What is Gal Gadot's net worth and salary?
Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and fashion model who has a net worth of $40 million. Gal Gadot rose to prominence as a fashion model after competing in various beauty pageants, and she won worldwide fame for her subsequent acting career. Today, she is best known as the actress who played the character of Wonder Woman in various movies set in the DC universe. In 2018, it was reported that she was one of the highest-paid actresses in the world – the same year she made Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. She was again one of the five highest-paid actresses in the world in 2020, thanks largely to a $20 million payday for the Netflix film "Red Notice," which led to total earnings during the period of $32 million.
Early Life
Gal Gadot was born on the 30th of April, 1985, in Petah Tikva, Israel. She was born to an engineer and a teacher, and her parents gave her a Hebrew name that roughly translates to "waves on the riverbank." Gadot comes from a long line of Jews living in Israel, and her grandparents suffered in Europe under the Nazi occupation before moving to Israel. Gal Gadot grew up alongside a younger sister before attending the IDC Herzliya College to study law and international relations.
Military Service
As an Israeli citizen, Gal Gadot was required to complete a two-year tour of duty in the Israel Defense Forces. She enlisted as a combat instructor, and her experience in the military later became an asset as she took various acting roles. In 2007, she posed for Maxim magazine in their "Women of the IDF" photoshoot.
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Modeling Career
Gal Gadot showed promise as a model early in her career, and she won the Miss Israel Pageant as an 18-year-old. Having won this competition, she moved on to the Miss Universe pageant in 2004, which took place in Ecuador. This set the stage for a successful and lucrative modeling career in the years to come. Gal Gadot has worked with numerous brands, often becoming the face of their marketing campaigns.
Some of her most notable modeling work involved brands such as Miss Sixty, Huawei, Captain Morgan, Gucci, and Jaguar. Gadot has also been featured in many high-profile magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Bride Magazine, and FHM. She was also the main model for the fashion brand Castro, and she replaced Jennifer Aniston as the pitchwoman for Smartwater in 2020.
Acting Career
After completing her university education, Gal Gadot pivoted to focus on acting. Early auditions included roles as the "Bond Girl" for Quantum of Solace. Although she didn't win that role, she was introduced to many audiences with her appearance in the fourth Fast & Furious film. She reportedly won the role in part because of her experience in the military, and she performed her own stunts in her scenes.
After a number of smaller roles in films like Date Night and Knight and Day, she reprised her former role in the 5th and 6th Fast & Furious films. The real breakthrough in her acting career came in 2016, when she played the role of Wonder Woman for the first time in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Reportedly, Gal Gadot was trained extensively in the art of Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing, and other forms of martial arts in preparation for the role. On the heels of the film's release, many critics claimed that Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman "stole the show" from Batman and Superman.
After a slew of other small roles over the next year, Gal Gadot became a leading lady for the first time with the release of Wonder Woman in 2017. The film focused solely on the character of Wonder Woman and grossed almost $822 million on a budget of about $150 million. It also became the highest-grossing film by a solo female director. She followed that up with another appearance as Wonder Woman in Justice League, which was also released in 2017.
In 2017, it was announced that there would be a sequel to Wonder Woman with Gal Gadot playing the lead once again. Gal Gadot has also earned credits as a voice actor. She appeared as an animated version of herself in an episode of The Simpsons, and she also voiced the character of Shank in 2018's Ralph Breaks the Internet.
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Salary Highlights and Endorsement Earnings
Gal Gadot's salary for the first Wonder Woman movie was just $300,000. This caused quite a controversy when it was revealed, as she had made significantly less than male actors who also played superheroes. That being said, a lower pay rate is typical for the first film in a franchise, and Gadot's salary was increased in subsequent films where she played Wonder Woman.
Having established herself as an A-list actress, her pay rate was increased to an impressive $10 million in her second appearance as Wonder Woman. In 2013, it was reported that Gadot's annual salary for acting and modeling work was 2.4 million Shekels. Between June 2017 and June 2018, Gal earned $10 million between her movie salaries and endorsement deals with companies like Revlon.
In 2020, Gal earned a whopping $20 million paycheck for appearing in the Netflix movie "Red Notice."
Personal Life and Real Estate
In 2008, Gal Gadot married real estate developer Yaron Varsano. The couple has worked together to create various entrepreneurial projects, such as a hotel in Tel-Aviv that they eventually sold to Roman Abramovich for a cool $26 million. Varsano and Gadot also started a production company together called Pilot Wave. In the coming years, Gadot plans to co-produce various films that she will be acting in.
In December 2020, Gal and Yaron paid $5 million for an oceanfront condo in Malibu. They also own a home in their native Israel and a property in the Hollywood Hills, which reportedly cost $5.6 million.
United Nations Involvement
In 2016, Wonder Woman (and Gal Gadot by proxy) appeared at the United Nations to mark the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman's first appearance at the UN. Gadot (as Wonder Woman) was given the title "Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls." After members of the UN council protested against the decision, Wonder Woman was stripped of her title. Among the concerns raised were opinions that the character of Wonder Woman actually objectifies women instead of empowering them.
