How did Gal Gadot become one of Hollywood’s most polarizing stars?

Gal Gadot was back as a hot topic of social media debate Wednesday after she addressed not one, but two, controversies that have erupted around her over the past couple of years.

In an interview with InStyle magazine, the Israeli actor and ex-model admitted she was wrong to organize her celebrity friends into making the controversial “Imagine” video that went viral for all the wrong reasons at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic. She also talked about playing Cleopatra in an upcoming biopic, after the announcement of her being cast as the Egyptian queen sparked backlash and accusations that she benefitted from Hollywood “whitewashing.”

The fact that Gadot was in the hot seat again shows the extent to which she has become a surprisingly polarizing figure in Hollywood. Perhaps she’s become a target for critics because she’s rich, successful and beautiful. Indeed, it’s pretty much the common career trajectory for any successful woman in Hollywood. Public opinion inevitably turns against her when she becomes too successful, because people are envious, fickle and easily bored, or because intense fame exposes cracks in a persona that may be hard to overcome.

After Gadot played Wonder Woman in the hit 2018 film, it seemed she could do no wrong. She became a Hollywood superstar and one of the world’s highest-paid actresses. Time magazine also named her “one of the most influential people in the world.”

As Lynda Carter wrote for Time, Gadot’s portrayal of the uniquely strong, smart and charming superhero was “magnificent and powerful, capturing everything that Wonder Woman represents.” Gadot’s fans would also agree with Carter’s assessment of her personally: “She is a wife and mother; she has served her country, traveled the world, and is hardworking, loving, wise, goofy and full of humanity.”

In the years since, the goofy, loving and humane mother of three daughters has found herself at the center of one controversy after another. The downward trend for Gadot seems to have started with the “Imagine” video.

It featured her, Kristen Wiig, Natalie Portman, Will Ferrell, Zoë Kravitz, Jamie Dornan and other stars each singing a line from John Lennon’s song “Imagine.” Gadot had intended for the video to be a statement of solidarity and of how “we will get through this together,” The Guardian reported.

Instead, it was mocked and maligned for being “tone-deaf” because it featured stars singing such lines as “imagine no possessions” from their multimillion-dollar mansions, as regular people lost their lives, jobs, homes and social contact with loved ones.

Gadot told InStyle that the video was made with “pure intentions” but admitted that it was “premature.”

“It wasn’t the right timing, and it wasn’t the right thing,” Gadot said. “It was in poor taste.”

In the same interview, Gadot also talked about playing the Egyptian queen Cleopatra in an upcoming biopic after her casting in the role in 2020 incited another controversy. Among other things, critics argued that an Arab or African actor should get the part.

At the time, Gadot shot back, telling the BBC Arabic: “First of all, if you want to be true to the facts, then Cleopatra was Macedonian. We were looking for a Macedonian actress that could fit Cleopatra. She wasn’t there. And I was very passionate about Cleopatra.”

Gadot didn’t directly respond to the controversy in the InStyle interview and said she couldn’t “reveal a lot” about the movie, other than,  “We’re going to celebrate the Cleopatra story.” She also said, “We’re going to show not just how sexy and appealing she was, but how strategic and smart, and how much impact she had and still has on the world we’re living in today.”

The Cleopatra casting controversy continued on Twitter in response to Gadot’s comments, with people also wondering if the world really needs another movie about the Egyptian queen.

In the past couple years, Gadot or the discussion around her as proven to be alienating in other ways. The Wonder Woman sequel, “Wonder Woman 1984,” was generally considered a disappointment when it was released in late 2020. After the original “Wonder Woman” was so beloved and even in the Oscar talk for a best picture nomination, “Wonder Woman 1984” seemed to suffer from what critics called “sequel overload”” and “uninterestingly janky script, a mess of goofy jokes, storytelling clichés and dubious politics.”

Several months later, Gadot stepped into a serious political controversy when she decided to comment on the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis. Gadot tweeted a statement that called for peace by expressing support for her native Israel but only referring to Palestine as “neighbors” rather than by name, according to Variety.

Journalist Tamoor Hussain replied on Twitter: “Denying Palestinians even a shred of compassion by refusing to acknowledge them and their suffering is a common tactic employed by their oppressors.”