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Who is Jeanine and why did she bully Priyanka Chopra?

Who is Jeanine and why did she bully Priyanka Chopra?

Looks like Priyanka got the last laugh. Sorry Jeanine!
24 May, 2016

“I’ve been famous for more than half my life,” shrugs Priyanka Chopra. “I don’t know anything else anymore. This is my normal.”

The Quantico star has been well on her way to world domination; Chopra, who has just wrapped up shooting for Baywatch and is working on the second season of the hit ABC show has made her way to the top of the food chain.

In a recent interview with Complex Magazine, Priyanka gets candid, proving that although she may be soaring high in her career, she's still got both feet on the ground.

Believe it or not, Priyanka was actually bullied in her school days

When she was 13, the Dostana actress shifted to the United States to to pursue studies in Newton, Mass. Being the only Indian girl at school, she was subjected to bullying which really broke her spirit: “I was bullied by a freshman named Jeanine,” she says, also pointing out that she was picked on by a younger girl.

“She was black and supremely racist. Jeanine used to say, ‘Brownie, go back to your country, you smell of curry,’ or ‘Do you smell curry coming?’ You know when you’re a kid, and you’re made to feel bad about where your roots are, or what you look like? You don’t understand it, you just feel bad about who you are."

The bullying tested her resolve and broke it. “I told my mom, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’” She returned to India defeated, her mind set on becoming an engineer. However, when she applied for a scholarship, her mother sent professionally shot photos to the Miss India pageant without telling her.

To her surprise, she won. “The thing is,” she tells me while recalling the start of her career, “I don’t like losing, in anything I do, whatever it might be. I felt I could always go back to college. But this was something I wanted to try so that I didn’t have a ‘what-if’ for the rest of my life.”

Chopra refuses to be put in a box

Being aware of the racism around, Priyanka wants to tackle the issues that are confronted in Aziz Ansari's Master of None (Fun Fact! She loves this show!). “There are so many Indian actors who have crossed over, and have done a lot of work in the west but they’ve always been made to speak like Apu [from The Simpsons]. I want to be able to break the stereotype of what Indian people or people of South Asian descent are supposed to be. Nobody’s supposed to be anything. You can be whoever you want. And I want young people to see that.”

There's a lot to smile about in her life, that's for sure.
There's a lot to smile about in her life, that's for sure.

She goes on to talk about the lack of diversity on American television: “Art should not be bound by barriers or language. The Hindi film industry is a testament to that. We speak only Hindi but we premiere in Germany and Japan. Our films do phenomenally well there. We transcend the barriers of language and culture. We welcome you in. I think that’s what art should be, and I hope America reaches that place.”

Her role as the villian in Baywatch has everyone talking, especially about how she’d make a great Bond Girl.

Her response? “I get that all the time,” she says with faux exasperation. “But forget that—I wanna be Bond!”

On always being daddy's little girl

The Mary Kom leading lady and credits her resilience, attitude, and assertiveness to her father.

“He was always about the fact that I didn’t have to fit in. I didn’t have to be a boy to be successful,” she says, “In India, boys are looked at to be the workers. Girls are supposed to get married and have babies. My parents gave me the ability to be fearless in whatever I do. My mother is a double MD and I’m from a family of overachievers, so don’t even ask,” she adds with a laugh.

Chopra has a small tattoo on her hand which reads 'Daddy's Little Girl' in a unique font, which she reveals is her late father's writing. “He was really sick at that time so his hand would shake. I asked him to write it in his handwriting, and lied to him, saying I wanted to put it on my album cover. I couldn’t tell him I was getting a tattoo. He practiced and practiced so his hand wouldn’t shake, then he emailed it to me. I traced it and got the tattoo. When he saw it, he cried, and was very emotional.

I was being sassy like, ‘See, this was the only way you would allow me to get a tattoo.’ But we both knew it was a very emotional moment.”

Comments

Muhammad Majid May 24, 2016 01:55pm
Lovely beauty
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Neil May 24, 2016 02:25pm
Don't take western people racist comment seriously..they lack culture and manners. So they out other culture down. This reminds me of azealia Zayn malik racist curry comment.
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Tamilselvan May 24, 2016 02:33pm
Art has no barriers and Hindi films are proof of that! What rubbish. When Hindi films are released in Germany and other countries , Do we see locals or do we see desis there? So please let's not believe what she says on this topic
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bharat May 24, 2016 02:43pm
@Tamilselvan A lot of Germans know Indian films.If you dont know,even a few tv channels have shown our movies every week.
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Ahmer May 24, 2016 02:45pm
So who is Jeanine? Just one line about her. Where is she now and how does she feel about Priyanka's rise to stardom?
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Safwan May 24, 2016 02:56pm
"Art should not be bound by barriers or language. The Hindi film industry is a testament to that. We speak only Hindi but we premiere in Germany and Japan. Our films do phenomenally well there" OK, Priyanka, thanks for making me laugh.
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Pak Khan May 24, 2016 03:39pm
Thats it, marry me!
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ZAK May 24, 2016 03:48pm
@Safwan I have seen German girls watching Bajrangi bhaijaan and in Australia there were as many localites as Indians to watch Bahubali(telugu movie) and Bajirao Mastani
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ZAK May 24, 2016 03:51pm
@Tamilselvan Most of them are desis but the number of localites is increasing. Piyanka is talking about THAT change.
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anil sahu May 24, 2016 03:56pm
@Pak Khan she told once that she will marry to a man only for kid but no love. r u ready for that?
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Aamer May 24, 2016 05:27pm
@Neil worst part is that Azealia was a black girl and she made racist comments. Plus Priyanka is not that big in the western world. I am in New York and London most of the time but no one mentions her.
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Dipak Singh May 24, 2016 05:31pm
And USA always published reports on our Human rights violation, racism, intolerance etc etc & then lecturing us on tolerance, feminism.
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Sneha May 24, 2016 07:29pm
@Tamilselvan @safwaan What she said is right. devdas, jodha Akbar was Blockbuster in France and Europe. Which made ash super star there. Same reason why Ashwariya was bestowed the honour to be jury in Cannes film festival and given highest french civilian honour. 3 idiots had highest box office collection in asia -China, Japan, Korea ..3. Taare samaa par and ashiqui 2 in Turkey and Middle East.
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Yet another Indian sri1 May 25, 2016 09:46am
@Tamilselvan "Art has no barriers and Hindi films are proof of that! What rubbish. Do we see locals there?" But then, in theaters in the USA showing standard Bollywood fare, does one only see Indians or Pakistanis? I have personally seen big populations of Iranians, Afghans, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, some Turkmenistanis etc and even orientals frequenting Bollywood movie theaters at Naz (Fremont, Ca) and Regal (Brunswick, NJ). They come as families, students, couples, friends etc. Not to mention some Indophile whites now and then. An indication that our soft power is pretty much active in every sphere..
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sameer May 25, 2016 10:52am
for all concerned srk movies do actually perform very well in germany
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Nasir Soomro May 25, 2016 11:24am
PC will always remain one of my favorite actresses of all times!
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parveez shafi May 25, 2016 03:28pm
My English teacher uses to watch indian movies. My friends in eastern European countries watche indian movies, and they even sing songs but of films from 70,80, and 90. But now you get two or three good movies a year the rest are rubbish.
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Hm May 25, 2016 04:04pm
I lived in Germany, Indian movies are shown regularly on TV with german voice over. Especially Shahruk Khan is quite popular.
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Ali S May 25, 2016 11:07pm
I find it funny that she was picked on by a black girl - seems like Jeanine was trying to pass her inferiority complex onto you but it didn't work.
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Changez_Khan May 26, 2016 04:46am
Priyanka is a very successful actress and Jeanine? who knows what McDonald she is working in?
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Yugal May 26, 2016 08:02am
@Tamilselvan ughhh....she has said in almost all her interviews that hindi film industry has broken all the barriers and we have people from other countries who work in bollywood and she has also said that bollywood movies are watched worldwide.....so she loves bollywood :) And she is the best
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Yugal May 26, 2016 08:03am
@Safwan Dude!! SHe is not lying..u can check the facts.....English winglish made a huge amount of money in Japan and yes germans do watch bollywood movies..even arab and turkish people
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Iamnotjoking May 27, 2016 08:49pm
Priyanka Chopra is the most perfect energetic cool happy looking soft spoken intelligent lucky versatile actress and dancer. Full marks.
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