Sunny Leone: My name is bigger than my accent

Recently, Sunny Leone used social media to react to a parody video of herself where her accent was much in focus, asserting that she doesn’t sound like a valley girl. The actor says she is aware that she continues to be judged because of her accent, and has stopped fretting about it.

Last month, Leone responded to the video by media influencer Dharna Durga, where she was seen imitating the actor from her dating reality show, Splitsvilla. She said, “I don’t think I sound like a valley girl…but nice one ladies”.

“What pushed me to respond to this influencer was that I thought it was funny. Whether someone is talking good about you or making fun of you or appreciating you, as long as they are talking about you, whether it’s good or bad most of the time, then it’s okay,” Leone tells us, adding, “I make fun of myself too, so I don’t take life so seriously to be insulted”.

Here, Leone, who made her Bollywood debut with Pooja Bhatt’s Jism 2 in 2012, admits that she is judged for her accent.

“I can’t do anything about my accent. And all around the world, people make fun of everybody’s accents. Americans make fun of certain accents. Here people make fun of my accent. So, it is what it is,” says the actor, who grew up in Canada, and shifted her base to India much later in her life.

The 41-year-old continues, “I don’t necessarily think I sound like a valley girl, but, you know, it’s her version of what she feels I am or someone feels that I am. So, it’s fine. It’s okay”.

Opening up about whether it is fair to judge her for her accent, the actor says, “Well, my name is bigger than my accent”.

“People like me as a person, which is amazing. I’m happy for that. I have built a reputation of being very professional, and I plan to keep it that way. And if someone wants to make fun of me, it’s totally okay with me. All I know is that I would never make fun of them because of their accent. Because that’s my philosophy in life,” says the actor, who has featured in projects such as Ek Paheli Leela, Kuch Kuch Locha Hai, Raees, Karenjit Kaur – The Untold Story of Sunny Leone and Ragini MMS Returns.

In fact, she is the one to find humour in everything, even when the joke is on her.

“I watch these parodies being made of me or people making fun of me, these influencers, and think that, hey, if that influencer thinks I’m special enough to make fun of, then amazing. I’m so happy about it and I don’t look for them. But if somebody sends it to me, then yes, I watch and I get a chuckle out of it,” says Leone, who is busy working on a project with filmmaker Anurag Kashyap at the moment.