Priyanka Chopra towers as villain in campy remake
Quantico star trades in flats for five-inch heels in revamp of lifeguard TV series
Worried fans, don’t fret. Conspiracy theorists, cease. Priyanka Chopra is fine and has a case-closed explanation for how she took her high-profile tumble while working on her FBI drama Quantico.
The star, who plays recruit Alex Parrish, was wearing flat shoes and running on wet asphalt when she slipped and hit her head, requiring her to take a break from the ABC show to recuperate from a concussion.
“I blame it on the flats. If I was in heels, I would have never fallen,” Chopra laughs. “When you take off my heels, I lose my superpower. But I’m a superhero in heels.”
More like a supervillain: Chopra, 34, makes a glam Hollywood movie debut as Victoria Leeds in Baywatch, the movie remake of the campy TV series. The former Miss World rocks power outfits and five-inch Louboutins as an evil real-estate developer able to look meddling lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (six-foot-five Dwayne Johnson in the role made famous by David Hasselhoff ) dead in the eye.
“Being a villain is awesome. It’s so good to be bad,” Chopra says. She surprised herself by gleefully unleashing her “inner Victoria” each morning on the set. “It’s like, why do I like being evil so much? Why do I have so much fun torturing people?”
It’s this kind of unbridled baddie joy that compelled director Seth Gordon to cast Chopra after a Skype call to discuss a part for her as a lifeguard. Gordon saw her dark side and immediately changed the film’s planned male baddie from Victor to Victoria while rejigging the shooting schedule to accommodate Chopra’s Quantico work.
“I knew from my first conversation with Priyanka that she is an absolute killer,” Gordon says. “One Skype and it was a done deal.”
Chopra brought her own scheming ideas to the Miami Beach set, including digging her nails into the neck of a lifeguard (Jon Bass) dancing wildly in front of her as a diversion for the Baywatch gang.
“I told Seth I wanted to hold (Bass) with my nails by the back of his neck like a cat,” she laughs. “It was very mean. But Seth loved it.”
“Being a villain is awesome. It’s so good to be bad. It’s like, why do I like being evil so much? Why do I have so much fun torturing people?” PRIYANKA CHOPRA ON PLAYING REAL-ESTATE DEVELOPER VICTORIA LEEDS IN BAYWATCH
Chopra was fine missing out on playing one of the iconic Baywatch lifeguards she had admired as a childhood fan in India. She was able to avoid the strict rigours of being swimsuit-ready that the crew, including Zac Efron and Kelly Rohrbach, faced. “Screen lifeguard is so much pressure. You’d have to eat, like, one almond a day to stay in those swimsuits. I like my food too much,” she says.
There were perils, including wearing show-stopping outfits such as the form-fitting black gown in the finale that took her breath away — literally. The dress was so tight it was hard to breathe.
“That was super uncomfortable and I had to do action with it, running with Louboutin stilettos,” Chopra says. “But I’m Miss World, I’m a pro.”
A just-announced, shortened third season of Quantico will allow Chopra to pursue more movie projects.
“This seems like a win-win to me,” Chopra says. Meanwhile, she’s happy to live with her diametrically opposed characters.
“Alex Parrish is the ultimate hero. Victoria Leeds is the opposite,” Chopra says. “Alex wants to save the world, Victoria wants to own the world.”