Gal Gadot has been blessed by franchises throughout her career. From Fast and Furious to Poirot’s Adventures to the haphazard DCEU. However, it’s her pending stand-alone role as the epochal “Queen of the Nile,” Cleopatra that may solidify her as a premier talent.
Unfortunately, for her fans and the random history enthusiast, it is taking an Egyptian summer to bring this movie to reality. Despite the wait, Gadot is ready to make history with her antiquated role, as she shares in the July cover story of Vogue Hong Kong. “I’m so passionate to tell her story and to bring justice to this character and her legacy,” she said about being the misunderstood Empress.
Gadot, 38, feels she was born to act two roles–one of which she’s already portrayed. As she said in the article, “If Wonder Woman is the imaginary strong female leader, Cleopatra’s actually the real one.” So, who better, right?
Unfortunately, that is the beginning of the controversy.
Ahead of Her Time
Many people who studied the Roman Empire or Egyptian Civilization in school know little about the mysterious queen. Thanks to a movie by Elizabeth Taylor and hearing about two powerful dudes fighting over her, those same classes give off the impression that Cleopatra got her gig because of her looks.
Sure, she was remarkably beautiful, but ask Gal Gadot, and that is not what she plans to highlight in her version of the biopic.
“All I ever saw in regards to Cleopatra from film, was that she was this seductive woman who had an affair with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony,” as Gadot says. “But the truth is, there’s so much more to her. This woman was so ahead of her time. Egypt and what Egypt was back then, was still futuristic to where we are today.”
Think about the obstacles placed in front of Cleopatra to understand the triumph of her overcoming them. She was born a child of incest. And, oh yeah, she wasn’t even Egyptian. Ancient historians have traced her life to Ptolemy Soter I, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, who ruled over…Egypt…until after the Macedonian ruler’s death in 323 B.C.
Although she spoke Greek in Egypt, she was named queen at the age of 18. Three years later, she meets these two power-hungry Romans, and the rest is (kinda) history. The rest of the story is what Gadot plans to tell–a vantage point of the great ruler often misunderstood or unknown by others.
Behind Her Legacy
It was 2020 when we first heard about Cleopatra. This was supposed to be the reunion of Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins, but that wasn’t to be the case. She gave up the helm of the movie and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland stepped in. At the time, Jenkins was staying on as a producer, but who knows now. That was 2020 and the movie still isn’t being filmed.
“We have a beautiful script, and I cannot wait to share this story with the world and change the narrative of Cleopatra simply being a seductor,” Gadot shared with Vogue Hong Kong.
If the script promises to dig into the parts of Cleopatra’s life that haven’t been romanticized, this could be an incredibly surprising movie. There is so much more to Cleopatra that books don’t really share in high school. That is where Jenkins…eh, Skogland and Gadot can make something memorable.
The teenage queen who ruled from 51-30 B.C. was a cunning, intelligent ruler who knew when to bat her eyes or stab someone in the back–even if it was her brothers, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV (both of whom she married, then murdered, to make her dynasty stronger). Not for nothing, but in 41 B.C., she also had her sister, Arsinoe, executed. It turns out she considered her a rival to the throne.
“Egypt and what Egypt was back then, was still futuristic to where we are today. I can’t say much,” the actress said of her upcoming movie, which has not yet entered production. “But to me, I’m so passionate to tell her story and to bring justice to this character and her legacy and celebrate her and her legacy.”
Whether it finally reaches production, direction, or just trivial conversation, no one seems to know. However, if you do your homework, if there is a movie about the real Cleopatra, it should burn bright like a phoenix.
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.