Kaia Gerber has finally explained how she ended up in Gal Gadot’s celebrity-filled “Imagine” video during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she says she had no idea what the footage was actually for.
Gerber, who was 18 when the video was released in 2020, said a friend she was staying with simply asked whether she would join them in recording something requested by another friend. She agreed without asking many questions and assumed that singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” was part of someone’s birthday message.
The misunderstanding became clear about a week later, when Gerber saw Gadot’s star-studded montage circulating online. She initially wondered whether “Imagine” was suddenly making a comeback before spotting herself in the video alongside Cara Delevingne and Ashley Benson.
“I want to clear the air on something really badly,” Gerber said during KISS UK’s Do Not Disturb, according to Entertainment Weekly. Six years after the video became one of the most heavily criticized celebrity responses to the early pandemic, Gerber said she wanted people to know that she had not knowingly signed up for Gadot’s project.
Gerber Thought She Was Making Someone a Birthday Video
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Gerber said the request came from a friend she was staying with during the pandemic. “Basically, my friend, during the pandemic, said, ‘Hey, my friend asked me to make a video, will you be in it?'” Gerber recalled. “I didn’t ask any questions.”
The pair thought the recording was intended for someone’s birthday, so when Gerber was asked to sing “Imagine,” nothing about the request immediately struck her as unusual. “We were staying together at the time, thought it was for someone’s birthday, and I said, ‘Sure,'” she said.
About a week later, Gerber encountered the celebrity montage without initially realizing that her own footage was part of it. “What a weird coincidence,” she remembered thinking. “I wonder if this song is having a comeback. I just did a birthday video singing ‘Imagine.'”
Then she reached her own appearance. “And then I’m about a minute into the video, and there I go,” Gerber said. “There I am.”
She Says the Video Became Her First IMDb Credit
Gerber, now 24, has learned to laugh about the strange way she became involved. She joked that the “Imagine” appearance became her first IMDb credit and remains attached to her profile years later.
“It is still, to this day, on my IMDb,” she said, according to PEOPLE. “I’ve accepted it. We’re moving past it, but I would just like to clear the air that I did not know.”
Gadot’s Video Brought Together More Than Two Dozen Stars
Gadot posted the three-minute “Imagine” montage on Instagram on March 18, 2020, as COVID-19 restrictions and isolation measures were rapidly reshaping everyday life in the United States.
The Wonder Woman star introduced the video while in self-quarantine and explained that she had been feeling “philosophical” after watching footage of an Italian man playing “Imagine” from his balcony. Gadot then handed the song from celebrity to celebrity, with each participant singing or appearing during a different section.
The lineup included Kristen Wiig, Jamie Dornan, Labrinth, James Marsden, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Fallon, Natalie Portman, Zoë Kravitz, Sia, Lynda Carter, Amy Adams, Leslie Odom Jr., Pedro Pascal, Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo, Norah Jones and Maya Rudolph, among others. Gerber appears alongside Delevingne and Benson, with the three swaying and snapping their fingers during their portion of the montage.
The Celebrity Singalong Quickly Drew Backlash
The video quickly attracted criticism from viewers and commentators who considered a celebrity singalong disconnected from the financial, medical and personal hardships emerging during the pandemic. Some argued that wealthy entertainers could provide more meaningful help through donations and other direct assistance rather than singing from their homes.
The criticism became part of a broader backlash against celebrity content during the first weeks of lockdown, when the differences between how wealthy public figures and ordinary people experienced isolation became especially visible.
Gadot Later Admitted the Idea Missed the Mark
Gadot initially defended the intentions behind the project while acknowledging that it had not connected with audiences as she hoped. “Sometimes, you know, you try and do a good deed and it’s just not the right good deed,” she told Vanity Fair in October 2020.
Gadot said she had wanted to send “light and love” and explained that she began by contacting a few friends before Kristen Wiig helped bring additional celebrities into the project. “I can only say that I meant to do something good and pure, and it didn’t transcend,” Gadot said.
Speaking to InStyle in 2022, Gadot acknowledged that she had recognized where the pandemic was heading but said the video had arrived at the wrong moment. “It was premature,” she said. “It wasn’t the right timing, and it wasn’t the right thing. It was in poor taste.”