--- title: Priyanka Chopra's Baywatch Character Written for a Man description: Priyanka Chopra is set to play Victoria Leeds in the upcoming Baywatch movie — the main villain of the '90s TV series reboot. canonical: https://time.com/4488356/priyanka-chopra-baywatch-character/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-12T20:59:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:27.940Z og:title: Priyanka Chopra Reveals Her Baywatch Character Was Supposed to Be a Man og:description: The Quantico star plays the movie's villain og:url: https://time.com/4488356/priyanka-chopra-baywatch-character/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1a5b744da8066a/6988a59f0b72e3c0c96eaf65/priyanka-chopra.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: INDIA-ARTS-CINEMA-BOLLYWOOD og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Priyanka Chopra Reveals Her Baywatch Character Was Supposed to Be a Man twitter:description: The Quantico star plays the movie's villain twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1a5b744da8066a/6988a59f0b72e3c0c96eaf65/priyanka-chopra.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Priyanka Chopra Reveals Her Antagonistic _Baywatch_ Character Was Supposed to Be a Man > Sponsored content. 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STR/AFP/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 12, 2016 8:59 PM UTC [Priyanka Chopra](http://time.com/4299686/priyanka-chopra-2016-time-100/) is set to play Victoria Leeds in the upcoming [_Baywatch_ movie](http://time.com/4246454/david-hasselhoff-new-baywatch/) — the main villain of the ’90s TV series reboot. But in a recent interview with _W_ magazine, the 34-year-old [_Quantico_ star](http://time.com/4300122/priyanka-chopra-time-100-video/) revealed the role was originally written for a man. “They were speaking to me about \[playing\] one of the lifeguards in the film _Baywatch_ and I had a Skype call with \[director\] Seth Gordon, which was supposed to be 15 minutes and it ended up being 2 hours,” she said. “The character that I’m playing, which is the antagonist in _Baywatch_, was written for man, and then he just changed it and thought that a woman would be really interesting and I ended up playing Victoria.” Chopra plays the bad guy to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s hero in the film, a role she [told ](http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/priyanka-chopra-opens-up-baywatch-victoria-leeds-bitch-movie/1/719546.html)_India Today_ she truly enjoyed. “The best part of working on _Baywatch_ is to be the villain of the movie,” she said. “I don’t think The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson has ever had anyone who’s been mean to him. He’s a great guy, but Victoria is a b—ch.” _Baywatch_ hits theaters May 19, 2017. Read more at [_W_](http://www.wmagazine.com/story/priyanka-chopras-role-in-baywatch-was-initially-written-for-a-man). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4488356/priyanka-chopra-baywatch-character/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4488356/priyanka-chopra-baywatch-character/"},"headline":"Priyanka Chopra Reveals Her Antagonistic Baywatch Character Was Supposed to Be a Man","datePublished":"2016-09-12T20:59:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:27.940Z","description":"The Quantico star plays the movie's villain","url":"https://time.com/4488356/priyanka-chopra-baywatch-character/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1a5b744da8066a/6988a59f0b72e3c0c96eaf65/priyanka-chopra.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1a5b744da8066a/6988a59f0b72e3c0c96eaf65/priyanka-chopra.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"INDIA-ARTS-CINEMA-BOLLYWOOD","caption":"Actress Priyanka Chopra poses during a promotional event for Maxim India in Mumbai on June 30, 2016.","creditText":"STR/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4488356/priyanka-chopra-baywatch-character/","name":"Priyanka Chopra Reveals Her Antagonistic Baywatch Character Was Supposed to Be a Man"}}]}] ```