Priyanka Chopra Jonas says the first time she was paid the same as her male costar was for her upcoming spy thriller series Citadel opposite Richard Madden.
“I might get into trouble for [saying this], depends on who’s watching,” the 40-year-old actor said during a panel at the SXSW film festival on March 10, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve been working in the entertainment industry for now 22 years, and I have done almost 70-plus features and two TV shows, but when I did Citadel, it was the first time in my career that I had pay parity.”
She continued, “I’m laughing about this, but it’s kind of nuts. I put in the same amount of investment and work, but I get paid much less. But the ease in which Amazon Studios said, ‘That’s what you deserve, you are coleads, that’s just fair,’ and I was like, ‘You’re right, it’s fair.’”
Even Priyanka Chopra Jonas—who has led TV shows like Quantico, starred in films like Baywatch, and is married to an actual Jonas brother—is not immune to the sexism and body-shaming that is prevalent in Hollywood (and also, everywhere).
“I’ve been told many things that are difficult to hear,” she said during the Q&A. “Somebody told me yesterday I wasn’t ‘sample sized.’ I was hurt and I discussed it with my family, and I cried to my husband and my team and I felt really bad about the fact I’m not sample-sized and that that’s a problem, apparently. Most of us are not. ‘Sample-sized’ is a size 2.” She then asked the audience, “Who’s a size 2? I don’t see a lot of hands.”
Following Citadel, Chopra Jonas will also be seen in the upcoming romantic drama Love Again alongside Outlander star Sam Heughan. Hopefully, she received equal pay for that one too.
