Gal Gadot replaces Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra in clip
Gadot has a slight resemblance to Taylor that has gone unremarked upon until now.
By HANNAH BROWNGal Gadot replacing Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra(photo credit: screenshot)
Forget the silly Twitterstorm over whether Gal Gadot is too white to play Cleopatra – Reface, the app that uses Deep Fake technology to swap faces in videos, has created a clip of the classic 1963 movie Cleopatra, replacing star Elizabeth Taylor’s face with Gadot’s.Two things are instantly clear from this clip, which shows Gadot in many of the costumes Taylor wore in the film. The first is that Gadot has a slight resemblance to Taylor that has gone unremarked upon until now. The second is that she has a suitably regal presence to shine in the role.The clip is scored to a rap song in Arabic, which is both a tribute to the Egyptian setting and, possibly, an ironic nod to the controversy.The sets and costumes in the film are incredibly lavish, which makes sense because this was the most expensive film ever made until then, with a budget of more than $100 million. There was also a media storm that swirled around the set, as Taylor fell in love with her married co-star, Richard Burton, who played Mark Anthony. She left her husband, singer Eddie Fisher, and Burton left his wife, and the starring couple were married and divorced twice.Taylor reportedly was initially not allowed to enter Egypt because she was Jewish. She converted to Judaism in 1959, influenced by Fisher and her third husband, producer Mike Todd. During the hostage crisis at Entebbe, Taylor offered herself as a replacement hostage and later appeared in a small role in the movie, Victory at Entebbe.Gadot won’t face any trouble filming in Egypt as a Jew or an Israeli. She has often spoken about the stability of her marriage to real-estate developer Jaron Varsano, so it is unlikely there will be a big scandal connected to the upcoming production. But the video clip demonstrates that Gal will be no less glamorous than Liz as Cleopatra.
