Mila Kunis Breaks Down Her Career, from 'That '70s Show' to 'Black Swan' | Vanity Fair

as a young kid I just loved everything about this industry I thought it was magical I never looked at it as anything other than fun I didn't care that I didn't get a part it was okay like I think being an immigrant and understanding what the simple aspect of opportunity is gave me a sense of appreciation for just thank you so much for even allowing me to sit here and audition for you that was enough [Music] hi my name is Mila Kunis and this is the timeline of my career fine I'm So Young why are we doing a timeline [Music] you knowing that to the game are you um actually no I've got some good news and bad news I'm Ashley I don't get bad news I think as a kid the bad girls were the ones with the dark hair and then like the more relatable All-American gals were the blonde ones or whatever so I clearly wasn't that so I ended up as a young kid being like the cool girl or the bad girl because I had dark hair that happened to be curly my parents were so nice enough to let me do this as a hobby the only stipulations I had to go to school I had to get good grades and then this was a hobby of mine that I accidentally stumbled into but I was like this is awesome I'm like in junior high and I get to be on television this is crazy so I auditioned a lot and more times than now you don't get anything you audition for so that builds up a solid backbone and resilience and talk about hard work but I remember I auditioned for a show I did not get little known show called 90210 and I love that show and I got a call back and I came back and they didn't tell me they prepared me the Jason Priestley who's directing that episode was gonna be in the room and I froze I froze guys I froze okay I choked and I was like oh that was extraordinary but I also went into all of this being like oh no we're gonna get it who cares but it's gonna be fun [Music] but besides if you worked here you can see me whenever I wanted you to I love her oh yeah first and foremost 70 show impacted me uh I met my husband also gave me an amazing opportunity of eight years of study work that I otherwise never would have in this industry which gave me a Financial Freedom there's a room that I may or may not have lied about my age for That 70s Show I'd like I'd like to make it very clear now I did lie okay it did however by the time I went to what was then like producers Network hall you have to sign a contract before you get the job and in my contract I had to put an asterisk and be like a studio teacher and they're like what do you mean and I was like oh PS I'm 14. but at that point if you talk to Bonnie and Terry Turner they were so sweet they were like well we love Joe at that point so what did we care it was in the Heyday of like older kids playing younger kids and I was actually of the age of the character I wasn't intimidated I had a solid ego man I I thought it was so cool so do you want to like go to the mall or something that's cool so it must have been intimidating is what I should say but I don't know if it was intimidating in the sense of like I didn't know who I was or lost sense of myself but I must have been like wow these kids are all so cool and they're so much older than I am and they're so much cooler than I am I had the greatest experience on 70s 100 I was embraced 100 I was never treated as like lesser than and if I did buy one of the cast members another cast member would stand up for it so you know we were all trying to figure ourselves out we were all young I will say the reason I don't do drugs the reason why I didn't get into drugs all of that was because nobody on the set did and I looked up to them at 14 and so the trajectory of my career or my life could have gone any which way but it didn't it was like this set was cool it was like they played poker on Friday nights and they drink beer and I was like food cool but that was it right like that was the extent of that I get it Dad how could you be okay with Mom parading herself around like this I mean she's half naked it makes all women look bad Meg who let you back in the house I remember my manager Susan at the time being like there's a show called Family Guy the actress quit because she didn't find the show to be in line with her ethical beliefs you had auditioned for it and I was like yo what's the show hadn't aired yet and so I went and auditioned and I remember McFarland being like slow down like that was the big thing I guess I naturally speak really fast when I record now I'm really good about knowing to slow down but when you're 15 you just want to get this ball rolling you're like I got places to be people to see let's go go and so I for whatever reason McFarland was like down enough to be like Slow Down slow down because he could have easily hired anybody to do the voice for for whatever reason here we are 20 years later I only ever asked once for Meg to get a makeover it was like years into the show and I was like just give her something like get the condom hat off of her head give her a hairdo and then I think they gave her blonde hair and I was like thank God like a finally I got a makeover Dad don't I look great oh Meg honey I always thought you were beautiful just awake let me be clear about this thing where people are like what's the voice that you do for me it's this this is the voice guys I have no skills I pitch it sometimes now because I have since aged myself due to life and uh that's it that's my that's my skill set but when I got it at 15 it was just my voice which was a little bit um younger all in all I think that is you know half the time Meg doesn't talk she's like kind of like in the background that gets farted on or sat on so if I have dialogue I'm really happy now where was I oh yeah hello hey Peter Sarah uh no it's Rachel Jansen from the front desk hey hey what's going on up there you're getting complaints about a woman crying hysterically as a young actor nothing draws you to a role other than work and money let's be honest Unless somehow you're magical enough to have that to begin with I was not so what drew me to roles jobs I had a house that I needed to make payments for I wasn't picky um I know that some people were and kudos to them this was not me I auditioned for knocked up with Judd and Seth Rogen and it was an improv scene Judd was big on auditioning improv so he'd be like here's a circumstance go and it was like Rogan and I acting something out and I remember I made a funny joke about Costco or something and Judd was like and I was like oh I made you an apple to laugh like I was just like look at me it didn't work out for one reason or another I did not get Knocked Up A year later I got a call from Judd to be like hey will you do me a favor and do a table read for a movie that we may or may not make which is totally normal in the industry they do table reads to hear right out loud I was like yeah of course shut up they're like whatever you need so I showed to this table read and it was a very different cast that you know from Sarah Marshall than it was at the table read and it was a it was a different movie but we did the table read and I was like cool nice knowing you guys bye see you later that would be heard from again for like eight nine months and then all of a sudden I got a call being like do you want to do the movies for getting Sarah Marshall they're actually going to do it and I was like Hawaii they'll pay me to go to Hawaii I was like I am in that was it and then we showed up to Hawaii and it ended up being hands down one of the most incredible experiences anybody could ever ask for as a young actor it was magical the the fact we shot where we lived we were all young and in our 20s I didn't need much sleep none of us had kids none of us had any responsibilities we surfed in the morning before work and we would go surfing afterwards I don't even surf but I did it my real life hotel room was next door to the room that we shot in it was like an inclusive resort but with like movie making this was before anybody had any notoriety let's keep in mind like there was no ego of anybody they were so great and so funny I've never improved but I was like this is their this is their wheelhouse Russell Brand would go in these rants when he improv that I was like I don't even understand what this improv means like have the time he improv into a world that was so existential that I was like that is high brow Russell I cannot keep up to save my life Russell was like on a tangent I also got in trouble we showed up to the resort uh we're on an island that also has a military base on it and so our Resort at the time had a lot of families that were visiting their kids that were in the military base I was of age I was 22 at the time and I remember grabbing myself a drink and there was a kid there that had his like whole camel on and he couldn't get a drink and he was like 20 I think and I was like oh my God you're fighting for our country and you can't get a drink I'll get you a damn drink and I went and got the kid drinks and I got into so much trouble from that hotel they went and talked to Shauna who was our producer of the time and they're like your actress that's not okay she cannot be buying drinks to underage people and I was like he's clearly in the military give the kid a beer like who cares uh I didn't get kicked out thank God I didn't get fired but I didn't do that again at that hotel I like living here big day's getting closer and closer huh well I can't wait I think you're gonna be amazing thanks Black Swan was great like it was one of those where you didn't know what you were making you kind of hope people would get it you just didn't know shot it for one dollar we lost all our budget the day before production Darren I don't know how found money magically we were able to shoot so much of our shooting was done illegally because we didn't have permits because we were a broke production we shot illegally in the subway we shot I mean we've got a phone call at three in the morning be like come down to the subway we're gonna shoot scene 35a and I was like origami there's no version of that that could do that today for me I'd be like I have kids and I gotta pick them up and drop them off at school and I didn't know what was gonna happen with the movie I honestly was just like it's Darren Aronofsky it's like it's Natalie Portman like winner right this is an incredible group of people to be with Wynonna writer I was like what movie am I making I mean mind you there was like and now you must learn to dance and I was like I can do it oh my God I broke my body I was like no I can't but I did it and luckily because we lost money we were able to push production three months which gave me three more months to get on point so for that I'll always be oddly grateful for that we lost money initially this could be great this could take all the weirdness out of what we talked about this I don't like you like that I don't like you like that either that's why it's perfect I find you attractive that's cute like do you have a thing for jerks the original script was so to me dated and not what I wanted to do Clint was our producer on it and he convinced me we talked about I really I was like I'm not gonna do it and he was like you're gonna do it I promise you I promise you I'm gonna make this right for you you have to meet with Will Glock he's amazing and we'll just did easy a and I was like No Easy A is great I get it I don't want to do it and he literally bullied me I mean in the best possible sense he jedied me into doing it and I was like all right I'll do it he's like you got to meet Justin I swear you'll love him it'll all work out you and willing to go to dinner this all makes sense and I was like I don't know if this is the right thing for me I mean I fully got like you will do this movie and I was like I guess I'm doing this movie and then we would meet and hang and will would do the rewrites with us it was the first time that I felt in my career ever to be a part of a collaborative process of doing a rewrite we would improv a scene out and then Will Gluck would go in and write the dialogue out and we would improv the scene and Glock would would rewrite it and so it was a really collaborative incredible process working with Justin was fine until you were on the streets of New York City it was all fine and dandy on a stage he was like young and excited about acting and like super present and great and then you went on into the public with him and it was like the Beatles on the street of New York City shooting with him I've never witnessed that in my life we would shoot on this side of the street and I'm not kidding you it was like a sea of a thousand people just staring at you and I was like whoa like that was a whole learning curve for me I was like you have a interesting life homie like good luck to you this is I thought I had a bad that's bad so working with them was great but being on this public street with him nobody should experience hey Johnny how about a beer huh a couple Charles bukowskis a couple of Bruce toyevskis that's a good one you know what I think I too won a Martina never tabooski oh no no no no that doesn't work no don't ruin it no that totally works no so Ted was a movie that McFarland had written a couple years prior to it being made and it had different actors attached to it and I was younger I would go into recording sessions and he was like okay give me another actress I need somebody for this movie can you give me another actress who you think is great that's funny and I was like what about blah blah blah what about blah blah so for a year I pitched him all of these actresses if not two years and then at one point it got to a place where I got old enough to do the movie and he literally just out of nowhere turning goes well do you want to do it and I went I mean I can okay but it all happened it was almost like I was like Last Resort you know it was a movie about a talking bear by the time that that was at Fox Universal whoever put it out you got to convince people that this movie was gonna be good and they were like you mean as a talking bear in the movie and you're like yeah so I think it took a minute for people to jump on board but then when they did it was Off to the Races we're killing ourselves trying to be perfect in making us into in this day and age it's impossible to be a good mom screw it speak bad moms I had my daughter at the time I think she was two not even one and a half and so I had taken a minute off from acting and went to producing for about three years and I was like if I go back to shooting something with a baby with a kid with a one and a half year old at a time for me I was like it's better be good and I was like couldn't find a project that I gravitated towards Zoe Saldana There's A girlfriend of mine read the script totally randomly somehow called me and goes I can't do this but just for fun read this script and I was like all right I'll be there for fun I read it and I was like oh this is really funny like I was like I wonder what's gonna happen to this movie like hope it gets made don't give it any thought and then two months later out of nowhere I got a call from age and being like there's a script called bad moms do you want to read it and I was like wait everybody it I know the script it all happened as like a fun read that another actress sent me to be like here's a really funny great movie and we had just both become moms and we both I think just related to it yeah I don't know what's me and we'll put I invented your former classmate has made claims against you don't talk about what happened that night Are you seriously trying to threaten me right now when I read the script I really gravitated towards Jessica's writing I thought that she had a very specific tone and it reminded me a little bit of like Diablo Cody's writing where like if you took the name off of a script you'd be like oh I know that writer that's Diablo Cody and I looked at Jessica and Jessica's writing exactly the same the dichotomy between who the person is in her head versus who she outwardly portrays and the fact that you get to actually see both incidents and you get to see both come to life I think was really unique and different a lot of times in movies what I find sometimes hard to do in scripts is that they talk about a lot of stuff there's lots of talking they're always talking about either what they did what they're going to do and in this one I actually think that for the first time in a long time it's a story that we're actually showing you and that you're allowed to experience with the person visually and go on this journey instead of just reliving it so at this very point I'm my life I think I'm super fortunate and really lucky that I don't have to work to pay my bills I think in order to be successful in any career but in this industry specifically it it almost has to become an obsession to an extent because otherwise there's just so many obstacles along the way that will knock you down for you to go forget it I'm getting out of here so in my 20s and our 20s we had that when we decided to start a family we had to reprioritize that and we said this to ourselves we made each other our number one priority and we made our children our number one priority and everything else came ladder I love being a mom I love being a wife I love being home and so in order for me to pick a project it has to have a really good reason for me not to be with my kids and my family and so the first thing is is this worth me leaving my kids for and if the answer is yes then I continue that but if I look at it and I go anyone can do this it's going to be great but it's just not something that I want to leave my kids for it's done [Music]

Channel: Vanity Fair

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Keywords: 7th heaven, bad moms, black swan, career timeline, family guy, family guy meg, forgetting sarah marshall, friends with benefits, luckiest girl alive, mila kunis, mila kunis ashton kutcher, mila kunis black swan, mila kunis career, mila kunis funny, mila kunis interview, mila kunis meg, mila kunis movies, mila kunis that 70s show, mila kunis vanity fair, ted, that '70s show, that 70s show, vanity fair, vanity fair career timeline

Id: KWIyEWmIPCc

Length: 16min 58sec (1018 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 05 2022