Gal Gadot’s Daughter Said ‘How Appropriate’ When She Heard Mom Will Play Evil Queen In ‘Snow White’ 

Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan point to many reasons they bonded while making the spy thriller Heart of Stone. 

They’re both Tauruses, they’re both sarcastic, and, as Gadot, 38, points out in the new issue of PEOPLE, she and Dornan, 41, are both “girl parents.”

Gadot, who shares daughters Alma, 11, Maya 6, and Daniella, 2, with her husband, entrepreneur Jaron Varsano, 48, and Dornan, 41 who shares Dulcie, 9, Elva, 7, and Alberta, 4, with his wife, composer and musician Amelia Warner, 41, had never met before they started working on the movie. 

But because of their similarities, “we kind of hit it right from the get-go,” says Gadot. Dornan agrees, saying their connection was “instant.” (They spoke to PEOPLE in June before the SAG-AFTRA strike).

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Though the actors themselves became fast friends, their children didn’t. The couple had hoped to arrange a meeting or playdate, “but it didn’t work out,” notes Gadot, who quips that her costar was the one to stop it. 

“I think Jamie was like, ‘I just need some quiet time,’” she jokes.

In reality, their schedules were just too hectic, and Dornan and his family were in the process of moving. “We hadn’t moved back to London yet. We were still living in the countryside, so we were like right in the middle of nowhere,” says Dornan. 

Dornan also shares that one of his girls wants to follow in his footsteps on the big screen. 

“Our 7-year-old had a thing at school where she had to get up in an assembly and say what she wanted to be. She was saying she wanted to be a singer. And then at the sort of 11th hour, she changed it to actress, and she had to give three reasons why she wanted to be an actress,” he says.

The actor “told her what I liked about doing it: travel, meeting different people, getting to escape into characters. So she got up and said all that,” he continues. “She’ll probably want to be an astronaut next week. [But] even just to have that moment where she wanted to do it, I thought was pretty cool.”

In Heart of Stone, Gadot plays Rachel Stone, an undercover agent for a shadowy spy network known as The Charter. It’s so shadowy, in fact, that other spy agencies don’t know about it.

“It was really important to me that Rachel be a character who can fight, but I also wanted her to be able to use her brain, intuition and emotions,” she told Netflix outlet Tudum in June. “She doesn’t just run in, guns blazing. She thinks about how she is affecting people and situations.”

Gadot tells PEOPLE she was inspired to make this movie after the success of Wonder Woman, the 2017 D.C. Universe movie she headlined. “I realized there’s more room for these types of movies to be led by women. And we just went for it,” she says.

Dornan adds that he was all in. “I want to be a supporter of female-led movies when I can. And I’m very happy to be by her side in this one and watch women kick ass,” he says.

Heart of Stone streams on Netflix Friday, Aug. 11.

For more on Gal Gadot and costar Jamie Dornan, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.