Sunny Leone: My name is bigger than my accent

Recently, actor Sunny Leone used social media to react to a parody video of herself where her accent was in focus. “I don’t think I sound like a valley girl… but nice one ladies (sic),” she commented on influencer Dharna Durga’s post, where the latter was seen imitating the actor from the reality show Splitsvilla.

“My name is bigger than my accent. People like me as a person, which is amazing. I’m happy for that. I have built a reputation of being very professional, and I plan to keep it that way,” says Leone.

“I can’t do anything about my accent. And all around the world, everybody makes fun of people’s accents. Americans make fun of certain accents. Here, people make fun of mine,” says the actor, who grew up in Canada, and shifted base to India after her Bollywood debut, Jism 2 (2012). “If someone wants to make fun of me, it’s totally okay with me. All I know is that I would never make fun of them because of their accent, because that’s my philosophy in life,” says the

(2015) and

Returns (2017) actor.

Around the world, people make fun of others’ accents. Americans make fun of certain accents. Here, people make fun of mine.

“What pushed me to respond to this influencer was that I thought it was funny. I don’t necessarily think I sound like a valley girl (a cultural stereotype denoting an affluent and spoilt young Californian woman). It’s her version of who she feels I am. I watch these parodies and people making fun of me, and think that if an influencer thinks I’m special enough to make fun of, then amazing,” the 41-year-old says, adding that she enjoys such content but doesn’t go looking for it. “If somebody sends it to me, I watch and I get a chuckle out of it,” quips Leone.

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ SUNNYLEONE