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Mila Kunis Interview
On an impossibly hot day in the San Fernando Valley, an impossibly beautiful girl is "freezing." The air conditioning of the Studio City CBS Studios is too much for the ballerina-thin, 14-year-old Mila Kunis, who is getting made-up for "That 70s Show," which debuts Sunday at 8 ET on Fox. "That 70s Show" chronicles the lives of suburban teens coming of age in the Me Decade- and Kunis sets a fine example, at one point during the pilot actually ranting "Me! Me me me me me!" at her dim boyfriend. The show centers around semi-geeky Eric Foreman, (Topher Grace) in whose basement the neighborhood kids hang out. Kunis is high maintenance girlfriend of Eric's bud, Kelso. It's 1976: the girl next door (Laura Prepton) has turned ravishing and Fez (Wilmer Valderama), the foreign exchange student, is learning about America as fast as he can. Parents float by surrealistically as the kids sneak beers and borrow the car for a concert. Think of it as "The Wonder Years" with bite. As a makeup artist dabs concealer onto the non-existent bags under the young actress's eyes, Kunis pins down her first impression of America. "I never saw palm trees. Ever." Kunis and her family immigrated from Russia when Kunis was only seven years old. "My parents wanted my brother and I to have a better life," Kunis states plainly, her hair in braids piled on top of her head like a latter-day Princess Leah. Growing up in Russia, Kunis had seen American cartoons like "Rescue Rangers" and "Tom and Jerry," but none of the primetime fare she would one day be part of. "I never really wanted to act," Kunis remembers of that time. "When I was little I thought it was the little people that lived in the television sets. I never really realized they were actual people." The Kunis' settled in Los Angeles. One day, her father heard a radio commercial for the Beverly Hills Studio. Kunis auditioned for the acting school on a lark and was accepted. After successfully completing the first course, Kunis took part in a showcase where she was spotted by Susan Curtis, of Susan Curtis Talent Management. "She was just beautiful," Curtis remembers. "She was good...but she was beautiful." Kunis was 10 years old. Four years later, Kunis sits in front of the lighted make up mirror. Her eyelids have been coated in bronze and she wears a 70s Gunne Sax style prairie frock, but her enormous, catlike eyes evoke a young Nastassia Kinski. The interview must stop for a few minutes as the makeup artist spreads a cherry colored lip gloss over Kunis' lips. "When I started acting, I had a big accent," Kunis remembers, her frustration evident.. Until the accent was gone, Kunis devoted an hour a day with dialect coaches and tapes. Kunis now sounds like any other red blooded 14-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio loving American girl, except for a few verbal quirks. She calls the process of shedding her accent "a little complicating." "Days of Our Lives" provided Kunis with her first television appearance, where she played young Hope. "...And that was my very first kiss, too," Kunis volunteers. "It was fun," she says, pausing for a moment before laughing: "I was like, 10 years old." Kunis took to the actor's lifestyle immediately. "I mean, I'm one of those people, I love to be in front of the camera," she admits animatedly. "I wouldn't say I love the attention, but it's fun....It's exciting, the whole rush and everything." After her soap opera gig, Kunis landed recurring roles on "Seventh Heaven," and "Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher," as well as guest spots on "Baywatch," "The John Larroquette Show," "Unhappily Ever After," "Walker, Texas Ranger," "Moloney," "Pensacola," and "Hudson Street." Film roles include "Piranha," "Santa With Muscles," "Kid," "Knockout," and "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves." Most recently, Kunis played young Gia in HBO's "Gia," starring Angelina Jolie ("It was hard to do because it was so emotional") as well as a would-be science project in "Krippendorf's Tribe." Kunis reddens at the mention of the Richard Dreyfus film, in which her character prepares to be purified by pig urine. Doing "That 70s Show" is a treat for Kunis because she's finally enjoying the camaraderie that only comes from spending quality time with fellow actors. "You get to know the people better," Kunis emphasizes. "You don't go once a week with a different person..." The hairdresser says the interview won't bother her, as long as Kunis doesn't look at this reporter while she talks. Kunis agrees readily, then forgets herself and disobeys. Upon reading the pilot, Kunis "loved" "That 70s Show," taking to the novelty of the period. Although she wasn't even born in 1976, she does listen to the Rolling Stones and Peter Frampton and has been known to wear bell-bottoms and platform shoes when not on the set. As Jackie Burkhardt, Kunis is a spoiled cheerleader who gets a car along with her learner's permit and has her boyfriend "pretty much wrapped around her little finger." "...Throughout the show you find out she's very controlling." Executive Produced by Bonnie and Terry Turner, (Emmy award winners for "3rd Rock From the Sun"), "That 70's Show" enjoys a "Happy Days"-like marketing niche. The pilot episode also has a bit of controversy going for it: marijuana, dope smoking is clearly implied in the pilot. "My parents didn't even comment on it," Kunis pipes up assertively as the hairdresser teases the crown of her head. "It's not that big of a deal. They're implying it, they're not even doing it." Shades of a "Clueless" teenager come out in Kunis' defiance as she concludes "It's set in 1976." As if she seems to intimate. "They're worried the kids are going to take it too seriously. Well, if the kids take it too seriously its not our fault, it's the parents fault. They should do something about it. They should talk to the kids." Kunis at first calls the drug material "a scene in an episode of just one show," but when pressed to comment on continued pot themes, responds coyly. "I don't know, I guess you have to watch the show and see." "Work? Tschhhh," Kunis scoffs. "It's fun, it's absolutely fun. [I'm] like a little kid, with little swings, and little sand....getting my hair done, getting my makeup done..." here she commends the hairdresser, who has sculpted Kunis' hair into the perfect 70s good girl 'do: parted in the middle, pushed behind her ears. Kunis' vision for the future: she's receiving an Oscar for a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and co-starring Bruce Willis, Leonard DiCaprio or Elijah Wood. She's wearing black Versace- with "big diamonds and big shoes." "And the necklace from 'Titanic.' And a cute date," the boyfriendless Kunis squeals. Boyfriendless? It's true- while Kunis holds an adult-sized responsibility, she still bears the problems of a normal almost-15-year-old. "I still get grounded, I have to do my bed, I have to do the dishes, everything's the same," Kunis explains, rolling her eyes at the necessary evils. And Hollywood hasn't got all of Kunis wrapped around it's little finger- this week, she wants to be a lawyer, and she's certain of attending college "whether at the age of 18," she ventures, "...or 20," figuring those two ages to be light years apart. Kunis sees her TV life as an extracurricular activity. "If not for this, what would I be doing after school? After school, I come home, I eat, I do my homework & I go on auditions. Otherwise, I'd be watching TV, doing absolutely nothing." |
