The telenovela “Champion” in which she starred in two seasons since 2006, marked Meital Gal as a born star. The beautiful young woman with the magnificent mane of curls, who was a dancer girl from the age of 3 and starred in commercials from the age of 4, became a model and very quickly an actress as well. At the age of 18, she was cast in the series alongside names like Yehuda Levy, Ofer Schechter, Adi Himmelblau and Liraz Cherki, and picked up the role of Rita Bat Haim, the blind and kind-hearted girl who is unaware of her beauty and develops an on-screen affair with Michael Lewis. But despite the high expectations and the promising baptism in television, film and theater, the big boom did not come.
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“‘The Champion’ was really a big boom, but after that I met reality and realized that there are no booms all the time,” she says. “And all of these put me in a different place. From a distance, I think I was a young girl looking for herself and her voice.”
Today she is already 35 years old, married to Ben Rothschild, who specializes in investments, real estate and high-tech, who is also a partner in the well-known Bar 51 restaurant in Tel Aviv. They are the parents of four-year-old Rafael. She did not give up the game
For casual roles. In the last year, for example, she has been appearing in a joint show, but today the great reality of her professional life is yoga. Gal, who also added her original last name Suissa, is a yoga teacher at Soho House in Jaffa. She specializes in yoga for pregnant and postpartum women, teaches private lessons and even retreats and workshops for high-tech companies and others. She will soon be participating in an international yoga festival in Eilat (June 18-16).
“The champion was really a big boom, but after that I met reality and realized that there are no booms all the time. From a distance I think I was a young girl looking for herself and her voice.”
When did you realize you did not want to be dependent only on showbiz?
“After school I did some features, including ‘Zero in Human Relations’, ‘Orange People’, ‘Good Boy Jerusalem’ and more, and then I flew to India for half a year because I felt like I wanted a quiet moment from all the titles. A star born is nice, I’m Not in each other and I was not bad, and still, the game is an unstable profession and I have a hard time with instability. “It gives me a good balance and I specialize in both areas at the same time. I first introduced yoga to my life at the age of 17 and made it a permanent foundation ten years ago.”
Do you feel out of place in the landscape?
“I see around me a lot of actresses who are not just dependent on this field. I think it characterizes our generation, it has something very important for personal development. I know that today I am much more mature and with much more layers than I was at 20, and it gives me a lot of confidence. I do not feel detached or dependent on other factors, and overall the world we live in is wide and large and we have the potential to do more than one thing. “
Meital Gal Suissa | Photo: Shay Franco
She grew up in Haifa, the eldest of two daughters, her parents divorced when she was 5. “They have had an interesting and cute relationship for 30 years. They had other spouses when I was little, but not today. They live all over each other all year, like Merav Michaeli and Lior Schlein, and they found their way to be next to each other and take care of each other, “she shares,” Raphael is with them a lot and sleeps there and it’s very fun that they are close. “
The game bacterium infected her at a young age, and already at the age of 15 she enrolled in a acting course. After graduating from WIZO High School in Haifa (majoring in architecture), she got her first chance at “The Champion”. In parallel with her national service in the hospital, she continued to take acting courses before settling for three years at Yoram Levinstein’s school. She was later cast in the films “The Funny World” by Shemi Zarchin, “Orange People” directed by Hannah Azulai Hasfri and the cult film by Talia Lavie “Zero in Human Relations”. She has appeared on television in Asi Ezer’s ‘To Be With Her’, in the political drama ‘Rule of the Shadows’ and in the youth series ‘Disappear’. For the past three years her professional life has focused mainly on yoga.
“A born star is nice, I’m not into each other and I did not have a bad, and yet, the game is an unstable profession and I have a hard time with instability. I think the opposite “
How do the worlds of game and yoga fit into you?
“There are interface points between the yogi and the actor. They both have a lot of inner work – you have to practice listening, presence and concentration, learn what happens to our consciousness and connect to our feelings. I think thanks to yoga practice, I have a better toolbox that helps me in the game world.”
What yoga do you focus on?
“I practice several methods. In Iyengar’s method there is a lot of precision and attention to detail, in Ashtanga Vinyasa there is a quality of breathing and flow and I love the combination of them. At the upcoming festival in Eilat I will practice at all levels, both for people who already do yoga “And they have no experience. The goal is to have a fun and cool experience while getting to know the methods and styles. I invite people to come to my workshops that are tailored to diverse audiences.”
She met her partner a decade ago, after five tumultuous years of singleness in the big city. Four years ago they became parents. “Raphael Rothschild, sounds like a binding name but for him he’s a ninja turtle,” says Gal Suissa about her son. “To give birth at 31 is life-changing. It was the exact age for me to become a mother, I really wanted a natural birth, but after nine hours the birth did not progress and there was a pulse drop I was put in an operating room. I tried to argue with the doctor, I shouted at him to give me another chance “It continued and there was no escape. I was disappointed, but as the cliché article I realized that a healthy child and a healthy mother is the most important thing.”
How do you combine play, yoga and motherhood?
“I think I’m a very fun mom, love to do nonsense and fun and dance with him and do yoga with him. Ben and I, both with careers and completely equal in Rafael’s upbringing. Now that he’s four, I feel ready for another child. It took me a while to decide. I’m a person who takes The time. “
She recently decided to do another act, and after 16 years she removed the silicone implants from her breast and revived. “I did a breast augmentation at age 18. When I measured a swimsuit I wanted it to be what would hold the bra,” she says, “it was even before I started playing and after participating in an elite Elite Models competition.”
“The tit started to ache and swell like a congestion from breastfeeding, and it terribly stressed me. I realized that the body tells me ‘if you do not make a decision, I will push you to her.’ I immediately went to the doctor and two days after the ultrasound, I had the surgery.
In recent years, it has occurred to her more than once that it is time to say goodbye to the implants. “I have no counter-agenda, but in my case, I had a feeling that I had a foreign bone inside my organic body, and it was sitting on me,” she shares, “I had concerns about removing the implants, it involves surgery, and I did not know how the recovery would be “I have a small child at home. I also wondered about visibility until I had no choice, because someday there is wear and tear on this thing, and my body has developed an allergic reaction to implants.”
What happened?
“The tit started to ache and swell like a congestion from breastfeeding, and it terribly stressed me out. I realized my body was telling me ‘if you do not make a decision, I will push you to her’. I immediately went to the doctor and two days after the ultrasound, I had the surgery.”
The recovery was as hard as you feared?
“I woke up from the anesthesia after 20 minutes, the implants came out intact, and after four hours I was released home. All the worries I had before, were dispelled. It was not complicated in terms of recovery, except that I could not practice yoga for a month and a half. .
“If there are auditions for roles that interest me and it does not happen, it sucks me a little. I have not become a Buddha and I am not always very happy for my part, but I am not busy getting upset.”
Are you still going to auditions in the game?
“Yes. I send my bread. I feel ripe to do dramatic and complex roles in a series or movie, and for those I wait. Today’s television is of a high standard, I also love theater but cinema is life. I used to be frustrated and could cry a whole month for a role I did not get , But today the frustration threshold goes down. If there are auditions for roles that interest me and it does not happen, it sucks a little, but I do conscious methodical work to see what I have in life and what I do not. There are always frustrations, I did not become a Buddha and not always me “Very happy for my part, but I’m not busy getting upset. I try not to get stuck because there is timing in life and I have no control over what happens. Yoga will always be here, but I have no shadow of a doubt that I will do good and beautiful roles and that things will come in their time.”
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