Filming a high-budget blockbuster often comes with its unique set of challenges, as Gal Gadot and Kristen Wiig found out during the production of “Wonder Woman 1984.” Throughout the complex filming process, Gadot emphasized the importance of dealing with each day’s hurdles as they come, given the colossal scale of such movie projects.
Her approach to tackling the filming schedule was summed up as: “In these type of huge movies, you can’t take it as a whole. It’s day by day. It’s not even a week-by-week project because every day is full to the max. Do you remember the water work we had to do and the rashes that came out over our faces? Then they had to put milk in it and it just stank. People see the final, polished thing, but we had to do diving and you [Kristen] were cold.”
A critical fight scene shot indoors involved a substantial water tank to emulate the sea’s environment. The addition of milk to the water tank was meant to give the water a more realistic seawater appearance. However, this created an unexpected challenge as it led to rashes on both Gadot’s and Wiig’s faces, besides the milk spoiling and generating a foul odor.
Kristen Wiig also recounted the difficulties, particularly as she was unwell at the time: “I had a really bad cold, and it happened to be the day we were shooting under water and scuba diving. I had to make sure I didn’t go down too far because of my sinuses.”
The actors’ experiences underscore the demanding, less glamorous aspects of filming major superhero films and highlight the dedication necessary to bring such epic stories to life.