Gal Gadot Auditioned To Be A Bond Girl Before Fast & Furious Role

Gal Gadot reveals she auditioned to be a Bond girl for 2008’s Quantum of Solace before her breakout Fast & Furious role the following year. The second installment in Daniel Craig’s James Bond tenure saw the MI6 agent on the hunt for revenge for the death of his lover, Vesper Lynd, putting him on the path of Camille Montes, a young woman similarly seeking revenge for the murder of her entire family. The duo’s missions cross paths as the trail leads to wealthy businessman Dominic Greene and his ties to the titular organization, itself a subsidiary of the iconic SPECTRE.

Fast & Furious marked the fourth installment in the long-running action franchise and served as a prequel to its predecessor, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and brings the focus back to Dominic Toretto, still a fugitive from the law, and Brian O’Conner, back to being an FBI agent. The duo reluctantly team up again to apprehend a Mexican drug lord seemingly responsible for the murder of Toretto’s lover, Letty Ortiz. Fast & Furious would serve as a career-launching film for the future Wonder Woman actress, though something else was almost in the cards for Gadot.

In a recent career-spanning interview with InStyle, Gadot reflected on the early stages of her time in the acting world. The Wonder Woman star recalled having gone in to addition to be a Bond girl for Quantum of Solace at the behest of her agent, ultimately not getting the part but would set up her big chance with her Fast & Furious role. See what Gadot said below:

“After my service in the military and modeling, I started university and studied law. There was a casting director there looking for the new Bond girl, and she had seen my card at my modeling agency. I was like, ‘Listen, I’m not an actress. I’m here because my agent told me you really wanted to see me, but I don’t want to waste your time.’ I didn’t get the part, but I started working with acting coaches and auditioning in Israel. I got my first role for a TV show, and that same casting director remembered me and hired me for Fast & Furious. Then I started my affair with acting.”

Though Gadot doesn’t outright state she intentionally underperformed in the audition for Quantum of Solace, her reflections on the audition process does sound like she may have been unprepared or uninterested in the part. Both feelings are entirely valid for a young actress in the early days of her career, given the immense anticipation surrounding the Bond sequel following Casino Royale as well as the troublesome reputation the status of a Bond girl could bring to a star. Despite losing the lead female role of Quantum of Solace to Olga Kurylenko, it’s clear Gadot still learned valuable lessons from that audition process for her future.

Gadot not becoming a Bond girl also proved to be a blessing in disguise for the star, as the casting director would bring her back for Fast & Furious which, though as critically underwhelming as Quantum of Solace, would prove to be a solid launching point for her career. After appearing in the three follow-up installments, Gadot would eventually land the coveted role of Wonder Woman for the DC Extended Universe, propelling her to even greater stardom. Gadot now serves as producer on a number of her high-profile projects, some of which include Wonder Woman 1984, the in-development Wonder Woman 3 and Cleopatra.