Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Playing a Rare Female Pirate in ‘The Bluff’

When Priyanka Chopra Jonas first opened up The Bluff script, she struggled to understand why there hadn’t been an abundance of female pirates on screen. Most modern-day viewers could probably point to Geena Davis’ Morgan Adams in Cutthroat Island or Zoe Saldaña, Keira Knightley and Penélope Cruz’s portrayals in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but the list is still few and far between. So the opportunity to play former pirate captain Ercell “Bloody Mary” Bodden in Frank E. Flowers’ hard-hitting R-rated action-thriller became a must, especially with Saldaña’s Cinestar, the Russo brothers’ AGBO and her frequent collaborators at Amazon Prime Video championing her.

“When the script came to me, I did not even know that a female pirate could actually exist and be the captain of her own ship. I then did a deep dive into the history of female piracy around the world, and so many famous buccaneers were women,” Chopra Jonas tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of The Bluff. “Successful stories of women in history are sometimes just forgotten. We’ve seen that in so many stories from the past.”

Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, the mid-19th century tale centers on Ercell’s attempt to live a peaceful life with her family on the Cayman Islands. However, she’s forced to reembrace the “Bloody Mary” in her after her husband (Ismael Cruz Córdova’s T.H.) goes missing and a fellow pirate captain (Karl Urban’s Connor) from her past brings violence to her doorstep. 

After signing a first-look deal with Amazon in 2020, Chopra Jonas has made three projects including Citadel, Heads of State and now The Bluff. The relationship also illustrates how valuable streaming can be for a performer with global appeal. The Indian actor and producer is a major draw, particularly in her native country, which boasts a potential streaming audience size of 250 million people. Thus, Chopra Jonas is rather forthcoming about her vexation with entertainment media’s tendency to pit streaming against theatrical when both can successfully coexist.

“There should be a coexistence. Both mediums can be beautiful in their own way. I love the fact that there are so many tools available for audiences to access entertainment from around the world. I love the fact that subtitled entertainment can actually win best picture today,” Chopra Jonas says. 

She also praises the doors streaming has opened for performers around the world. It’s now much easier to break into Hollywood than it was for her in 2015 via ABC’s Quantico. 

“I love the fact that actors from different parts of the world get the ability to work in the elusive Hollywood, which is a small and exclusive club,” Chopra Jonas states. “Global entertainment actually looking like it’s from the globe — versus people that Hollywood makes look like a certain community — is such a win. It’s a win for global entertainment because now we’re able to access an audience. I would like to live in the positivity of that — versus perpetuate the debate [between streaming and theatrical]. I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive.”

In 2027, Chopra Jonas will return to Indian cinema in Varanasi, S. S. Rajamouli’s highly anticipated follow-up to 2022’s global sensation, RRR. Information about the project is minimal so far, but the time-bending sci-fi plot revolves around an asteroid that is headed straight for the northern India city of Varanasi. 

“It’s going to be one of India’s most ambitious movies when it comes out. It’s going to be a spectacle. We not only travel different continents in the movie, we travel time in the film as well,” Chopra Jonas shares. “Mr. Rajamouli’s mind is just so unique and vast at the same time. I don’t speak Telugu, which is the language that I have to speak [in the film]. So that’s an added layer of a challenge, and I hope I’ll be able to do justice to the language. But it’s a wonderful part, he’s an amazing filmmaker and my co-actors are legends. What’s not to love?”

Below, during a conversation with THR, Chopra Jonas also discusses her approach to stunt work, as well as the practical differences between Indian and American cinema. 

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You and Amazon really seem to like each other. Do you have an actual deal with them? Or is it just a firm handshake? 

I’d like to believe it’s a firm handshake, but no, it’s a contract. I’ve been signed to a first-look deal with them for five or six years now. 

Did the Russos pitch you and Amazon The Bluff during Citadel?

It was actually after the making of Citadel [season one]. Joe [Russo] dropped the script in my text messages one day, and he was like, “Check it out.” I didn’t know what this was going to be, but I read the story, and it was such a cool world. I was happy that they thought of me for it. I hadn’t seen a grounded movie with real pirates that’s drenched in [mid-19th century] history. So it was a great package, and I could fit it in between two other jobs that I was also doing with Amazon and AGBO. We were able to figure out the scheduling and do it.

Your co-stars, Karl Urban and Ismael Cruz Cordova, are both on Amazon shows. You and Jack Quaid were both on Amazon shows when you appeared in Amazon’s Heads of State. 

(Laughs.) What’s wrong with cross-pollinating?

Nothing at all! I’m just curious if Amazon encourages the casting department to consider other people in the Amazon family.

You’ll have to ask Amazon that. I have nothing to do with casting.

I’ll text Jeff Bezos after this interview and see what he says. 

(Laughs.) I’d like to know Jeff’s answer.

There haven’t been too many swashbuckling women on screen. Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island is probably the one I remember first. Did you have a similar realization when you first heard about this project? 

Absolutely. We’ve been talking about it through this press tour. We actually just talked about Geena Davis right before you jumped on, and Zoe [Saldaña], to a certain extent. But there have been very few female pirates, and I’ve really been thinking about why. When the script came to me, I did not even know that a female pirate could actually exist and be the captain of her own ship. 

I then did a deep dive into the history of female piracy around the world, and so many famous buccaneers were women. I was very taken by Grace O’Malley from Ireland and her [16th century] story and the brutality of her life and the leadership that she showcased. Mary Read [from the 18th century] was another. There are so many others.

Successful stories of women in history are sometimes just forgotten. We’ve seen that in so many stories from the past. So I was really excited that [director] Frank [E. Flowers] wanted to tell this story and retain the integrity of this woman and her life. She could be deadly, but at the same time, there’s a vulnerability to the mother that she has become. She wants to protect the one thing that she left everything behind for, which is family.

The Saldaña sisters at Cinestar originally set this up and remain producers. Did you ever talk to Zoe about the movie before it got going?

Yeah, we chatted through it. She promoted the movie as well. We’ve FaceTimed, and I have a real admiration for Zoe. She’s in that very cool cohort of few women that can successfully call themselves an action star, and she is able to carry really amazing, physically demanding roles. So to have her give a blessing to this movie and still be a part of it was very exciting to me. I really look up to her.

There are a number of action movies in recent years that have marketed themselves around their actors doing their own stunts or choreography. I covered one where the actor did the very beginning of a dangerous stunt, and that still became the centerpiece of the marketing campaign. Does marketing ever factor into the action that you decide to do?

No, can you imagine? I want to be able to market the movie, so let’s do [this stunt]. No chance, you can’t think of that. This movie required my face to be on camera a lot, and I’m not a hero when I do action movies. I’ve done them from the beginning of my career. I do enjoy it when I’m watching an action movie and I can see the actor’s face while they’re doing it. It’s weird when you’re trying to hide it and stuff. That’s strange. But because this was a dramatic performance and I might be looking out for my kid while I’m killing people, it required me to do a lot of my own stunts. I also had an incredible stunt team with [second unit director] Rob Alonzo and Anisha Gibbs, who I call my stunt coach. She works with me on everything I do that requires any kind of action. It’s been at least five jobs now. 

When you’re surrounded by the right people, they will make sure that you’re protected and that everything is taken care of in the right way for it to be safe. That makes it much easier as an actor to trust, and I had immense faith in the team that we had. There were, of course, a few shots I couldn’t do. One was because we were shooting multiple units at the same time, so scheduling didn’t allow it. Then there were times where it was just too dangerous, and insurance wouldn’t allow it. So I left that greater decision to the stunt team of where they would use me and where they wouldn’t.

Do you know what I mean, though? Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves’ movies often use their stunt work and choreography as marketing angles. So I was just curious if it’s ever been a part of the conversation. [Writer’s Note: Immediately after the interview, I remembered that Priyanka’s The Matrix Resurrections marketed Keanu and Carrie-Anne Moss’ skyscraper stunt.]

I don’t think it ever is. I do think that a lot of actors like to be able to do their stunts as long as they can do it safely. As actors, we know the body language that might be required by our character — much better than a double would. So I think most actors do prefer that. It really depends on the team you surround yourself with, so maybe some of these stories are true. 

Actors wanting to do stunts to keep their entire performance consistent is definitely a line of reasoning I’ve heard before.

It’s really hard. I work with my stunt double whenever a shot is being done for me, and I always try to watch it on the monitor. I like to be there so I can show them what body language they should use according to my character. I make time in the schedule — even if it’s after I’ve wrapped — to stick around and make sure that the integrity of my performance is protected. So I absolutely agree with that.

There’s an ongoing tug of war between streaming and theatrical, and those of us in entertainment media are certainly guilty of perpetuating it. 

Yeah, you guys love it. 

Hey, I’ve always believed in coexistence myself. But I don’t think many people realize how valuable streaming has been for you and your global audience.

Well, streaming has changed the game for entertainment, for sure, and it’s not going anywhere. I do not think theatrical is going anywhere either. And I agree with you that there should be a coexistence, if that’s truly what you believe. Both mediums can be beautiful in their own way. Technology is here to stay when it comes to filmmaking, but there’s also going to be a world like The Bluff. We shot 100 percent on location, and we used old-school filmmaking. We had all practical sets that we could work and interact with. So filmmakers will pick and choose the medium that they want to use.

I love the fact that there are so many tools available for audiences to access entertainment from around the world. I love the fact that subtitled entertainment can actually win best picture today. I love the fact that actors from different parts of the world get the ability to work in the elusive Hollywood, which is a small and exclusive club. The Bluff has an incredible diversity of actors from India, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, England and America. Global entertainment actually looking like it’s from the globe — versus people that Hollywood makes look like a certain community — is such a win. It’s a win for global entertainment because now we’re able to access an audience. There’s an audience for everything that’s made out there now, and what a wonderful time. I would like to live in the positivity of that — versus perpetuate the debate [between either medium]. I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. 

I’m also grateful to streamers for making genres that the major studios no longer prioritize.

Exactly.

When you first made the leap to the States, did you expect your Indian audience to keep following you? Or were you not sure about any of it? 

I don’t think I thought about if my Indian audience would help with my career in any way or form. I was really trying to be true to getting the right job so I could make the right transition. I have really been blessed with incredible supporters and well-wishers when it comes to audiences who’ve liked my movies over the last 25 years. They have also supported me in very dark times, and they will take up fights for me and defend me. That really makes you feel like you’ve moved someone with your work, and that’s a really powerful feeling. So I do keep them in my heart. Whenever I’m making tough decisions and trying to figure out what to do next, having that support is very, very helpful.

I definitely caught RRR fever a few years ago, and you have the good fortune of starring in Mr. Rajamouli’s follow-up, Varanasi. What morsel of information can you offer at this juncture? 

It’s going to be one of India’s most ambitious movies when it comes out. It’s going to be a spectacle. We not only travel different continents in the movie, we travel time in the film as well. Mr. Rajamouli’s mind is just so unique and vast at the same time, so you don’t know till you know. He also loves using practical sets and VFX combined together, and it’s really magical to see our sets transform into these otherworldly places. It’s just been a wonderful experience. I don’t speak Telugu, which is the language that I have to speak [in the film]. So that’s an added layer of a challenge, and I hope I’ll be able to do justice to the language. But it’s a wonderful part, he’s an amazing filmmaker and my co-actors are legends. What’s not to love?

Besides having more American fans, can you sense the impact that RRR has had on the rest of Indian cinema? 

The impact RRR had was theatrically showcasing Indian cinema in such a commercial manner to so many people around the world, and people were able to understand how vast and huge the production value of Indian films can be. Of course, the storytelling is very different. Our storytelling is very different from a Hollywood movie. A Hollywood screenplay is usually a three-act structure. In India, a screenplay is mostly a two-act structure — a first half and a second half. So there’s a lot of little technical things that make our movies very different. But RRR really brought a lot of people to the theaters to have the wonderful experience of Indian cinema magic.

I’m not trying to suggest that one industry’s method is better than the other, but what practical adjustments do you have to make in your day to day?

In America, we are very specific about when we shoot what and how. You have to make the day on most productions, and you have a shot breakdown of how many shots you have to take. So there’s a lot more stress in making sure that you make the day. On Indian films, it’s a little bit more languid. If we don’t make the day, it’s fine. We’ll get it tomorrow. We’ll also shoot one set piece, and then we’ll take a break for 10 or 20 days. Then we’ll come back for the next set piece, and that is why we can do multiple movies at the same time. In Hollywood, you take three months to shoot everything together. I don’t know how it logistically makes sense, but it works. Both industries have their own ways that work.

Lastly, years from now, when you look back on filming The Bluff, what day will you likely recall first? 

I will recall the day of the conch shell fight. I felt that visceral feeling that my character was feeling, and we were so in tune in that moment. The whole crew was standing around me because it was a Steadicam shot. The camera was right on my face while I said, “You come to my house, you threaten my family …” I was speaking my truth in that moment. I know I would rip someone in half if they ever threatened my family. There was a silence after that scene was over, and then everybody came to give me a hug as I was bloodied up. It was a moment that a lot of people felt, and it was one of my favorite moments in the movie.

***The Bluff is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.