‘It wasn’t the right timing, and it wasn’t the right thing’

Gal Gadot has addressed the backlash to her star-studded “Imagine” cover nearly two years after the “cringe” video went viral.

The Wonder Woman actor, in a new interview with InStyle published on Tuesday (4 January), admitted that the infamous social media post was “in poor taste” despite her best intentions.

On 19 March 2020, Gadot posted a celebrity rendition of the John Lennon song on Instagram to inspire togetherness despite isolation in the early days of the Covid pandemic.

Prominent Hollywood actors like Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Natalie Portman and Amy Adams had joined Gadot to sing different lines of the 1971 track in a video that had garnered over 10.5 million views since it was uploaded.

A large number of social media users, however, said the cover was “out of touch”.

“Honey, look at all the rich people singing Imagine,” one Twitter user wrote.

“Everything will be alright now, even though we both lost our jobs. This was so much better than money and not cringey at all.”

Gadot reflected on the criticism against her video that included a group of “millionaire singers and actors singing ‘Imagine no possessions’” amid rampant uncertainty and fear over the pandemic.

“The pandemic was in Europe and Israel before it came [to the US] in the same way. I was seeing where everything was headed. But [the video] was premature. It wasn’t the right timing, and it wasn’t the right thing. It was in poor taste,” the actor said.

“All pure intentions, but sometimes you don’t hit the bull’s-eye, right?” she added.

Celebrities like Chris O’Dowd, who also featured in the controversial “Imagine” cover, Nick Cave, Judge Rinder and Ricky Gervais were among those that backed criticism against the “panic-inducing video” after its release.