While Freida Pinto is aware she doesn't look like the typical Hollywood starlet, she admits it's a concept that rarely crosses her mind.
"It's hard because the first thing people see when I go into an audition is that I am 100% Indian, but I don't remember a time in my life when I did not see myself as a world citizen," the 30-year-old beauty tells Net-A-Porter.com's The EDIT. "When I watch films, I can always imagine myself as the female lead – even if it's Minnie Mouse."
Photographed by Chad Pitman, Pinto stuns on both the cover and the publication's inside images, showing off her insane bod while giving Michelle Obama a run for her money in the enviable bicep department.
"It's not necessarily the way I see myself," she says of her hopes to change Hollywood's perception of beauty. "In fact, I don't even like to look at myself in the mirror. But I'm aware of the perception and I always say that if it's because of that one line in Slumdog where Latika is described as ‘the most beautiful girl in the world', then I have to do everything I can to change the perception."
Following the success of Slumdog, Pinto, who dated co-star Dev Patel for six years, admits fame was a hard pill to swallow.
"It was also partly due to the fact that Dev [Patel] and I were dating, so suddenly there we were, being chased down London's Regent Street by the paparazzi," she says of the media frenzy following the film. "People were being knocked down in front of cars and it was really messy. For a long time I felt that I couldn't be myself. I pushed a lot of friends away from me at that time and it took me about two years to understand it. Now that I do, I feel like there's a method to this madness."
Not only is Pinto an actress, but she's also a promising activist, who has used her celebrity platform to create change. She previously traveled to Sierra Leone, where she found herself "inspired" and she is currently the ambassador for the Because I Am a Girl campaign.
"If it gives me a bigger ticket and I can use whatever fame I get to help women and girls who have been sexually abused, then it's worth it," she says of the benefits of stardom.
With regards to the Because I Am a Girl campaign, Pinto shares her sage thoughts on the cause and she's clearly all about girl power. "You hear that phrase so much, ‘I got raped … because I'm a girl', ‘I can't go out at night … because I'm a girl, when really it should be, ‘Because I'm a girl, I can give birth to the next generation of enlightened males."
And her words are so wise that she even previously received the 'you go girl' finger from Meryl Streep (come on, you remember when Patricia Arquette got the acting legend jumping out of her Oscar seat!).
"I went over to my friends and asked: "Did I get the ‘you go, girl!' finger from Meryl?" she recalls following the U.S. premiere of India's Daughter. "Because after that moment [following Patricia Arquette's acceptance speech] at the Oscars, that's what you want, isn't it?"
To see the EDIT's full interview with Freida Pinto go to www.net-a-porter.com.