Confident in her abilities and in what she brings to the table, Priyanka Chopra Jonas says she has never walked with a "sense of weakness”, right from her first day in Hollywood to now when she is arguably the most bankable Indian name in the world of western showbiz.
Priyanka was one of Hindi cinema’s highest paid stars when she decided to try her luck in Hollywood more than a decade ago. The opportunities were few, no one knew her, success was hard to come by, but her innate belief in herself carried her through those early days.
“Even if people didn't know me, it didn't matter. I know what I bring to the table, I know what my value is, so I was never less confident. I may have had fewer opportunities. I may have had less success, but I was always confident in my skill set and my ability to know my job,” the 43-year-old told
Starting with the series “Quantico”, where she played the lead as an FBI officer, and moving on to films such as "Baywatch", "Isn't It Romantic", "The Matrix Resurrections" and "Heads of States". In many of these, she plays the lead role.
She tried to break into the Hollywood scene first as a singer. That was not so successful, and the star then moved into acting in films and shows.
Priyanka, who also played a central role in the show "Citadel", said the confidence was always there.
Asked about the moment when she felt like she had arrived, not in terms of success but in confidence, she said, “Oh, my first day I arrived in Hollywood. I never walked with a sense of weakness.”
“I still don't feel like I have arrived. I feel like I have a lot more to do before I feel that. There are some amazing people who have done such brilliant work and I would love to be able to have a body of work that does that.”
Real success, she said, is having the privilege to both work in a job she loves and still have time for her family.
“Most people in life have to work every day, and some people don't even like the jobs that they have, but they have to do it to survive and to support their families. And I think, for me, that is the real win,” said the actor, who is married to American singer Nick Jonas. The couple has a daughter, Malti Marie.
In 2016, she was asked about what she wanted to be 10 years later. Priyanka said she wanted to have a “legacy”. It’s 2026 now but the meaning of the word has changed.
“Now 10 years later I don't know what the word legacy means anymore. What it meant to my 30-year-old self is completely different from what it means to me,” she said.
“I want to be able to do work as an artist that pushes me where I surprise not just myself but an audience that has been so loyal to me for almost 25 years, where I can show different parts of me and give as an artist, and at the same time, be able to be present with my family. Now I feel like that would be my answer,” she added.
Priyanka described herself as a very hard working person who spends a lot of time learning about "any character or any skill".
Up next is “The Bluff”, a period actioner where she plays a pirate on the run. In her view, it is a conscious step towards "bifurcating and diversifying" the canvas of her English language work.
“I think 'The Bluff' is a deep dive into culture and history but at the same time it's a really fun, cool pirate movie. It's also drenched in drama, emotion and feelings. So it's like an action drama I would say and being able to explore different genres is really exciting to me, so I was very happy to be doing this movie,” she said.
She plays Ercell “Bloody Mary” Bodden, a former pirate who is forced to confront her violent past when her old captain returns, pushing her into a deadly fight to protect her family and reclaim her strength.
The movie also features "The Boys" star Karl Urban in the role of Connor, Ercell's former captain.
Priyanka said the script held a certain novelty for her.
“How many women have ever played that character? There's maybe Zoe Saldana a little bit or Keira Knightley. But we've seen so many iconic men play pirates over the years. I didn't even know that female pirates existed, that they were captains of their own ships, they had crew of men and they lived big, really interesting, insane lives,” she said.
As she researched, she learnt about the amazing lives that women pirates led.
“I remember just seeing all of these amazing women pop up around the globe who had lived this life. And that was the moment for me where I was like 'wow, this is something that can be really cool and really different if I can do it well.'"
Priyanka had to learn sword fighting for the role. It was also the time she was filming her 2025 movie "Heads of States" alongside Idris Elba and John Cena.
“I had to learn sword fighting with both hands and I had to do that while I was shooting 'Heads of State'. So it was a lot of work and I used to do it between shots, so while the camera was moving from one shot to the other I would move aside and learn my swords for the next movie.”
The actor said she went to the Cayman Islands and researched on the Caribbean culture of indentured workers.
"(They) used to be picked up from India by the British Raj and just taken to different islands and left with no idea of their identity anymore and that's what happened to my character's family and her. There was so much in this movie which after I read it I was like 'yeah, we're doing this movie'," she said.
There’s much else to look forward to -- season two of “Citadel” and “Varanasi” with S S Rajamouli that marks her return to Indian cinema.
“The Bluff”, directed by Frank E. Flowers, also stars Safia Oakley-Green, Temuera Morrison and Ismael Cruz Cordova. The movie, which is produced by filmmaker duo Anthony and Joe Russo's banner AGBO, will premiere on Prime Video on February 25.