Did Gal Gadot Really Do the Running in The Runner? Her Training and Injury Explained

Watching The Runner for even 20 minutes makes one production question difficult to ignore: how much of that running is actually Gal Gadot? Maia Marten barely gets a chance to stop as she races across real London streets, and many scenes keep Gadot’s face visible while she runs, talks and reacts at the same time.

Gadot did perform a substantial amount of the running herself, and she trained for nine months specifically to make it convincing. She did not, however, perform literally every running shot in the finished movie. After the physical demands eventually injured her feet, the production used stunt doubles and filmmaking workarounds before Gadot later returned to finish material she had missed.

Gal Gadot Trained for Nine Months to Learn How to Run

Gadot may have years of action-film experience, but preparing for The Runner required a very different kind of fitness. She has openly admitted that running is one of her least favorite forms of exercise, which made a movie built almost entirely around sustained running a particularly uncomfortable assignment.

She spent roughly nine months training before and around the production. Former Olympic athlete Malachi Davis worked with Gadot on her running technique, helping her develop a stride that could become automatic enough for her to concentrate on acting rather than constantly thinking about where her feet were landing.

Gadot also worked with another trainer on strength preparation. That mattered because The Runner did not ask her to sprint for one polished action sequence and then recover. She had to repeatedly run while delivering dialogue, reacting to the Caller and hitting marks for cameras moving alongside her.

The challenge was less about achieving elite racing speed than building a movement she could repeat reliably for hours.

Did Gadot Do Her Own Running Scenes?

Yes, Gadot performed much of Maia’s running and physical work herself. She has described spending entire filming days running, sometimes from morning until night, while also performing the dramatic scenes happening within those sequences. For an actress accustomed to choreography, wire work and traditional stunt setups, the repetition became a different kind of physical punishment.

Director Kevin Macdonald also wanted the London journey to feel geographically real. Maia follows a plausible route from Hampstead toward central London, and much of the production took place on actual streets rather than on an enclosed backlot.

The camera crew had to become part of Gadot’s physical rhythm. Operators used equipment while moving on skateboards and rollerblades, allowing them to stay alongside her instead of repeatedly cutting from an actress to an anonymous double.

That approach is one reason so much of the running feels less polished than the movement in a traditional studio action scene. The camera and actor are often fighting through the environment together.

Related: The Runner Ending Explained: Did Maia Really Kill Tafa?

Why Didn’t She Do Every Shot Herself?

The simple answer is that her body eventually could not keep doing it. Gadot injured her feet toward the end of production while running, and the injury became serious enough that she finished part of the shoot using crutches.

Macdonald has said the problem occurred on an uneven running surface during the final stretch of filming. Once Gadot could no longer safely perform the required movement, the production had to adjust rather than pretend the injury did not exist.

Stunt doubles were used for some running material, while closer shots could create the impression that Gadot was continuing to move normally. The film’s credited stunt department includes a stunt double specifically assigned to Gadot, so it would be inaccurate to claim that every footstep seen in The Runner belongs to the actress.

That does not diminish the amount she actually performed. In this case, the existence of doubles reflects how physically punishing the production became rather than an actress avoiding the running from the start.

Did Gal Gadot Really Break Both Feet?

Gadot has described the injury publicly as breaking her feet and has said she finished the production on crutches. She later explained that the crew picked up material they could not complete because of her injuries once she had recovered sufficiently to work again.

Macdonald’s account places the injury during the final days of principal photography after months of repetitive running. Reports from his interviews describe the accident as happening when Gadot encountered an uneven surface, after which the crew combined different methods to finish what could still be shot.

The injury also explains why Gadot speaks about The Runner’s physical demands differently from some of her previous action movies. Wonder Woman required elaborate fight choreography, but Maia required the same basic physical action to be repeated relentlessly.

Running became less of a stunt and more like the working condition of the entire movie.

Why Was Running While Acting So Difficult?

Maia is rarely just running. She is listening to information through the phone, calculating what the Caller wants, reacting to strangers, trying to communicate secretly and gradually becoming physically exhausted. Gadot therefore had to preserve the appearance of a woman under increasing strain without simply becoming too tired to perform the scene.

That creates an unusual technical problem. A dramatic take can be repeated because an actor misses a line, the camera loses focus or a background element goes wrong, but every additional take adds more physical mileage. By the time the scene finally works, the performer may have already run the same stretch several times.

Macdonald’s preference for live London environments made those variables harder to control. Some streets remained populated, and the production had to coordinate Gadot’s pace with moving camera crews rather than giving her an empty track.

Gadot joked during promotion that she tried to channel Tom Cruise’s famous commitment to running on camera. Her feet eventually offered a fairly decisive reminder that even action stars have limits.

The Running Is Part Performance and Part Production Illusion

The most accurate answer is therefore somewhere between “Gadot did everything” and “it was all a stunt double.” Gadot trained extensively and performed a large amount of the sustained running that defines Maia, enough that the physical work eventually contributed to a serious injury. Once she could no longer safely continue, the filmmakers relied more heavily on doubles, close-ups and later pickups.

That combination is standard filmmaking, but The Runner makes it unusually noticeable because running is practically the movie’s visual language. Gadot’s preparation was not merely about looking athletic for a few shots. She had to convince audiences that Maia could keep moving while her concentration, fear and exhaustion changed around her.

The finished movie may make Maia’s journey look like one frantic uninterrupted morning, but producing that illusion took nine months of preparation, weeks of repeated running, a mobile camera team, stunt support and eventually a pair of crutches.