Priyanka Chopra is one of the most famous women in the world, and has often used her platform to speak out against racism - from the bullying she endured at school to the racist hate directed at her friend, Meghan Markle.
Now, the actress has opened up about a sexist experience that left her 'feeling stunned and small' in her new autobiography. After winning the Miss World beauty pageant in 2000, she decided to pursue an acting career - but revealed that in those early days a director encouraged her to undergo plastic surgery.
In her book Unfinished, as reported by Metro.co.uk, she writes: 'After a few minutes of small talk, the director/producer told me to stand up and twirl for him. I did. He stared at me long and hard, assessing me, and then suggested that I get a boob job, fix my jaw, and add a little more cushioning to my butt.
'If I wanted to be an actress, he said, I’d need to have my proportions 'fixed' and he knew a great doctor in LA he could send me to. My then-manager voiced his agreement with the assessment.'
Priyanka said she left the office wondering if she 'was cut out for this business after all.'
Shortly after, she parted ways with her then-manager but felt as though she had to keep the experience to herself.
She told the publication: 'It’s so normalised that it doesn’t come up in conversation. I talked about a movie that I walked out of because of how I was spoken to by the director. It was early in my career, but I never told him why I walked out.'
She continued: '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."'
However, Priyanka said that she now feels confident enough to use her voice to champion female producers in the industry, and believes that women are now taking back their power.
She continued: 'That’s our job. We need to take that seriously and we can only do that ourselves by being an example of what a possibility could be.'
Could we love Priyanka any more?!
