What Gadot says she negotiated

Gal Gadot told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that the Bitcoin agreement was the longest contract process of her career. She said her lawyers spent roughly six months considering AI scenarios because she did not want the technology to alter or replace any part of her performance. Gadot says the final protection keeps the acting hers and that SAG contacted her lawyers for pointers that might inform safeguards for other performers. TheWrap's report contains her direct account, but not the contract language, correspondence with the union or a statement that SAG-AFTRA has adopted those terms.

The production boundary she describes

Gadot characterizes Bitcoin's AI component as limited to sets and lighting and stresses that a large crew still worked on the movie. TheWrap separately reports that Doug Liman shot the film on a custom soundstage over 20 days and that its producers describe AI as replacing traditional lighting and sets. People involved with the production claim a conventional version would have cost $300 million and place the actual budget near $70 million. Those numbers are promotional production estimates rather than audited comparisons, so they do not prove that AI alone created a $230 million saving or establish how every department and performer was treated.

Why the contract matters beyond one film

For actors, the important distinction is consent before capture and reuse: an AI-assisted environment does not automatically authorize a producer to modify a face, voice, movement or completed performance. Gadot's account suggests those boundaries can require months of scenario-by-scenario drafting even when the performer remains willing to work on an AI-heavy project. For fans, that makes the visible result only part of the story; how a performance was authorized matters to the people whose likenesses make screen characters recognizable. The next meaningful evidence would be published contractual language, union guidance or consistent protections extended to the rest of the cast and crew.