Baywatch: Priyanka Chopra’s villain was originally male

Priyanka Chopra has revealed that her role in the forthcoming Baywatch reboot was originally written for a man.

The 34-year-old Indian actress stars as the villain entrepreneur Victoria Leeds in the movie, but it wasn’t the role director Seth Gordon originally had in mind for her:

“I met the director on Skype. The negative part was actually written for a man. I spoke to him for another role in the film, but he liked the idea of me playing the negative role despite being a woman. So, the script was reworked.

“It was really exciting that they changed the role for me. You have to be a very strong character to take on The Rock and entire lifeguard squad. She’s a woman in a man’s world.” she told Hindustan Times.

Gordon told EW that Chopra “was a more interesting” villain for Dwayne Johnson and he knew she could pull it off:

“As soon as I spoke to her, I knew she could do it. I really loved the idea of Dwayne going up against a female antagonist. Her approach is purely psychological. It’s about outsmarting, it’s about out-winning, it’s about taking advantage of the male ego, all that stuff.

She really was just a much more interesting person for him to go up against, because it wasn’t going to be just brawn or grit.” he said.

And we can see Chopra in action when Baywatch hits theaters on May 25th. Check out its trailer below in the meantime: