Gal Gadot has accepted that her star-studded cover video of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” released at the start of the pandemic, may not have been the best idea.
In the cover story for InStyle‘s February issue, the Wonder Woman actress reflected on her choice to create the clip, which featured Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Amy Adams, and Will Ferrell, among others.
“With the whole ‘Imagine’ controversy, it’s funny,” Gadot said. “I was calling Kristen [Wiig] and I was like, ‘Listen, I want to do this thing.’ The pandemic was in Europe and Israel before it came here [to the U.S.] in the same way. I was seeing where everything was headed. But [the video] was premature.”
She continued, “It wasn’t the right timing, and it wasn’t the right thing. It was in poor taste. All pure intentions, but sometimes you don’t hit the bull’s-eye, right?”
Gadot released the “Imagine” video on her Instagram page in March of 2020. Speaking ahead of the video, the actress said that she has been bored after six days of self-quarantine. “These past few days got me feeling a bit philosophical,” she said. “You know this virus has affected the entire world, everyone. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from. We’re all in this together.”
The clip quickly earned criticism from the media and fans, who felt it wasn’t the right tone for the serious circumstances of a global pandemic. In October of 2020, Gadot told Vanity Fair that she had “had nothing but good intentions” but that the recording “didn’t transcend.”
Next up, the actress will appear in Death on the Nile, which also stars Kenneth Branagh, Annette Bening, Armie Hammer, and Rose Leslie.