PHOTO: Victor Chavez, Getty

Despite James Cameron’s whining, Wonder Woman is the hit of the summer and the beating heart of the modern superhero landscape. And the woman who plays her, Gal Gadot, is making our hearts beat with the Amazon-worthy interview she gave to Rolling Stone about growing up in Israel, her path to becoming one of the biggest stars in the world, and how much feminism has helped her along the way.

“People always ask me, ‘Are you a feminist?’ And I find the question surprising, because I think, ‘Yes, of course. Every woman, every man, everyone should be a feminist. Because whoever is not a feminist is a sexist,'” (emphasis ours) she explains, at once making feminism seem like the most obvious thing in the world and slyly hinting that those who are squeamish about the label might, uh, have some issues to work on.

Growing up in a small city in Israel, Gal — whose last name is pronounced “‘gadott,’ not ‘gadoh'” — and her sister were taught “to believe that we’re capable, to value ourselves.” And unlike many American girls, she wasn’t raised on a steady diet of media images and television programs depicting women as, well, sometimes wondrous and sometimes not so much; she was told “take a ball and go play” and ended up “a tomboy.”

From there she became Miss Israel, deliberately sabotaged her chances at Miss Universe, completed her mandatory army service, and took a quick jaunt to law school before starring in the highest-grossing female-directed live-action film. But as we know, pretty much any road a woman takes is littered with sexist mines, especially in Hollywood.

“I’ve had my moments where I’ve felt like men were misbehaving – nothing sexual, but inappropriate in a sexist way. Dismissive. Life wasn’t always rosy and peachy for me as a woman in the world,” said Gal. And though she famously did Wonder Woman reshoots while five months pregnant with her second child, during the first few months, she didn’t talk about it on the Justice League set. “The default should be that women get the job done, but there’s a long way to go and a lot of reprogramming that needs to be done to both genders,” she says of ingrained sexist double standards. It’s perhaps worth noting that while Wonder Woman was helmed by a woman, Patty Jenkins, Justice League was shot under the direction of Zack Snyder and is being finished by Joss Whedon. But don’t worry, Jenkins is working on a deal that’ll bring her back for Wonder Woman 2.

The whole article is worth a read – it starts with Gal blessing the author’s unborn daughter – and would make Aunt Antiope proud.

Related Stories:
—Gal Gadot Is Wonder Woman: “She Is Not Relying on a Man, and She’s Not There Because of a Love Story”
—‘Wonder Woman’ Director Patty Jenkins on the Feminist Superhero: “Being Badass Doesn’t Mean She’s Not Loving”
—3 Responses to Gal Gadot Being Cast as Wonder Woman that Are Way Off-Base