On Monday, the news broke out of Gal Gadot reuniting with her Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins for a historical drama based on the life of famous Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Soon after that, netizens made this report a topic of discussion. Many are looking forward to watching Gal play the Egyptian queen, while several people slammed the makers for casting an Israeli actor for the role. The discussion was opened by a Twitter user named Sameera Khan.
She tweeted, "Which Hollywood dumbass thought it would be a good idea to cast an Israeli actress as Cleopatra (a very bland looking one) instead of a stunning Arab actress like Nadine Njeim? And shame on you, Gal Gadot. Your country steals Arab land & you’re stealing their movie roles... smh."
One of the netizens tweeted, "Not Hollywood trying to cast Gal Gadot to play Cleopatra. Of all white actresses to cast, they gotta cast a whole ex IDF soldier."
Check out a few tweets below:
However, many came out in support of Gal and Patty. Nazanin Boniadi tweeted, "Cleopatra was ethnically Macedonian Greek. Stop shaming @GalGadot and dividing people based on falsities. Reserve your outrage for world issues that urgently need our attention."
While another user wrote, "#GalGadot, an Israeli actress is being criticized for being cast as #Cleopatra, for her upcoming project, because as fans have described it, she's not a colour actress. I repeat, an Israeli actress is being criticized because she's not coloured enough to play an Egyptian queen Man."
In a statement, Gal had written, "As you might have heard, I teamed up with Patty Jenkins and Leata Kalogridis to bring the story of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, to the big screen in a way she's never been seen before. To tell her story for the first time through women`s eyes, both behind and in front of the camera...We hope women and girls all around the world, who aspire to tell stories will never give up on their dreams and will make their voices heard, by and for other women."