Gal Gadot commented on whether her new MI6 spy thriller is her own female James Bond and if that was even her goal.
Set to release on Netflix on August 11, the Wonder Woman actress isn't just the female lead of Neflix's Heart of Stone, she's also its producer.
Gal Gadot Talks Female Bond Goals
In talking to Empire, Gal Gadot commented on James Bond parallels to her upcoming Netflix spy flick, Heart of Stone.
In addition to playing an MI6 tech in an action-driven mission teeming with twists, Gadot's director, Tom Harper, is hoping the film will launch a franchise like James Bond or Mission: Impossible.
As to why the Red Notice star embraced her new character of Rachel Stone, Gadot referenced these same spy franchises herself, saying, "I grew up watching Bond, and Mission, and Bourne:"
“After the success of Wonder Woman, I realised that there was an audience for a female action protagonist. I grew up watching Bond, and Mission, and Bourne. I wanted to create a really strong, female-driven action movie that is for everybody, not a male story that’s been done many times already.”
Gadot's reference to Bond left some fans hoping that Rachel Stone would become "the female Bond." Yet the actress rejected this notion, explaining that "This is a new idea:"
“They’re thrilling. But I don’t want people to come to this movie thinking, ‘This is the female Bond.’ This is a new idea, a new universe. It’s hard to tell these stories without cliché, but we really tried to avoid them.”
In terms of cliches, audiences shouldn't expect Gadot to play Diana Prince as a spy either.
In a departure from action heroes performing superhero stunts sans cape, Gadot claimed what Rachel does in the film was designed "so that a human could do it," including a scene involving her character on an exploding dirigible.
“That could be done by people. The scene was even crazier, at a higher altitude, and we got into the science of it and dialed it down so that a human could do it. That was something I wanted to really make sure we nailed.”
But even so, there are still a few moments Gadot leaves up to her stunt team:
"What I can do as an actor, I’ll always go for it and do that. To fight with intention and really perform that. But the crazy, crazy stuff, I can’t, they won’t let me. I worked with very familiar stunt teams, though. They became like family to me.”
Still, Gadot claimed the physical action her character tackles in the film is "real," and audiences should expect to see her protagonist struggle:
“It’s real. When she’s hurt, we feel the pain. She’s a badass but at the same time she’s going through hardships — she can be emotional.”
Can Gal Gadot's Spy Film Launch a New Franchise?
Since Heart of Stone is still a few months shy of its release and the hunt is underway for a new 007, this probably won't be the last time Gal Gadot responds to those female James Bond questions.
The real question is whether her Heart of Stone can, in fact, launch a new spy thriller franchise.
Much of the appeal behind Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise is the actor's commitment to continuously top his latest death-defying stunt, making him a sort of real-life superhero.
As the Wonder Woman star explained, Heart of Stone adopted the opposite approach which sounds more like Harrison Ford's everyman Indiana Jones than Cruise's Ethan Hunt.
Whether audiences gravitate to this more grounded direction remains to be seen.
But in the meantime, Gadot's aim for originality and accessibility that goes beyond an action lead genderswap is definitely worth paying attention to.
Heart of Stone begins streaming on Netflix on August 11.
