While Priyanka Chopra Jonas was shooting in London for her next Hollywood project ‘Text For You’, Asian Voice received early access to read her memoir - ‘Unfinished’ and got a chance to speak to Priyanka in an exclusive virtual interview on Zoom, where we asked her questions from her book.
She spoke about the responsibility that comes with penning down a memoir, why women will strongly relate to her writing, how her multicultural experiences have helped her in choosing her words wisely and how she leaves her stardom outside the door when she walks into a business meeting. Here are excerpts from the interview:
Q - The part where you write, “But is there a world in which those who are blessed with more might build a larger table rather than building a higher fence?” will resonate the most with women. Could you elaborate?
I’ve been an advocate of opportunities all my career. No one made my opportunities. No one gave me opportunities. I created my opportunities and that is also a very privileged thing for me to say, by the way. I was just talking about this because I was doing press for The White Tiger and opportunity is such a privilege. There are so many people who live life not having a choice in their own life, especially girls. You don’t have a say in your own life, and that is something that we, overall as a community, need to sort of come together and fight for. The best that I can do, the most that I can do and I always try to do is of course that I have always been an advocate for girls specifically - to have an education, to have a right in their own lives, to have jobs and financial independence. That was something my mother definitely taught me when I was very young. She was like, ‘It doesn’t matter who you are born to, who you’re married to or what your life is going to be, you have to have financial independence’, and we as a community need to do that. It can’t belong to one person. It has to belong to us as girls. I was just saying that as a generation of women, we have to leave a better world for the next generation of the girls to come, like the ones who did before us. They gave us the opportunity to have a voice today. And like that, we have to be able to create that voice for our kids. I hope that we can. Maybe by example, maybe by conversation. Wherever we can, we have to push the envelope a little bit and I try in my humble way as much as I can. As I said, I’m not a head of state or a lawmaker, yet. But with my influence, as much as I can I’ll try.
Q - How do you decide when or how to voice your opinion?
I’m sure it happens to all of us in real life. I may be a star or actor or whatever but I’m still a girl, a normal human being. Every day I have to bite my tongue so that I don’t say something. Because if you know me, you know I have an opinion (laughs), I’ve to decide and pick my battles on when I’m going to give my opinion and when I’m not.
Q - What is the responsibility that comes with writing a memoir? And, what would your advice be to women who’d want to write their own memoir someday?
I think revealing your life should be about revealing your life, and not people’s lives unless that’s the kind of book you’re writing. For my book, I was very clear because there are so many people who have contributed to me - about who I am emotionally, mentally, physically, professionally, that it was crucial that if I was going to write my story, that I write about the influences that I’ve had, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s their story. This book is not a tell-all, it is a reflection of my thoughts and my journey so far and I think that was a responsibility that I took very seriously from the time I decided to do it. And for women who want to write their stories, I would implore them to do it. I think it’s such an empowering thing to be able to put pen and paper about your existence and what you’ve been through so far. The good, the bad, the ugly. It kind of helps you deal with your pain, and I think that’s something powerful. So if someone wants to write a book, even if you do it just for yourself, it really is like writing a diary. I wrote this book like writing a diary for me and I used to keep a journal when I was a kid. Like every night, it was my ritual to write two pages and I sort of wrote this book like that. You know, my innermost thoughts. I was very particular about handling it as sensitively as I can.
Q - How do you balance your stardom when you walk into a room full of people who may not know about your accomplishments?
I think humility is what it requires. My pride doesn’t walk before me. It used to when I was younger and then I fell many times as you read in the book. But I learnt very quickly that there’s no point in having pride. The only thing that will take you really far, if you want to play the long game is investing in yourself and learning and having humility in being able to say that I don’t know everything but I’m willing to learn. And I may not understand that you may not know me but I’m willing to show you what I can bring to the table. At least for me, it was very important to put my head down and not be entitled. I’ve seen what entitlement can do, very closely and that was something that my parents taught me not to ever be. And that’s literally, that’s the reason why I had the ability to say that I understand that objectively, obviously, just because I have a prolific career in one country, doesn’t mean that everyone in the world needs to know me. And that was something very important for me to remember. That gives me the ability to live my life also very normal like I don’t carry the baggage of my stardom anywhere. You know I’d be walking on the beach, I go fishing, I go trekking, I go to movies, I do the things that I have missed out on when I was in my 20s because I was so busy running, are the things that I’m doing now.
Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra Jonas will be published by Michael Joseph on Thursday 11th February, £20, Hardback. Tickets to Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ digital book launch on Thursday 11th February at 6.30 pm are available to buy from Fane.co.uk starting at £5 here: https://www.fane.co.uk/priyanka-chopra-jonas
