Priyanka Chopra says she lost a movie role because of her skin color

Priyanka Chopra said she has been denied movie roles because of her skin color. (Reuters)

Priyanka Chopra opened up about her struggles being a women of color in Hollywood and said she lost a movie role last year because she was the wrong “physicality.”

In an interview with InStyle published earlier this week, Chopra recalled getting a shocking call from one of her agents.

“It happened last year,” Chopra said. “I was out for a movie, and somebody [from the studio] called one of my agents and said, ‘She’s the wrong—what word did they used?—‘physicality.’ So in my defense as an actor, I’m like, ‘Do I need to be skinnier? Do I need to get in shape? Do I need to have abs?’ Like, what does ‘wrong physicality’ mean?”

Chopra added, “And then my agent broke it down for me. Like, ‘I think, Priy, they meant that they wanted someone who’s not brown.’”

Priyanka Chopra said she was dropped from a movie role last year because of her skin color. (Reuters)

The “Baywatch” actress admitted the incident affected her, but added that she’s comfortable in her skin compared to when she was a teenager living in Boston.

She said growing up she was subjected to bullying and name-calling.

Chopra also said racism during movie castings is apparent.

“No one will say that a woman is getting paid less because she’s a woman of color, but the numbers mostly end up reflecting that,” Chopra told InStyle.

The 35-year-old actress has starred in dozens of films and is one of the highest-paid actresses in Bollywood. She also made headlines in 2015 when she joined the cast of “Quantico."

Chopra, however, said she still sees sexism in the movie industry.

“I want to see the day where female-led movies get as much of a run as the boys do, which means the ticket-buying audience needs to be open to that,” she said. “People don’t go watch females in movies because they don’t believe that they can be heroes. The world has to change the way they look at their heroes.”

She added, “Nothing will change until we break the stereotypes of gender in our normal, day-to-day life."