Gal Gadot has made a worthwhile trade-off, exchanging Wonder Woman’s magical shield for a pair of trainers and her Amazonian armour for running gear. She may have officially resigned from DC Universe’s league of fighters, but her fighting spirit remains intact.
The 41-year-old actor confesses to shedding the invincible superhero armour for the vulnerability yet ferocity of an ordinary woman in her latest psychological thriller, The Runner on Amazon Prime Video. She exchanges her cape for the sharp suits of a high-powered attorney, Maia Marten, whose seemingly ordinary life beyond the courtroom turns into a chaotic sprint across the labyrinth of London’s streets and underground networks after her son is abducted. Manipulated through cryptic clues from an anonymous caller on her phone, she has one hour to save her son and the only thing she can rely on is herself. As she pivots towards a new genre away from the Wonder Woman franchise, a world she has been synonymous with for nearly a decade, Gal Gadot is poignant and reflective.
Dressed in a black suit with minimal make-up, her nails painted crimson and a diamond bracelet the only accessory, in an exclusive chat with the Indulge she says, “to be honest, these moments are so much more interesting than just the perfection of being some unstoppable person whom no one can beat, who’s always winning and always has the upper hand over her adversaries. I think what’s so interesting here is that she’s so exposed and so vulnerable and doesn’t have superhero powers. To get into that space of, ‘what do you do now?’ — for me, what sold me on this film wasn’t the fact that she was a badass, strong, independent woman… it was the ending. When I read the script, I was shocked by the twists and turns. Usually you watch a film and halfway through you know how it’s going to end. With this one, you don’t and it’s so smart and so freaking satisfying that I was like, wow! The fact that she’s sophisticated and can outsmart even in the hardest moments is what drew me in — you never know what you may get.”
Gal Gadot’s explosive physical power combined with brutally compact movements can make even the most seasoned fighters feel entirely outmatched. From the highly stylised sword-and-shield moves as Diana of Themyscira in Wonder Woman — taking superhero leaps through intricate wirework using ancient martial arts choreography — to her quick-reflex weaponry in Fast & Furious; and the pure swag of the ultra-sassy secret agent of Red Notice and Heart of Stone — kicking off stilettos, assembling a pistol and throwing in kicks with effortless grace — the 41-year-old effortlessly bridges the gap between high fashion and elite athleticism. Yet she says running is not her favourite exercise and sprinting across London may have looked breezy, but it came at a cost. She compares the gruelling physicality of the role to channeling her inner Tom Cruise, an actor known for his relentless, unstoppable energy to push through exhaustion and more.
“God! I finished the film on crutches,” she says with a laugh. “Seriously, I could not — I broke both my feet. It was so intensive. But that’s okay, I’m not invincible. I figured at one point I would get hurt, but I kept on channeling Tom Cruise energy. I was like, I can do it, I can do it. I was training for nine months. Running is not my thing. I know I’ve done Wonder Woman and many different action films, but running was never part of my repertoire. I hate running and when I took this role, I wanted to do it the right way. We found the best Olympic trainer, Malachi Davis, who trained me for this role and I feel so grateful to be able to learn new skills at my age. I just need to get back into running again. I felt so exhausted when I was filming it, I didn’t want to have anything to do with it afterwards, but now I feel like I’m getting there again. So you may just see me running again,” she says with a wink.
But the physicality, which played an intensive role in shaping her character, was only part of the picture. There was an almost personal resonance with the part as well. The actress, who has often shared that her biggest superpower is being a mother to her four daughters — Alma, Maya, Daniella and Ori — says it hasn’t only changed her as a person but brought an emotional depth to her as a performer. As she played a mother on the run, she says it was a time when the personal merged with the professional. “I think when you’re an actor, it all mixes at the end of the day — my personal experiences and the character’s experiences become one at some point. Especially as mothers, I think, our biggest fear is that something bad will happen to our children. As a mother, I’ll do anything to keep my children safe and so would Maia; and that aspect came together and helped me understand the character so much better. I think we’re all lionesses when it comes to our children — we’ll do anything and everything it takes and we’ll find a way, even though we’re not invincible.”
The actress also adds that with her own four kids each at different ages and in different schools, she has had to reassess her professional commitments: “to check out from my kids for such a long period of time doesn’t work for me any more. So, I take on what I enjoy and believe in.” With the constant emphasis on gender equality and parity in cinema gathering momentum, she adds that she likes to be part of stories that flip the narrative. The Runner, for her, intentionally subverts the traditional race-against-time Hollywood trope, long dominated by male leads — think Liam Neeson in Taken or Keanu Reeves in Speed — replacing it with maternal instinct as fuel, joining the growing wave of female-led survival thrillers such as Halle Berry in Kidnap and Lupita Nyong’o in A Quiet Place. “There cannot be women’s empowerment if women don’t have this visual in their subconscious and if men don’t have it either. It’s important for boys and men to see that a woman can be super great,” she tells us.
Working with Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald, known for his evocative portrayal of the human breaking point — from the physical entrapment of Touching the Void (2003) to the real-time hostage terror of One Day in September (1999) — she acknowledges his lens consistently permeates the human psyche as characters process claustrophobic, life-or-death pressure. “The rawness and primal fear he brings to his narratives — it felt like that, like he was pushing the pressure points very well as a director, for sure. And also the clever play of using the phone as a modern instrument of paranoia — the very instrument that’s meant to help us can be used against us as well,” she shares.
The last few months have not been easy for the Israel-born actress, who has come under intense public scrutiny and faced public backlash that even impacted her previous release, Snow White. The actress, however, maintains a diplomatic stance, saying she is obviously affected by the performance of her films, but at the end of the day, “people decide for themselves,” she signs off.
The Runner is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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