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Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis has been gracing our screens from the tender age of 14. She began playing the role of Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series That '70s Show (1998–2006.) An ambitious Kunis admits that she landed her breakout role after lying about her age. Kunis was 14 years old at the time, but told the show’s creators she was 18 years old in order to audition.
“There’s a rumor going around that I may or may not have lied about my age. I’d like to make it very clear now that I did lie. I did,” Kunis told Variety. “However, by the time I went to what was then a producer’s network call…you have to sign a contract before you get the job and in my contract I had to put an asterisk for ‘studio teacher,'” she continued. “They were like, ‘What do you mean?’ And I was like, ‘Oh P.S., I’m 14.’ But at that point if you talk to the creators, they were like, ‘We loved you at that point so what did we care?'”
At age nine, Kunis was enrolled by her father in acting classes after school at the Beverly Hills Studios. On her first audition she landed the role for a Barbie commercial. She also won appearances on Days of Our Lives, and a few months later doing her first of two appearances on Baywatch. Kunis was billed alongside Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie in the film Gia, as the young Gia Carangi.
Since 1999, Kunis has voiced Meg Griffin on the Fox animated series Family Guy and amassed a $66 Million fortune. She gained further critical acclaim and accolades for her performance in the psychological thriller Black Swan alongside Natalie Portman and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Kunis dropped 20 pounds and ate just over 1000 calories a day to play ballet dancer Lily.
Time and time again Mila Kunis has proven that she will put her heart and soul into a role. She is currently winning rave reviews in the Netflix film Luckiest Girl Alive. But how did she prepare for the role?
Mila Kunis Called Her Performance In 'Four Good Days' As The Most Challenging
In 2020, Mila Kunis played Molly, a woman addicted to heroin and other narcotics for over 10 years. Kunis told Yahoo Entertainment that playing Molly in Four Good Days was “hands-down the most challenging” character she had portrayed thus far. The film is based on Eli Saslow's Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post article, "How's Amanda? A Story of Truth, Lies and an American Addiction," which told the true story of a recovering addict named Amanda Wendler and her mother Libby Alexander.
The premise of Four Good Days is that Molly must make it through 3 days of detox and 4 days clean at home to receive an injection of Naltrexone. This will eliminate her ability to get high for a month. Kunis explained that Molly was “just in a constant state of despair. My character never had any release.”
“You have to unfortunately look a certain way to look like a heroin addict,” Kunis told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven at the Sundance Film Festival. “We bleached my hair so that added one hell of an element to it.” Molly’s hair color was actually Mila’s idea as she saw a photo of a similar looking hairstyle as she was researching photos of addicts. Kunis had to get rid of her signature Hollywood smile for the role.
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star told Deadline that it was fun to do something outside the norm. “When you go see the best special effects guy, who makes the most beautiful meth teeth, it sounds so weird to say, but you put it on, and you’re like, ‘Well, this is fun to play with.
’" She also explained her two kids she has with husband Ashton Kutcher had fun with the fake teeth, as she wore them around the house to get used to speaking with them.
Mila Kunis Prepared For The Role In The 'Luckiest Girl Alive' By Not Judging Her Character
Mila Kunis plays Ani Fanelli in new Netflix thriller Luckiest Girl Alive. The film is an adaptation of Jessica Knoll’s bestselling 2015 novel about a young woman who reinvents herself. Fanelli moves to New York City to escape a series of traumatic events in her teenage years.
“I love playing somebody who is so desperate with wanting to be something that they’re not,” Kunis, 39, says of playing Ani during a virtual interview.
The mom-of-two explained that she has a clear sense of the kinds of characters she wishes to embody — someone far removed from herself, without ever judging them.
“I think that anytime you work on a character, or you do any film, whether it’s a drama or comedy or horror, doesn’t matter what the genre is, people are people, and monsters are monsters and you can’t be judgmental.
"The worst thing you can do as an actor is judge your character for doing something. So the first thing that you want to do is find the justifications for all of their actions because so rarely will they actually align with yours as a person,” she said.
Mila Kunis Also Took Charge As A Producer In Luckiest Girl Alive
Kunis stressed that the movie also differentiates between being a victim and a survivor. “I think that as a society we want everyone to be a victim, because sometimes it’s easier to put them in a box that way, and then we know how to treat that person versus a survivor."
"That’s a much harder person to try to acknowledge. So I think it’s making sure that we allow the person to identify themselves however they want, and not to project onto them how it is that we’re comfortable dealing with them.”
Kunis not only stars in the film but is also a producer. She explained that she is acutely aware of herself and how she approaches such a heavy subject matter.
“It’s whether I ask questions, know when to ask questions, know when not to ask questions, know when to take creative liberty, know when not to take creative liberty,” she said.
