© 2017 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. AND RATPAC ENTERTAINMENT, LLC(LOS ANGELES) — Wonder Woman finally arrives this weekend and there’s a lot riding on the highly anticipated film.  It’s not just a big movie in DC Comics’ attempt to build a film franchise that can compete with Marvel’s, it’s also the first female-fronted superhero movie since Marvel and DC rebooted their universes 10 years and 19 films ago.

So is star Gal Gadot feeling the pressure?  “Yeah, certainly,” she tells ABC Radio.

“It’s such an iconic character. It’s been around for over 75 years, and you certainly feel the responsibility,” Gadot says. “But at the end of the day, my responsibility is to tell her story in the most interesting way. So, I just focus on that, and I did my best, and we had a blast shooting this movie.”

It wasn’t all fun and games though, Gadot admits, saying she had to submit to a grueling training regimen to play the Amazon warrior princess. She describes the routine: “Two hours a day of gym work and two hours a day of fight choreography and stunts, and one and a half hour a day of horseback riding, which is a lot harder than you might think.”

For Gadot, the trick to making Wonder Woman work, was more than physical though.  It required finding the right tone for the character — one that was strong but also feminine. “She’s the strongest, most powerful warrior,” explains Gadot, “but at the same time she’s super warm and charming and loving and funny.”

As for leading such a high-profile, female-fronted superhero movie, Gadot is surprised it took so long. “It’s crazy to think that this character has been around for so long and this is the first time we get to actually really establish her origin story,” she tells ABC Radio.

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