Priyanka Chopra Jonas is opening up about a “dehumanizing moment” early on in her Bollywood career where a director asked to see her underwear on set.
The actress told The Zoe Report of the film: “This may have been 2002 or ’03,” explaining how she was hired to play a character who goes undercover.
Chopra Jonas hadn’t met the director in question before and was new to the industry.
She recalled, “I’m undercover, I’m seducing the guy — obviously that’s what girls do when they’re undercover.
“But I’m seducing the guy and you have to take off one piece of clothing [at a time]. I wanted to layer up. The filmmaker was like, ‘No, I need to see her underwear. Otherwise why is anybody coming to watch this movie?’”
Chopra Jonas went on, “He didn’t say it to me. He said it to the stylist in front of me. It was such a dehumanizing moment.
“It was a feeling of, I’m nothing else outside of how I can be used, my art is not important, what I contribute is not important.”
The Unfinished author ended up exiting the film after two days, with her father encouraging her to pay the production for what they’d spent out of her own money.
Chopra Jonas insisted of the director, “I just couldn’t look at him every day.”
Chopra Jonas has since gone on to have a very successful career, starring in the likes of the “Baywatch” movie, “The Matrix Resurrections”, “Quantico” and more recently, “Citadel”.
During The Zoe Report chat, the star also opened up about the $20-million-dollar, 20,000-square-foot home in Encino, California — that boasts seven bedrooms and a bowling alley — which she shares with husband Nick Jonas and their 1-year-old daughter Malti Marie.
“This was our first home together,” Chopra Jonas shared. “And we both have a large life. We always have people in our home. I can’t speak for my husband, but the pressure in my job is really real. And the only way to decompress is to have friends and family — I’m not one to go out.
“I love having my friends over, opening a good bottle of wine and chatting. Or going to the bowling alley, or playing basketball at three o’clock in the morning, or getting into the hot tub… I’ve worked really hard to be able to build a life where we can do that.”
