Priyanka Chopra Jonas on body shaming, social media and pay parity

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Priyanka Chopra Jonas is opening up about the rude remarks she’s encountered.

At the kickoff of the 2023 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival Friday, the Citadel star, 40, speaking to Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke, related an anecdote that happened just the day before that rocked her self-confidence.

“I’ve been told many things that are difficult to hear. In my job, the pressure is so intense you can’t really show the chinks in your armor,” she shared. “Someone told me yesterday that I wasn’t sample-sized… I was hurt and I discussed it with my family, and I cried to my husband [Nick Jonas], and my team, and I felt really bad about the fact that I’m not sample size, and that’s a problem, apparently, and most of us are not, and sample size is size 2.”

“I have had times when I may have said something, and it’s been misconstrued, and you see people saying the meanest and nastiest things not just about me, about my child, about my family members, and I think sometimes people forget you are even human,” she continued.

AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 10: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Actor, speaks onstage during the 2023 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center on March 10, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Renee Dominguez/Getty Images for SXSW)

“And those pressures — it’s inexplicable. I can’t explain how it feels when you are sitting down on your couch and you just feel the world coming at you because people have forgotten that you are human.

“I think what you have to do is surround yourself with people who love you and surround yourself with people who care about you, and not about what you can bring to the table and not about what you can do for me. People who want to see you smile and be enriched,” she added. “It doesn’t have to be a room full of people — I can count them on my hands.”

In addition to her vulnerability regarding body image, Chopra Jonas also discussed with Salke about how she received pay parity for the first time while working on the new series Citadel.

“When I did Citadel, it was the first time in my career that I had pay parity with my male costar — the first time in 22 years,” she shared.

The first two episodes of Citadel premiere on Prime Video on April 28, with new episodes dropping weekly through May 26.