After Israeli actress Gal Gadot was picked to play Cleopatra in a remake of the 1963 classic, most in the Arab world expected the Israeli model portraying Egyptian royalty – albeit from another era—to be met with a mixture of opposition and disdain. Surprisingly enough, a Twitter poll by the Arab News network indicates a vast majority of Arab viewers are on board with Gadot taking on the role.
An overwhelming 60.9% of the site's readers said they were "OK" with the Wonder Woman actress portraying Cleopatra, while just 27.1% opposing the pick, and 12.1% saying they'd judge once the movie was out in a vote on the site's Twitter account.
"The Israeli actress is not the first to play a character from [sic] country different [sic] to their own – the British actress Elizabeth Taylor famously played the role of Cleopatra opposite her one-time husband Richard Burton in the 1963 movie. She was Jewish!" tweeted a reader.