During the whole month of March, we remember and celebrate the strong women who have influenced our lives and the lives of others around us. We all know her as Diana Prince (aka Wonder Woman) or as Gisele Yashar for her amazing roles in the movies Wonder Woman and in The Fast & Furious series but there is more to Gal Gadot than just being an actor.

Her mother and friend signed her up in 2004 for Miss Israel and she went because she wanted to tell her grandkids that ¨Grandmom did the Miss Israel thing.¨ Little did she know she was going to end up winning.

She appeared in Miss Universe that same year but decided that she no longer wanted to win so she purposely tanked in the competition by pretending that she did not speak English and wore the wrong things. “I knew that I did not want to win Miss Universe. It wasn’t my thing. For an 18 year old, it looked like too much responsibility.”

After the Miss Universe loss (that she is very proud of), she enlisted in the Israeli Defence Force and served two years as a combat trainer putting soldiers through a boot camp.

In 2007, she turned down a role to be a Bond girl in the latest James Bond movie because she was just finishing her first year in law school but her agent kept insisting that she try acting.

She then landed her role in Fast & Furious franchise in 2009 and played Gisele Yashar up until her exit in Fast & Furious 6 in 2013.

Her role in the Fast & Furious franchise led to her role in Wonder Woman (2017). While auditioning, Mrs. Gadot did not know what she was auditioning for until Zack Snyder, the director, called her and asked ¨Well, I’m not sure if you have her in Israel, but did you hear about Wonder Woman?¨

She realized she was being given an amazing opportunity as an actress and a feminist; it was her turn to bring Wonder Woman – who, according to Gadot “stands for love and hope and acceptance and fighting evil” – to life.

She waited to tell her co-stars while filming Justice League that she was pregnant in fear that they would see her as weak. She would have her assistant hold a trash can on set so she could quickly run over and throw up when she was not feeling well using the excuse ¨It was just a sandwich that disagreed with her¨.

She believes that her role in Wonder Woman ¨shows that being a woman is a strength in so many ways.¨

While filming any of her movies, Gal Gadot was against using her stunt double and did her own stunts. As she is trained in swordsmanship, Kung Fu, kickboxing, capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial arts), and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, doing her own stunts was easy.

She gets so much support and praise from her Justice League co-stars Ben Affleck, whose two daughters look up to Wonder Woman so he is cool by association, and Henry Cavill, who promotes her movies on social media.

¨All of you guys, all men and all boys, always had a figure to look up to (Superman or Batman)… for girls, it’s always the princesses are being saved or being passive and finally Wonder Woman, she’s fearless, she´s proactive, she believes in herself. She believes she can do everything, and that’s a true woman for me.¨