Auditioning to become a part of the James Bond universe is an experience that can lead to some of the best, or at least most interesting, stories. Believe it or not, Gal Gadot has a story of her own, as she recently recalled being looked at to play a Bond woman before she landed her breakthrough role in 2009’s Fast & Furious. Which may not have happened, were she to have landed the 007 role she was being considered for.
Before nabbing the part of Gisele Yashar in the fourth Fast Saga installment, Gadot’s acting career had the opportunity to start a bit differently. Reflecting on the experience for an In Style interview, the Wonder Woman star recalled her initial meeting for a role in 2008’s Quantum of Solace, and how the failure to land the gig led to her eventual entry into Vin Diesel’s ever growing criminal family. Here now is the origin story of Gal Gadot’s acting career:
After my service in the military and modeling, I started university and studied law. There was a casting director there looking for the new Bond girl, and she had seen my card at my modeling agency. I was like, ‘Listen, I’m not an actress. I’m here because my agent told me you really wanted to see me, but I don’t want to waste your time.’ I didn’t get the part, but I started working with acting coaches and auditioning in Israel. I got my first role for a TV show, and that same casting director remembered me and hired me for Fast & Furious. Then I started my affair with acting.
As you already knew, or could have guessed rather correctly, Ms. Gadot was being considered for the role of Camille Montes, the vengeful party who teams up with Daniel Craig’s 007 in the name of defeating a common enemy. But what her story leaves out in its telling is the fact that she was one of the finalists for the role, alongside the woman who eventually received the part, Olga Kurylenko. With fate panning out the way that it did, the Fast Saga gave Gal her first major motion picture, and Quantum of Solace allowed Ms. Kurylenko to start on the path to becoming an action star in her own right.
What’s even better is the fact that Gal Gadot also shared the story of how her acting career would eventually blossom, thanks to her continued work at honing her craft. That strategy certainly paid off, as she would eventually find herself cast as the new Wonder Woman in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, planting her at the heart of Warner Bros’ DC Extended Universe. In turn, that super-powered twist of fate would land her a solo franchise of her own with the character, as well as projects like the upcoming Death on the Nile adaptation from director Kenneth Branagh.
Taking even a quick glance at Ms. Gadot’s resume, the end result is an eclectic mix of varying projects that each hold their own challenges. For someone who once went into a meeting for a James Bond film, only to flat out say that they weren’t an actor, that’s a really happy result that counts as yet another interesting 007 audition story. It also gives Gal Gadot another thing to brag about, as she’s one of the few other women who got to try and romance Dominic Toretto, in those crazy days of the Fast Saga timeline when his beloved Letty was thought to be dead:
It’s decisions like these that allow us to say that you can currently see Gal Gadot in her massive Netflix hit film Red Notice, as it’s streaming on that very platform. Death on the Nile will be hitting theaters real soon, as it’s set for a February 11th opening. For all other inquiries about the cinematic year to come, Gadot related or not, you can turn your gaze to 2022’s release schedule and begin planning your year out at the movies.