Miss World to box office powerhouse, Priyanka Chopra has always made winning her business. Now, with her Hollywood debut, her transcontinental takeover seems complete. Here’s an excerpt from an interview of the trailblazing actor who is wooing audiences from Mumbai to Montreal in the Vogue India’s April 2016 issue.
‘There is no strategy’
Her résumé mirrors a steady build-up to a crescendo—with the occasional wrong note, of course. “There is no strategy,” insists the 33-year-old, who carved out the time for an early-morning phone call from Montreal, Canada, where she was logging superhuman hours shooting for Quantico. Chopra plays Alex Parrish, a fearless Indian-American FBI recruit framed for executing the deadliest attack on New York City since 9/11. It’s easy to see how that twisty role, the first part Chopra ever had to formally audition for, served as the unofficial try-out to the aforementioned Baywatch remake, where she’ll play a baddie, single-handedly taking on an elite crew of lifeguards, starring heavy-hitters like Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock and Zac Efron. “Let me show you how slow-motion running is done, Hollywood!” she quips with a throaty giggle.
All things India
“I’m an education portal for those who don’t know what India is,” Chopra admits, only half-joking. “I help people understand our movies — no, we don’t just randomly break into song and dance, that’s an important part of our storytelling.”
Being PC
Thankfully, there’s a palpable sense of camaraderie that streams through Quantico’s multicultural ensemble, evident in the nicknames they’ve assigned each other—Chopra’s is “Priyonccupied” for her incessant multitasking. “Out of any of us, (Chopra’s) the most displaced, the furthest away from home,” says Johanna Braddy, her roommate on the show. “But she’s so endearing. She helps people even when she doesn’t have to, whether it’s offering rides to airports or giving advice on how to be a strong woman.”
Quantico tales
“ABC pushed a totally unknown face to mainstream America,” says Aseem Chhabra, a New York City-based film critic and programmer for the New York Indian Film Festival. He is alluding to the publicity blitzkrieg the network launched last fall.
Chopra’s face was splattered on buses and billboards across major American cities, ensuring no one’s morning commute was devoid of a PC sighting. “It’s pretty remarkable for them to show so much faith in her and invest in her that way,” Chhabra adds.
“I was concerned about (Quantico) because there hasn’t been a precedent for this — I’d never seen Indian actors in the West leading television shows,” explains Chopra. Quantico isn’t ABC’s only current programme that showcases a minority lead. The network is responsible for a cavalcade of recent shows — Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, and Fresh Off The Boat, to name a few — that reflect the demographic changes sweeping America. It’s the sort of dynamic television that serves as the perfect antidote to the social media maelstrom surrounding this year’s Academy Awards, which were accused of being woefully tone-deaf in the race department. Chopra, in all her cosmopolitan glory, couldn’t have planned her US entrance at a more appropriate time.
Keep going
“For me, it’s about surpassing what I’ve done before — how do I become bigger and better?” she divulges as her voice trails, momentarily. “I just put my head down, keep working and make sure I’m the best person for the job.”
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 "Pamela Anderson and Priyanka Chopra")
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