Welcome to Nice Talk, hosted by Marie Claire Editor-in-Chief Nikki Ogunike. Each week, Nikki talks about money, power, and style with entertainers, entrepreneurs, creators, athletes, changemakers, and other fascinating women. For too long, "well-mannered" women have been discouraged from talking about these topics. Style should be effortless, and conversations about money and power are not "appropriate," "ladylike," or "nice." But Nikki's definition of "nice talk" is one where all parties walk away feeling empowered; Nice Talk with Nikki Ogunnaike is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. [But when Maitrey Ramakrishnan went from an ordinary high school student in Ontario, Canada to the star of Netflix's "Never Have I Ever," on top of becoming famous overnight, he had to think about exactly that.

In the latest episode of Marie Claire's "Nice Talk" podcast, the actress starred in the hit teen show from 2020 to its fourth season in 2023, and while still a teenager, how she navigated financial negotiations She opened up about what she learned.

"At an early age, I had to learn that money is power and that asking for more does not mean being greedy, but actually respecting yourself," Ramakrishnan revealed on "Nice Talk."

The star, who landed the lead role of Devi in "Never Have I Ever" through a Twitter self-taped open call, said, "I remember having to learn that sometimes you have to want more because other people want more. They walk all over you. And you don't need XXX dollars to live the kind of life you live; the dollar value is a sign of respect."

Starr, now 22 and studying human rights and equality studies at York University in Toronto, said that her internal dialogue about money-related self-worth, and self-worth in general, has changed over time. She explained that Congratulations. You won this little raffle on Twitter. I didn't actually send you the tape. It was just a random gift. It was a giveaway for the lead role in a Netflix show, and you won. Congratulations. I adopted that mentality for myself and it's so bad it's not true."

"I was definitely in the right place at the right time. There is a 100% luck factor, especially in this industry," she continued.

"But I give myself credit for being there because of my talent."

Ramakrishnan also credits her mother for enabling her to draw such emotion from herself. She said, "I learned how to advocate for myself by being courageous and understanding my own self-worth and how I wanted to be, how I wanted to be respected, how I wanted to be treated.

With that in mind, as she takes on more roles and brand deals and works on streaming video games on Twitch, Ramakrishnan says that her team is learning what passion projects are worth doing for free and what others should pay for She said they had to advise her on what could be paid for. 'There's a reason it's called the filmmaking business,' she said. It's not about being passionate about filmmaking. It's about the filmmaking business first.

"In this nice capitalist society, there's taking advantage when you can," the Netflix star added. It's not always about being greedy, but sometimes it's about respecting myself in an industry where my portrait, my name, my service as an individual with my person has its place in the marketplace."

"It was a strange thing to wrap up at 17," she shared. 'You are part of the market. You as a being, you as a person, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is now a business. Where are you in the marketplace?"

Ramakrishnan also admitted that he is still working on his career and self-confidence in himself. 'I would say I'm five years old in this industry. That's it. He's just a five year old. I have a lot of work left to do, not to prove to others, but to prove to myself, to add more ammunition for my overthinking and the nagging voice in my brain that keeps telling me I'm a child playing make-believe."

Ramakrishnan further discusses his whirlwind success while still a teenager and his decision to pursue a college degree in a field other than acting on the latest episode of "Nice Talk."