Gal Gadot has an illustrious career in the film industry, working with stars like Vin Diesel, Chris Pine, Jennifer Saunders, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, and many others.
And now an Irish star is being added to the list, as the Wonder Woman actress starred alongside Down man Jamie Dornan.
The pair worked together on Netflix’s Heart of Stone, which chronicles the life of Agent Rachel Stone (Gadot), an intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency, who must race to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable — and dangerous — weapon. Jamie stars as Parker, the lead agent of Stone’s MI6 team.
While the fast paced plot kept the whole cast busy, they still made time to bond, and Gal couldn’t have found a better friend than Jamie.
“I’m such a big fan of his work. Belfast was one of my favorite movies last year. He is talented and professional, he will always come on time. He’ll always know his lines, he is a fantastic partner to work with. And on top of it. He’s such a great guy. He’ll always crack jokes, make you feel comfortable,” Gal told us at VIP Magazine.
It helps that the actors have so much in common, including being parents to houses full of girls.
Jamie shares three daughters with his wife, Amelia Warner. The couple are based in the heart of the English countryside.
While Gal also shares three daughters with her husband Yaron Varsano, and so the pair bonded quickly over balancing their busy showbiz careers with family time.
As the actress explained: “I feel like we all shared so much in common between our kids and you know how you balance work life and family life.”
“He is just a great, great guy…who loves golf,” she joked.
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In the Hollywood blockbuster, Jamie isn’t the only international star. In fact the cast is made up of actors from around the globe.
Including Bollywood star Alia Bhatt known for her work in the Hindi film industry, who stars as Keya Dhawan. Along with German actor Matthias Schweighöfer, and British stars Jing Lusi and Paul Ready.
The international cast was a very intentional choice, complimenting the worldwide settings of Heart of Stone. As the film shot in Northern Italy, England, Iceland and Portugal.
Highlighting the importance of having a global cast, Gal said: “It was very intentional. We wanted to make a worldly movie. Part of the reason why it was so important for us to shoot all around the world, [was because] we also want to have as many people around the world be able to see themselves on the screen.”
“At the same time we made sure that whoever it is we’re choosing the right person for the role so, it was very organic, a very authentic creative process, and it was a lot of fun curating the right people.”
“I feel like it brought richness to the film, having people from all around the world telling the story.”
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Alia was also quick to praise the films international approach, saying: “I think it was a great incentive by the filmmakers and intentionally sort of crafted the storytelling and the characters from the get go. Also, it’s hugely beneficial when a film like this sits on a platform like Netflix, in which there’s world content and world stars and world actors all sitting in literally the same service.”
And the global approach impacts every aspect of the story, with Jamie Dornan keeping his Northern Irish lilt, Gal Gadot her Hebrew intonations, and the rest of the cast their regional accents.
A rarity as so many projects opt for a generic American accent from their international star, but filmmaker Tom Harper felt this was important for Heart of Stone.
“There was all sorts of conversations that we had about it. I really like regional accents and I think that adds character. In the past I certainly have done jobs where we have been encouraged to use RP accents (Received Pronunciation) because, there’s a school of thought it makes it easier to understand for global audiences, but actually I think that we have embrace different accents.”
Continuing: “I think that’s part of what makes people and characters interesting. I think both Jamie and I thought there was no reason why he shouldn’t be using his own accent.”
“Sometimes there’s a very specific reason why a character has to have a particular accent and in which case then fine. But in this case, there was no reason not to use his own accent, and I thought that was a really nice thing.”
The Peaky Blinders director explained how they incorporated Jamie’s Northern Irish identity into the character of Parker.
Saying: “When you’re exploring a character with an actor, often they will look to bring parts of themselves or bits that are relevant, and we did have conversations about what it would mean for someone from Belfast working within MI6 and the nuances of that and how that might inform the character.”
“Everyone is different, and it’s always interesting to use the richness of our lives in front of you to develop a character so we wanted to embrace that, rather than to move away from it.”
Heart of Stone is available to stream on Netflix now.