Doctor Poison From 'Wonder Woman' Looks Totally Different IRL

Every superhero film needs its villain. In the case of Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot goes head to head with a few different bad guys in the action flick, one of which goes by the name of Doctor Poison, played by Elena Anaya. The character is a chemist who plots with the Germans to concoct some deadly gasses to help them win WWI. Her plot is pretty menacing, but so is her appearance, as the lower left side of her face is covered by a mask (or facial prosthetic) due to an unknown injury. Thus, it's pretty obvious that what Doctor Poison looks like in real life is tremendously different from her on-screen counterpart, as is her personality.

Doctor Poison was first introduced to the Wonder Woman comic series in 1942, but she’s had a few different incarnations since them. Upon her introduction, she described herself to Steve Trevor as the chief of the German army’s poison division, but the kick was that she actually disguised herself as a man wearing a simple, green jumpsuit and a mask. Later on, Doctor Poison is found out, stripped of her disguise, and imprisoned for a short period of time before she escapes and disguises herself again — this time as a Chinese nightclub worker named Mei Sing.

In real life though, Elena Anaya is a badass Spanish actress who played Aleera in 2004’s Van Helsing and Alba in Room in Rome. The 41-year-old acting vet has long, black hair that you can’t see too much of in the film.

It's probably safe to assume that Anaya isn't actually a dangerous chemist who gets excited by the idea of chemical warfare. In fact, she spoke to Latina in early June about her Wonder Woman character and pointed out the differences between the villain and the film’s title character. She said,

"Doctor Poison is a very strong, dangerous character, who enjoys seeing other people suffering. She is quite the opposite to the lead role of this movie, one of the strongest characters ever of DC comics, Wonder Woman. I can tell you that Doctor Poison is someone with a capacity to provoke so much pain."

She’s also all about female empowerment, as she pointed out that Wonder Woman is “a good example of making us think about it.”

"I think women and all the revolution that started basically a hundred years ago, has done a lot for woman [but] we haven't gone that far. I think we need to improve a lot and develop our rights."

So, while her on-screen character may have an evil agenda, it’s safe to say that Anaya is quite the opposite in real life.