One thing which breaks my heart every time it trends online is when films face a mass boycott. Recently, it has been happening with so many Bollywood films. In the process of being unsupportive of the lead actor, people become unsupportive of the entire film – a product of the hard work of hundreds of people including directors, designers, scriptwriters, cinematographers, spot boys, etc.
This sentiment was captured wonderfully by Priyanka Chopra in an interview where she honestly accepted the fact that actors are given more credit than they deserve.
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Priyanka said that it’s the filmmakers who taught her to be an actor and that actors do “nothing” as compared to others when it comes to the making of the whole film. Hindustan Times quoted her saying:
“Even when I was working in Bollywood, working with the best filmmakers taught me how to be the best actor. We give too much credit to actors; actors do nothing by the way. We really don’t. I’ve always said this. Actors do nothing…Those 30 seconds of a scene, is where I come in. So I have a very limited role. But it is intense pressure.”
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Chopra further added that actors speak someone else’s words, lip-sync to songs written by someone else, dance to songs choreographed by someone else and while marketing the film, the questions are also asked by someone else. So her role in the making of the entire film is very limited.
“We say out somebody else’s words, we are working on a script that is written by someone else, we are lip-syncing and singing songs that are in someone else’s voice. We’re dancing steps that are choreographed by somebody else. We are doing marketing, where questions are asked by somebody else. We are dressed by somebody, hair and makeup are done by somebody. So what am I doing? My job is between ‘action’ and ‘cut’.” she says.
Here’s a snippet from her interview:
“ We give too much credit to actors, actors do nothing” – Priyanka Chopra ✨ from BollyBlindsNGossip
I think this is an incredibly powerful statement made by her. Films tend to centre around the lead actors only. By acknowledging the hard work of everyone else, she reminded us that films are much more than we perceive them to be.