Gal Gadot about the “new” Cleopatra

Notes about Whitewashing, Cultural Identities and Liberalism

Abstract

This article is about the Cleopatra’s whitewashing continuous process that (re)surfaced because the casting of the Israeli actress Gal Gadot to play her in a new audiovisual project. Our objectives are: (i) Analyse if the Gal Gadot’s casting to play Cleopatra is historical figure’s whitewashing process; (ii) Investigate the Gal Gadot’s ideological formation about the Cleopatra’s history(ies) and cultural identity(ies) and (iii) Think about the liberal character in the Gal Gadot’s speeches about the Cleopatra life’s new movie. The methodology is qualitative and the actress’ interviews speeches was analysed by Speech Analysis of Orlandi (2020). From the Gal Gadot’s speeches, we noticed that her casting is a Cleopatra’s whitewashing process, once she locates in whiteness model. Furthermore, the actress has approached of Liberalism’s logic, supporting the structural hegemonic order.