Priyanka Chopra is sharing a glimpse into the uglier side of Hollywood in her memoir, Unfinished. The 38-year-old, who was crowned Miss World in 2000, said that a director told her to get a “boob job” and fix her “proportions” (advice that her manager at the time agreed with).
He also told her to “fix my jaw, and add a little more cushioning to my butt” if she “wanted to be an actress.”
She continued: “I left the director/producer's office feeling stunned and small. Was he right that I couldn't be successful unless I had so many body parts 'fixed'? I thought of how individuals in the media and others in the industry had referred to me as 'dusky' and 'different-looking,' and I wondered if I was cut out for this business after all,” she continued.
Chopra told Metro UK of the comments: “I never had the courage to stand up for myself, and actually admit it. Because I heard so often, 'Don't be a nuisance, you're new in the industry, you don't want to have a reputation that you cause trouble or you're not easy to work with.' Now on the other side of 35. I know that's a normalized thing that girls hear so often.”
She said that she’s heartened to see how women are going about changing Hollywood themselves: “I've mentioned a bunch of female producers in the book that I really admire, who've taken charge of their own lives and said, 'Alright, you're not going to make a part for me or the movie that I want to be in, I'm going to produce it myself.'”
Unfinished is out today (Tuesday).