Actress Priyanka Chopra expressed she got paid as much as her male co-star for the first time in her 22-year-long career for doing the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series Citadel.
“I might get into trouble; it depends on who’s watching. I’ve performed in the entertainment industry for 22 years, doing 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 equality. I’m laughing about this, but it’s kind of nuts,” Priyanka Chopra said.
The actor said, “I put in the same amount of investment and work, but I get paid much less. But the ease with which Amazon Studios said, ‘That’s what you deserve, you are co-leads, that’s just fair,’ and I was like, ‘You’re right, it’s fair.’ Did that happen because there are few female decision-makers in Hollywood? Would that have been a different conversation if a woman hadn’t made that decision? Those are not conversations that happened very easily.” Jennifer Salke replied that she couldn’t speak to what would have happened if she wasn’t in charge, yet praised her executive team. She said her company has ‘great male and female allies’.
After Priyanka was crowned Miss World 2000, she entered the film industry and made her acting debut in the Tamil movie Thamizhan (2002), followed by her first Bollywood film, The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003). Next, she will be seen alongside Richard Madden in Prime Video’s upcoming series Citadel backed by Russo Brothers. The series is billed as an ‘action-packed spy series that travels the globe. Priyanka spoke about having ‘pay equivalency’ for the first time on the show.
