Gal Gadot has responded to critics of her star-studded quarantine "Imagine" cover, telling Vanity Fair that she "meant to do something good and pure" in her cover of the John Lennon classic.
“Sometimes, you know, you try and do a good deed and it’s just not the right good deed," the actress told the magazine. "I had nothing but good intentions and it came from the best place, and I just wanted to send light and love to the world."
Later, the Wonder Woman star, whose Patty Jenkins-directed sequel was recently pushed back once again amid coronavirus-related theater closures to a Dec. 25 release, admitted to Vanity Fair that she understood it didn't connect the way she intended. "I started it, and I can only say that I meant to do something good and pure, and it didn’t transcend," Gadot said.
Posted to Instagram in mid-March, just days into the coronavirus pandemic's lockdown, the two-minute video featured several Hollywood stars, including Wonder Woman 1984 castmembers Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal, as well as Mark Ruffalo, Amy Adams, Natalie Portman, Jamie Dornan, Zoë Kravitz, James Marsden, Will Ferrell, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Fallon, Maya Rudolph, Norah Jones, Leslie Odom Jr. and Sia, among others. Each contributor delivered their own line from the famous song in a montage performance derided by its critics as out of touch and inappropriately timed.
In the interview for Vanity Fair's November issue, Gadot explained how she brought together all those famous faces. “I started with a few friends, and then I spoke to Kristen [Wiig]. Kristen is like the mayor of Hollywood. Everyone loves her, and she brought a bunch of people to the game," the actress said of her Wonder Woman 1984 co-star.
While Gadot was open about the misstep, she offered no apologies for the musical montage. Instead, the Death on the Nile actress told Vanity Fair that she chooses to speak her truth and "do me" in the face of criticism from Hollywood and beyond.
“There is something that I’ve learned to say, which is, ‘I don’t disagree with you, but’ — so basically I’m disagreeing with you," Gadot said. "So I adapted. I just came to the conclusion: I do me, you do you. I’d rather have you not liking me at this moment than not saying my truth.”
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