A few months back, Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot teamed up with a bunch of her Hollywood colleagues to do a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and give a heartening message to the people amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But the overwhelmingly negative reception was nothing like what the actress had imagined.
In this day and age, it’s become increasingly effortless to offend folks on the internet. Even celebrities, who’ve especially grown prone to the ‘cancel culture’ over the past couple of years, need only make the most minute insensitive comment and people on different social media platforms will freak out. In fact, at this point, a lot of the outrage seems like elaborate trolling attempts. Though I think it’s safe to say the backlash Gal Gadot faced for her Instagram video was almost unanimous, to the point that even famous podcast host Joe Rogan weighed in on the matter.
Now, after more than six months, the actress has addressed the situation in a new interview with Vanity Fair, saying:
“Sometimes, you know, you try and do a good deed and it’s just not the right good deed. I had nothing but good intentions and it came from the best place, and I just wanted to send light and love to the world. I started with a few friends, and then I spoke to Kristen [Wiig]. Kristen is like the mayor of Hollywood. Everyone loves her, and she brought a bunch of people to the game. But yeah, I started it, and I can only say that I meant to do something good and pure, and it didn’t transcend.”
A lot of discourse seems to pin this on the fact that with the recent worldwide disasters, what celebrities have to say should bear little significance. In the case of the DCEU’s Diana Prince, people got mad over the fact that the stars involved may have done this to try and stay relative.
Regardless, Gal Gadot has spoken out numerous times about the current global pandemic by continuously encouraging people to help the frontliners of the healthcare community. And as she explains, the “Imagine” video was basically another one of these attempts, though admittedly an ill thought out one.