Jacqueline Fernandez, who will complete 15 years in the Bollywood this year, said she came to Bollywood loving her nose and then was told by others to get a nose job done.

Jacqueline Fernandes recalled the initial struggles of her career. (Photo: Jacqueline Fernandes/ Instagram)

Jacqueline Fernandez, who recently walked the red carpet at the 77th edition of Cannes Film Festival, spoke about how very early in her career, she was asked to hide her age and get a nose job done. The Sri Lankan actress is currently at Cannes in association with BMW, recalled the worst advise she received from a fellow actor. She said she was told that women after the age of 30 ‘don’t get’ any acting jobs. The Kick star also recalled her first Cannes experience when not a single pap clicked her photo while she walked the red carpet.

In an interview with Brut, Jacqueline recalled her initial days and said, “Very very early on in my career, I was at the gym and I was explaining to this actor that I have to go for this course and I have to go for this class. And I am training in diction for this and then I’m working out here and he was like, ‘listen just focus on looking good an you’ll be fine.’ And I actually think that it was one of the worst pieces of advice I ever got, being someone who was trying to make it in the industry.”

 

She added, “I think a lot of people pile in mainly about your physical appearance. Like I was told many times to get a nose job. And it was crazy because I really came here loving my nose and not really ever thinking about doing anything ever to it. And so quite a few people earlier on actually told me that it should be you know ‘you should consider getting that done.’ And it’s mainly physical, and that’s the sad thing.”

Jacqueline also talked about how Bollywood has become more age inclusive for women. She recalled an incident from the time when she was about to turn 30. The Murder 2 actress revealed how she was ‘terrified’ after this one actor told her that women don’t get films after the age of 30.

The 38-year-old actress said, “Actually I think one amazing thing I have been noticing in Bollywood is that there has been more and more age inclusivity for women which I think is amazing. Because when I had first come here, I was terrified, because this one actor had told me, ‘you’re turning 30,’ I was turning 30 that year, and I was telling him about my birthday next month, ‘I’m turning 30, that’s so crazy, and I am so nervous,’ or you know, ‘it’s scary,’ and he was like ‘Oh my god, change the age on your passport’ I was like ‘what’, he was like ‘well, you know, women don’t get films after the age of 30’. So that was really disappointing to hear, but on saying that, women are getting films at every age in their career right now. And I think that’s an amazing thing.”

In the same interview, Jacqueline, who made her Cannes debut in 2015, recalled the time when she first attended the film festival as a guest to a friend. “The first time I was here was definitely memorable. I came as a guest to a friend and it was very overwhelming but when I walked the red carpet, it was really fast, there was not one pap who took a picture of me. But that was fine, I didn’t expect that because it wasn’t official.”

Jacqueline, who will complete 15 years in the film industry this year after marking her debut with the 2009 Sujoy Ghosh film Aladin, talked about her initial struggles. She said her biggest struggle was her ‘inexperience.’ She said, “I absolutely had no background in acting or in films, I had really no idea how to kind of manoeuvre my way or navigate my way around things, around the industry, around the people. So I think that was something I really struggled with.”

Jacqueline will be soon seen in the Ahmed Khan directorial Welcome to the Jungle, the third installment in the popular Welcome franchise. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Disha Patani, Raveena Tandon, Suniel Shetty, Shreyas Talpade, Johnny Level, Rajpal Yadav, Tusshar Kapoor, and Kiku Sharda, among others.