Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra has revealed her “wild child” tendencies that attracted her to her new TV show.
The actress and former Miss World takes on the role of FBI recruit Alex Parrish in drama Quantico, her first big role outside of her native India, where she is a household name for her starring turns on the big screen.
Speaking on the set of the show in Montreal, Canada, she said: “The best roles for women are on TV. Coming from a feature background in India, I think this is the best time to be an actress right now, in Indian films at least. I’ve been very sure about the fact I like picking empowered roles that are not replaceable, even if they are small.”
Priyanka has become the first south Asian actress to win a People’s Choice Award in America for her role on the show but she said she didn’t want her ethnicity to be a factor in her casting.
She said: “I didn’t want to be cast because of my nationality and I think actors all over the world, immigrant, non-immigrant, Indian, American, need to be cast because of who is best for the job now, not because of the colour of their skin, not for their accents and not for where they came from.
“I think that is what made the difference for me was this wasn’t written for an Indian girl, Alex Parrish could have been anyone. I just happened to have blown them away! I guess I was the best person for the job.”
The actress also said she wasn’t too concerned about alienating her established fan base with some of the raunchier scenes in the American show, saying she was game for love scenes “as long as it is suggested and you need it, we are in modern society and there is no getting away from it, and it’s done tastefully”.
She added: “I actually didn’t think about it. In my entire career I have had authority issues, I don’t like being told what to do. I’ve been very clear about what I’m comfortable with and what I’m not and I’m very organic about it. I let it come as it goes, I never sat in a box and said ‘this is what I want to do’.
“No one in my life besides maybe my dad and mum has the ability to tell me what to do, I’m a little bit of a wild child about that.”