Priyanka Chopra says she finds the Covid pandemic ‘worrisome’

Priyanka Chopra has said that she finds the Covid crisis ‘worrisome’ due to her asthma and husband Nick Jonas’ type 1 diabetes, which makes him high-risk. 

The actress, 38, spoke to Tania Bryer in a special CNBC Conversation interview where she discussed the pandemic and insisted she takes it ‘very seriously’. 

During the chat, Priyanka told how she has found the Covid crisis ‘very scary’ and that she feels ‘responsible’ in keeping her family safe as her mother, Madhu, is also currently living with her while she works in London. 

Earlier this month, the actress was reunited with her husband Nick, his parents Paul and Denise, and her own mother Madhu in the British capital as she finished filming Text For You. 

Priyanka said: ‘I mean, all of it is so worrisome. My husband is a type one diabetic, I’m asthmatic. 

‘You know, I have my mum who’s living with me right now so, I just feel like I’m also on the job, you know, responsible on a set of hundreds of people. 

‘So I take it very, very seriously and especially with seeing what a toll it has taken around the world, not only with the health of people with the amount of deaths we’ve seen, but also with jobs, with stability.

‘You  know, this has changed a lot of things for a lot of people and brought to the fore the disparity between the haves and the have nots, and it’s a very emotional time. So it is very scary.’

Talking about her experience of living and working in London recently, Priyanka admitted that it has been ‘kind of crazy’.

She said: ‘I mean, it’s kind of a crazy experience knowing that here we are in London, which is in full lockdown right now.

‘But, you know, the UK Government allows for filming of TV shows and movies to happen under obviously massive, you know, rules and regulations, we’re tested every day.

‘But as actors we’re still taking off our masks in front of other actors, you know, and that’s part of the job. And I feel like, that’s kind of really daunting, because you just don’t know. 

‘But I’ve so far managed to finish filming two movies, I’m going on to my third job now, which is a TV show. I’ve released two movies, people are consuming so much content right now that someone’s got to make it.’

Priyanka admitted that although she is grateful to be working it is also ‘daunting’, she added: ‘So, you know, I’m back at work, but it is daunting. I have to say.’

Elsewhere during the chat, the actress admitted that the entertainment business will never have a 100 per cent success rate and that her job is ‘constantly in flux’.

She said: ‘My job is constantly in flux. The entertainment business or any business for example, will never have 100%, you know, success rate. It’s what you do after your failures is what defines you I think as a person. 

‘And I’ve seen over time, my trajectory overall with the goods and the bads and with the mountains and valleys, kind of always steadily, you know, moving upwards, because it’s important to feel your failures, but not let them define you.’

The actress, who has penned her new memoir Unfinished during the pandemic, also spoke about how important it was for her to share her life.

Priyanka said: ‘Well I have been in the business for almost 20 years now and I feel like I was ready to write a book because I always wanted to, I was just afraid of, you know, writing a novel or a screenplay, I’ve, you know, written op eds and stuff before. 

‘So I finally committed to writing a book and, you know, I sat down to doing it. A Memoir is not easy, because you know, thinking about your life is, memories are a funny thing, you know, you forget things, you leave things behind, and then you don’t want to talk about them, or you don’t want to think about them. 

‘And a memoir opens up all of those boxes. So I thought that it was a great time to commemorate my 20 years of being here.’

Priyanka added that she feels ‘a lot more confident’ now she is in her mid thirties, she continued: ‘Also, I think I’m, on the other side of 35, a lot more confident in myself as a woman, as a person, as a professional for what I bring to the table. 

‘And I guess that confidence really helped me you know, deal with the things that might have scared me before.’

In her memoir, Priyanka discusses a time where she experienced bullying at school in Newton, Massachusetts.

Talking about the incident, she said: ‘I mean, look, bullying is such a large part of everyone’s life, unfortunately. At some point of our lives we’ve all been through it in various ways. 

‘And school is not easy, you know, kids are mean, kids, you know, are so insecure and scared themselves that they kind of become porcupines to other people in order for self preservation, I guess. 

‘And this is again, like me, in retrospect now in my 30s being able to look back and say that. But I think that it’s, you know, I kind of did not have the tools in my toolbox as a teenager at that time, to be able to understand that. 

‘So it, you know, chipped away at my soul a little bit. I went back to India, I felt like I blamed myself a lot. But over time I realised that, you know, when you’re bullied, it’s not really your fault, you’re not in the wrong and I learned to forgive myself. 

‘And, you know, but it took being on the other side of maturity to sort of get there.’

Giving her advice to those who may also have been bullied or receiving bullying, she added: ‘Well I have to say I got away with an experience that didn’t scar me for life. 

‘I’ve seen people being bullied in such terrible ways, and we’ve all heard about it, you know. So I can’t at all compare. 

‘But in my limited experience, the one thing that I will say is, it’s very crucial to talk to someone. 

‘I think it’s extremely important to bring it up with your loved ones, your family, your friends, a counselor, therapist, whoever, but to bring it up so that you’re not alone, you know, fighting a demon that probably isn’t even as large as we think they are.’

Priyanka added that it was important to ‘take away the power’ by talking to someone about what is going on.

The actress went on to talk about online bulling and trolls, admitting that she would be ‘lying’ if she said she didn’t read all the comments about her.

Priyanka said: ‘I’d be lying if I said that I don’t read all the comments and I don’t whenever I’m bored, be like, okay, what’s happening and what are people saying? But I don’t think, I feel like my, my career doesn’t depend on my social acceptance. 

‘You know, my job is very different than my social media. So I treat it as entertainment, I treat it as a way of having a direct communication with people, you know, talking about things I’m excited about and my opinions.

‘But I don’t take it more seriously than that. Of course cancel culture sucks and it’s terrible when people decide to just spew venom without, you know, understanding the context of anything. 

‘But, you know, I prefer to choose on the supporters. I have tremendous amount of people that are the Wind Beneath My Wings when it comes to my social media. I love interacting with them and I just focus on that.’ 

Priyanka also discussed the #MeToo movement in the entertainment industry after a spotlight was shone on sexual harassment and inequity with a wave of women and men bravely stepping forward to reveal their own experiences.  

She said: ‘I think that conversation has been had by generations of women that have come before us and hopefully not generations of women that come after us. 

‘Because, you know, we and our generation has really taken the responsibility of demanding a change, you know, and demanding equality and demanding, you know, being able to be in jobs of prominence. 

‘And hopefully, you know, our daughters are not going to inherit our problems, because we’re going to put in the work. And yes, I definitely do think there are massive strides that are being made because of a lot of brave women banding together and not allowing, you know, patriarchy to divide us. 

‘Women were pitted against each other for such a long time because there were so few opportunities, and now women are saying I’m going to create opportunities, so you don’t have the ability to say there’s just one job for one woman. 

‘And that’s such a wonderful thing to see of, you know, sisters banding together. 

‘And we’ve seen that in the past, we’ve seen that when women fought for the right for us to vote, for when women fought for the right for us to have jobs, and, you know, we’re seeing that again, and it’s a wonderfully powerful thing.’ 

Priyanka also admitted that it was ‘heartbreaking’ to be the first person of Indian descent to ever be a lead on a network TV show after she landed the lead role of Alex Parrish in Quantico in 2015, the series ran until 2018.

The actress said: ‘It was very heartening I think, you know, and at the same time, confusing, because I was the first person of Indian descent to ever be a lead on a network TV show. That’s crazy. That’s mad. That was 2016. Never had a lead? 

‘And, you know, Kerry Washington was the first African American woman to be the lead of the network TV show when she did Scandal, which was at the same time, which is crazy to think about. 

‘So that statistic in itself blew my mind, but at the same time I was really proud to have broken down at least broken down the door, you know, and, and if I can do it, then hopefully, there’ll be a lot more.’

Priyanka added that she became invested in ‘trying to create those opportunities’ rather thank thinking about the ‘lack of opportunities’.

She said: ‘I think the only way to actually pioneer something and do it and make sure you know, you keep walking in the direction ahead is to not think about what you don’t have.

‘So instead of thinking about the lack of opportunities, I became really invested in trying to create those opportunities. 

‘You know, instead of lamenting over the fact that it hadn’t happened, I’ve found like a newfound confidence in wanting to make a lot more of it happen.’

At the end of the interview, Priyanka spoke about her father, Ashok, who died in 2013 aged 64 following a long battle with cancer.

Asked whether her later father would be proud of her incredible career, the actress sweetly said: ‘He was always proud of me. 

‘I mean, whether I won like a consolation prize in a race, which I never did I always won first or second, or if a participation medal or you know my Dad loved every win of mine. He was my biggest champion. 

‘So I think from the small wins to the big ones he was always really proud, so I think he would just be proud of you know, the life that I’ve built.’

Priyanka’s CNBC Conversation interview will premiere on CNBC International tonight at 10pm BST/ 11 CET.