'I'm just a girl doing a job'

On a sweltering Wednesday at Cannes Lions, the coolest customer in town was surely actor and producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who spoke with warmth, candour and unmistakable star power to a packed Debussy Theatre audience during Building Legacy: Moving Culture Through Originality And Borderless Expression.

But Chopra Jonas — who has appeared in more than 80 films, won Miss World and built a global career spanning Bollywood and Hollywood — insisted that confidence has never come naturally. “Confidence requires practice, and it’s a choice that you have to make,” she told delegates. “It’s not with you all the time.” Comparing confidence-building to going to the gym, Chopra Jonas told the audience she carries an “imaginary backpack” of tools she can access when self-doubt strikes.

Recalling her first Hollywood audition after years of success in India, she described feeling overwhelmed.

“I reminded myself that I know my craft. I know my tools.”

The actor said her audiences respond most strongly to her authenticity rather than perceived perfection, admitting that she spent much of her early career striving for impossible standards. “I was striving for perfection,” she said. “But over time, I realised a stronger emotional connection came from saying, ‘I made a mistake.’”

That honesty, she argued, is increasingly important in an era when audiences know far more about actors’ personal lives than ever before. “I’m just a girl doing a job,” she said. “Trying to make sure I win at every given thing that I take on.”

Chopra Jonas reflected on the changing entertainment landscape, arguing that streaming has fundamentally altered the way stories travel across borders. She recalled being told early in her Bollywood career that Indian films would never enjoy the global reach of Hollywood because they were not made in English.

“I think streaming changed that so much,” she said, adding that audiences are now embracing stories from every corner of the world. “It’s a really exciting time to be in entertainment,” she said. “Ideas, that’s your currency.”

As both actor and producer, Chopra Jonas said she increasingly looks for projects that create emotional reactions rather than simply following industry trends. Addressing the issue of gender in the entertainment business, she said she often chooses to create opportunities for herself rather than wait for them. “When there’s a glass ceiling that has been set for most women, you just have to do it yourself,” she said.

Regarding brand partnerships, she said success means she can be selective about the companies she works with.

“I only align with brands that I use in my real life, that are part of my existence, that I admire, whose brand values I align with,” she said.