Priyanka Chopra Jonas on experiencing racism: ‘It hits you every time’

Priyanka Chopra Jonas revisited the racist backlash prompted by her NFL theme song a decade ago in this week’s episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” saying, “All of it hits — criticism, the fact that my job requires me to be dissected.”

Chopra Jonas’ “In My City,” which was produced by RedOne and featured will.i.am, became the opening theme song for the 2013 of NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football. Following the song’s use on the network, she noted that some NFL fans expressed less than positive responses on Twitter as they commented on the singer’s South Asia roots.

“NFL Network got a lot of tweets and stuff. Or, you know, things saying, ‘Who’s she? Who’s this person? And why should she be on American TV’ and like, ‘Football should be an American person.’ It was just like, very confusing, because I’m, I was just an artist with a song that they liked,” Chopra Jonas told Wallace.

When reflecting back on her hit song that landed her the NFL gig — which Wallace insisted was not “so bad” before rolling the clip — Chopra Jonas couldn’t help but note “I was so young.”

After Wallace asked Chopra Jonas if the racist comments had adversely impacted her or if they didn’t “hit her” since she had already been in the industry for some time, the “Citadel” star responded, “No, it hits you every time,” she said. “All of it hits — criticism, the fact that my job requires me to be dissected, and you know, microscopely. Everything I say, my home, my family, everything is looked at.”

While Chopra Jonas admits that “of course” the backlash was hurtful, she is extremely aware that criticism is “the nature of the beast,” and with 23 years of experience in the entertainment industry under her belt, she doesn’t expect the nature of the job to change, instead saying “you’ve got to start protecting yourself.”

“I’m someone who does wear blinders … [and] I believe in letting my work speak for itself,” she said. “The best shut down to people like that, who said that I didn’t belong, is to belong. And today, I have the number one series in the world [‘Citadel’], and I’m sitting here talking to Chris Wallace, so who won?”

Chopra Jonas has recently made some hits on both the big screen and the small with the romantic comedy “Love Again,” in which Chopra Jonas stars opposite “Outlander” star Sam Heughan, as well as Prime Video’s “Citadel,” in which Chopra Jonas plays the mysterious and skilled spy Nadia, starring alongside Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci in the action thriller series.