(JTA) – Gal Gadot is pushing back against claims that she is whitewashing Egyptian history by portraying Cleopatra in an upcoming film. “First of all, if you want to be true to the facts, then Cleopatra was Macedonian,” the Israeli actress said in a Dec. 22 interview with BBC Arabic. “We were looking for a Macedonian actress that could fit Cleopatra. She wasn’t there, and I was very passionate about Cleopatra.” After the blockbuster project was announced in October, critics took to social media to argue that the character should be portrayed by an Arab actress. Cleopatra was the last monarch of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, which ruled the country from 305 B.C. to 30 B.C., but she was a descendant of Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general.

“You know, anybody can make this movie,” Gadot said. “I’m very passionate that I’m going to do my own, too.”

Main Photo: Gal Gadot at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif., Feb. 9, 2020. (Toni Anne Barson/WireImage/Getty Images)