”. However, Gal Gadot is known for her directness,  “Oh, I was shaking trees as soon as it happened. And I must say that the heads of Warner Brothers, they took care of it…if he says it to me, then obviously he says it to many other people. I just did what I felt like I had to do. And it was to tell people that it’s not okay.”

Gal’s co-star from Wonder Woman 1984, Kristen Wiig, reiterated that “when [Gal] needs to wear that hat, she is very clear on what is right. People who think she’s just a pretty face are dead wrong.”

Gal Gadot has recently confirmed that she is playing the Evil Queen in Disney’s live-action Snow White movie (opposite West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler), so we’ll definitely be seeing a lot more of Gal as that movie begins production! The former combat trainer apparently was drawn to the project by the prospect of being in the Disney villain roster with other A-list actress Disney villains like Cate Blanchett (who played the Wicked Stepmother Lady Tremaine in the 2015 Cinderella) and Angelina Jolie (who played Maleficent).

She’s also producing and starring in an AppleTV+ series about Hedy Lamarr, the fascinating inventor and beautiful actress from Old Hollywood, as well as a movie that she’s developing through her own Pilot Wave production company about Cleopatra (and yes, she is playing both Hedy and Cleopatra). The Miss Israel winner is also starring in the new Agatha Christie movie Death on the Nile, so a Cleopatra role is particularly appropriate! In addition, Gal Gadot is one of the founders of a new healthy mac and cheese brand called Goodles.

Do you think that Gal Gadot will make an entertaining Evil Queen? Have you encountered any previous stories or claims about Joss Whedon’s reputation for offending actors and doing things like threatening Gal Gadot?