-Our first guest tonight is a very talented actress you know
from her work in "Baywatch" and "Quantico."
She stars in "The Matrix Resurrections,"
which will be in theaters and IMAX nationwide
and on HBO Max December 22nd.
Please welcome back to the show
our friend Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Hi. How are you?
-I'm just so happy to be back with a live audience!
-Isn't it wonderful? [ Cheers and applause ]
-Oh, it's so special!
-I know, because I think sometimes too much was put on
the fact that it was weird for hosts to do it
without audiences, but guests on talk shows, I feel like,
needed audiences even more
because we got to do it every day.
We got more and more used to the fact
that there was nobody here, but it must have been so jarring
when you were doing press and having to be in front of nobody.
-You're the first person -- like, the first late-night show
I'm doing in like two years.
So I'm out of practice, guys.
-No, no, you're off to it.
Everybody already is thinking, "She's really good at this."
[ Laughter ]
-We'll find out.
-You just passed a three-year anniversary
to your husband, Nick Jonas? -Yes.
-Congratulations. -Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I sort of felt like this was a sign of a very strong marriage.
I saw you burning him with some zingers
at the Jonas brothers family roast.
Did you enjoy? It must be fun to stand up --
I mean, 'cause, again, he sort of signed up for it,
so you're allowed.
-Oh, I had a great time.
[ Laughter ]
I mean, how often can you actually really roast
your husband publicly,
and Netflix and the whole world is watching?
It's like I have -- It was so much freedom.
-When it was over, did he give you --
Was he happy? Was he proud?
'Cause I would be proud, no matter the burn,
if they were as well-delivered as you delivered them.
-Okay, alright, I'll be honest.
I'm going to give Nick credit where it's due.
He wrote half my jokes because I was so nervous.
[ Laughter ]
-But you write half of their songs?
-But I delivered them.
Yes. I'm the muse. -You're the muse.
-So I basically write the songs.
-There you go. [ Laughter ]
That's very nice of you to give him that credit.
Again, another sign of a very strong marriage.
-Secure, I guess. -Exactly, secure marriage, yeah.
So, this is so exciting that you're in the new "Matrix" film.
-So excited. -Do you have a --
Because I have such a specific memory of seeing it
in the cinema for the first time.
Do you remember going to see it?
-I do. I think I was 16.
I was in the States.
I remember seeing it with friends.
I think I was in Newton or something.
I'm not really sure. That's fuzzy.
But what's not fuzzy is trying to wear only black after
or not smiling because I wanted to be cool
or wearing those sunglasses
and trying to talk about existential theories
when I didn't even understand what the word meant.
[ Laughter ] But it really shifted me,
and it shifted my expectations from cinema.
-Yeah. -After Neo's bullet trick
and just the spoon bending and the mouth stitching,
which was terrifying and still is.
But it was just like I had such larger expectations
when I watched movies.
-Yeah, and I remember, I was older than you...
[ Laughter ]
...I got a little stoned when I went and saw "Matrix,"
'cause I heard -- people said, "You want to get stoned."
And I maybe got a little too stoned 'cause it is
the clearest memory I have of the only movie I was in
where at some point I thought to myself,
"I think this might be real."
[ Laughter ]
-"I think it might be real."
Also, it was the turn of the century when the movie came out.
Whoever remembers this, just don't remind me of my age.
But, yes, you know the Y2K fear? -Yeah.
-And everyone was like -- Technology was kind of scary,
it's gonna take over the world, and there comes "The Matrix"
and tells you that you might be living in one,
so it was terrifying.
-And now you were like, "Oh, no."
I feel like, five years ago, we're like,
"No, technology is fine.
It's all like your aunt posting stuff on Facebook."
And then you're like, "Oh, no." -Yep.
-"I think that's the Matrix." -Especially when you're having
a conversation with your friend and then they log on Instagram
and the ads pop up, and you're like,
[ Gasps ] "Did you just recommend that same toothbrush
that I was talking about to my friend five minutes ago?"
-It's crazy.
My wife is constantly talking about
how she's getting targeted ads. -I'm fully, fully paranoid.
-Yeah, and then she always walks to me
and she's like, "I got another ad.
Have you been talking about Batman action figures
around my phone?" [ Laughter ]
And I'm like, "Uh, uh, duh, uh, kids."
[ Laughter ]
You talked about using the Matrix language
after seeing the first film.
Obviously being in the film, you have to deliver it.
Was it the same sort of wordy,
thoughtful dialogue that we've come to expect?
-Yes, and I have lots of words, and Matrix words.
-Yeah.
-I mean, I don't want Lana to fire me,
but now I'm in the movie. She can't take me out.
-Well, no, actually, with their digital effects,
they could replace you like that, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-The first day I was filming was crazy.
I had to say all the lines that I have in the movie,
which when you guys watch the movie in the theater
on the 22nd, you will see that it's wordy,
but at the same time, Lana wanted --
Lana Wachowski, the director -- is very --
She doesn't like rehearsals.
She doesn't like actors to be prepared.
She likes a really live, electric environment,
so she wanted me to say all my lines in the entire movie
in one sunset because she wanted that perfect, magic light.
-Wow.
-And that's 45 minutes to an hour.
And I had the whole cast standing in front of me.
Everyone.
And my hands were sweaty, my knees were buckling.
-I mean, every part of that is terrible,
but especially the fact that your light is going away.
-I know, I know. I can see it. I can see it.
-You can't be like, "I'm gonna need 15 more minutes.
Somebody get to work on the sun."
[ Laughter ] -No. It's a ticking time bomb.
And you're like, "[Bleep] I can see it.
Get it right, get it right."
-I'm sure everything was a little bit easier
after you did that first, though.
-Yeah, after that first day,
everything was so much easier.
-That's great. I have more to ask you.
We'll be right back with more from Priyanka Chopra Jonas.