WAYNE: What sort of things do you talk about?

GADOT: A baby comes with such responsibility. Once you become a mother, you always have a guilt trip. You always try to do the best, but you feel you can always be better. At the end of the day, I always tell myself that it is very, very important for me to be a good role model for Alma, my daughter. As long as she’s the first priority, which she is and always will be, it’s okay if Mommy goes to work and has a busy period, as long as I balance everything. The good thing about being an actress is that it’s very children-friendly. I can work for three months and then I can have six months off. And then I can work for six months and have six months off. It’s up to me. It’s not like being a lawyer, for example, going to work in a law firm every day, nine-to-five for years and years. When I choose a role, I always think about whether my daughter can get something out of it when she watches the movie later after she’s grown up. Or even just show her that Mommy’s doing what Mommy loves to do. And therefore, she can do what she loves to do and have a family at the same time. As long as you have your priorities figured out in a healthy way. And it also has a lot to do with my husband, who is really supportive and makes everything so much easier.

WAYNE: Are you raising your daughter in Israel?

GADOT: We’re based in Israel, but we’ve been traveling a lot. We always travel together. My daughter is always with me. My husband goes back and forth, but we spend most of the time together. And I look at that as something unique. Alma is bilingual; she understands and speaks Hebrew and English. She’s very outgoing. Going through all of these experiences and meeting new people and going to different countries and cultures, you can only gain from it.

WAYNE: Picking movies that she’ll someday be able to watch with you and from which she can learn or look up to—is that something you think about with every role? I’m sure you must get offered a lot of roles that you turn down.

Eventually, the universe will knock on your door and tell you, ‘You don’t need to be here; you need to be over there doing something else.’ That’s what happened to me. I fell in love with it and gave it my all. Gal Gadot

GADOT: Now I do. Before, I didn’t have the privilege to choose what I wanted to do. I just wanted to work. But now I’m in a position where I can actually choose. When I just started as an actress, you go to L.A. and the managers and the agency set up general meetings with directors and writers. They always ask you the same questions: “What are you looking for? What types of movie would you like to do?” And I always said, “I’m open.” I’m very open to all different genres because I’m a very open-minded girl. But eventually, I told them that I wanted to be able to show the stronger side of women. I didn’t want to do the obvious role that you see in Hollywood most of the time, which is the heartbroken girl who’s waiting to be rescued by the guy, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to do something different. Little did I know that I would land Wonder Woman not long after.