GLAMOUR: Let’s get one thing out first: You didn’t wear the iconic red swimsuit [while filming Baywatch], right?
PRIYANKA CHOPRA: I didn’t have to be in the swimsuits, because I’m the antagonist.
GLAMOUR: Were you sad not to wear it?
PC: Oh my God, I’m so glad I didn’t have to eat one olive and one, like, almond! No. [Laughs.]
GLAMOUR: Tell me about playing the villain, Victoria Leeds.
PC: I take over the beach. I open up a club. I’m this big shot billionaire chick who plays hardball in a man’s world. And what I love about Victoria is that she’s not baselessly evil. She thinks she’s just driven. She had the business acumen, but her family business went to her brother, because he was a boy. So she has a point to prove. There’s this amazing line in the [script]: Zac [Efron] says, “You’re such a bitch!” And I’m like, “If I were a man, you’d call me driven.”
GLAMOUR: I love the bitch boss in movies. I find it cathartic to watch. Was it fun to play that?
PC: Yeah. Victoria goes into an evil territory; not every driven woman’s evil. [But] ambition is a word associated with women negatively. People say, “She’s too ambitious.” Why is that a bad thing?
GLAMOUR: In your own life, you’ve said your parents treated you and your brother pretty equally.
PC: My parents were really progressive. My dad was a surgeon in the Indian army. My mom is a double M.D.; she’s an ENT/ob-gyn. Go figure. Way to set your kids up for failure, you know? [Laughs.]
GLAMOUR: Did you always get a lot of attention [for your looks]?
PC: After 15.
GLAMOUR: Did you welcome it, or was it awkward?
PC: Oh, it was great for my ego. Before 15, I had a lot of self-esteem issues. I was very conscious of the color of my skin. I was very conscious of being, like, a super-gawky, skinny teenager.
GLAMOUR: You were conscious of your skin color here, or in India?
PC: India, because there, you’re prettier if you’re fairer.
GLAMOUR: But you’re not considered fair?
PC: No, dude. I’m, like, dusky.
GLAMOUR: I’m several shades darker than you, so to me, you’re fair. For people who don’t know, what feelings go with the label “dusky”?
PC: A lot of girls who have a darker skin hear things like, “Oh, poor thing, she’s dark. Poor thing, it’ll be hard for her.” In India they advertise skin-lightening creams: “Your skin’s gonna get lighter in a week.” I used it [when I was very young]. Then when I was an actor, around my early twenties, I did a commercial for a skin-lightening cream. I was playing that girl with insecurities. And when I saw it, I was like, “Oh shit. What did I do?” And I started talking about being proud of the way I looked. I actually really like my skin tone.
GLAMOUR: We talked a lot about family before. You lost your father a few years ago. At the time you said that it hadn’t felt real to you yet. Do you still feel that way?
PC: Weirdly, yeah. You make friends with grief. My dad was my biggest cheerleader. Any awards show, he would be my date. Every time I won anything, he’d be like, “Yeah!” as if he’d won. I was like, “Dad, just turn it down by 10.” [Laughs.] He enjoyed my achievements more than I did.
GLAMOUR: Let’s say you could make the perfect partner for yourself, using parts—personality traits, talents, body parts—of costars. Give me your perfect person.
PC: Oh shit. [Laughs.] OK, Dwayne [Johnson]’s drive. I find drive in men very attractive, OK? Also, Dwayne’s gentlemanly pull-out-a-chair-for-a-girl vibe. Mix that with Zac’s abs, Jake McLaughlin’s eyes, and my coactor in India Ranveer Singh’s rebelliousness.
Read the full interview at Glamour.
No comments:
Post a Comment