Why I really am THE LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE.. GIRL
MILA KUNIS RECKONS HUSBAND ASHTON IS HER ROCK
MActress on her happy life with superstar hubby Kutcher and their two kids, turning a blind eye to social media, helping to raise millions for good causes and taking on a serious role in new Netflix flick
ILA Kunis has described her hubby Ashton Kutcher as “incredible” because he has a glass of wine ready for her when she comes home.
The pair became pals working on American TV series That ’70s Show in the late 90s and noughties before she dated Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin for a decade.
After they split, she and Ashton got together, married in 2015 and have two kids.
Her latest movie, The Luckiest Girl Alive, based on the book by Jessica Knoll and produced by Reese Witherspoon, sees Mila as Ani who is a successful editor of a women’s magazine but hides a horrific childhood in which she was gang raped and survived a school shooting. It meant Mila, 39, had some gruelling days.
But she revealed: “I happen to have an incredible partner that is fully aware of what my job entails, what my hours look like and what I might come home as.
“I am not promoting alcoholism to anybody – but he was incredible at making sure that he had a glass of wine waiting for me, the second I got home.
“He made dinner and if I got home super late, he would have a plate in the microwave. I am very fortunate. I have an incredible, understanding, wonderful husband.”
Their marriage certainly seems one of Hollywood’s strongest and that may be because they aren’t starry like other A-listers who get together.
They both use their star power to try to help others. Mila was born in Ukraine, moving to the States when she was eight. This year, after Russia invaded they helped raise over £30million for humanitarian aid and temporary housing.
They have also been advocates for organisations and charities dealing with medical research and combating human trafficking and child abuse. Mila, who shares daughter Wyatt, seven, and son Dimitri, five, with Ashton claims she feels grounded by her family which has helped her not chase fame like other celebrities.
She explained: “My family is the truth. We travel together all the time, so when we are shooting, wherever we are, the whole family is there. I don’t ask anything of my kids other than to be their awesome selves and I would never want them to be anything other than that.”
The star of Ted, Black Swan and Forgetting Sarah Marshall still walks red carpets but she hasn’t engaged in social media.
She said: “I do think I’m really fortunate but there’s lots of things wrong with me. I have a very healthy relationship with my career but who I am and what I do are two very different things.
“I never felt like I needed to put on a persona in order to protect myself. I also never had to get on social media.
“I don’t know what happened in my life but that thing went past me so I didn’t have the obsessivecompulsive desire to see what
people say about me all of the time.” Not that she doesn’t like others to expose everything about themselves and admitted she unwinds by watching trashy telly.
“All the Bachelor shows and also The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” she laughed.
While we know Mila best for her comedic roles, The Luckiest Girl Alive shows she also has acting chops – and as well as starring in it, she also helped produce it.
What appealed most about the character of Ani is how we all put one image of ourselves out to the public but have a private one – which is often going through trauma. Mila said: “I think she is all of us.
“We all have a version of ourselves that we put forward and we all have an internal dialogue that we never say out loud. The idea of what we put out there and how we want people to see us as a better version of ourselves as opposed to who we really are deep down inside is a constant battle with all of us.
“There is no human on this planet that doesn’t say that there are two versions of themselves. There is just something inside of our brain that we are constantly battling with, whether you listen to it or not. There is a version of yourself that you are either suppressing or allowing and this is a story that explores and exposes that.”
Her latest character Ani has gone through some shattering trauma but Mila insisted it shouldn’t shape your life and people don’t have to be seen as a “victim” or a “survivor” all their lives. She prepared for a heavier role by her work with Glenn Close on 2020 film Four Good Days in which she played a drug addict.
She said: “I learned from that experience that what you do doesn’t define you, it shouldn’t
I never felt like I needed to put on a persona MILA ON REFUSING TO PUT ON IMAGE FOR PUBLIC
define you. It can mould you, it can have long-lasting effects and there’s repercussions but you can’t just be that one thing.
“Understanding trauma and that whole world really started there for me.
“The other thing this movie tackles is how quickly as a society we put labels on people just because those labels are something that we can understand and deal with. That idea of survivor versus victim was something I was really curious about.”
While she won’t share any moments from her own past that affect her life, she revealed “we all have our individual stories”.
She added: “We all have something that happened to us, that moulded us to be where we are today but that isn’t necessarily who we are.”
As a successful actress Mila understands how lucky she is, especially as her homeland of Ukraine battles with Russia.
Mila marched in 2018 for the #metoo and #timesup movements but has never revealed if she had her own experience of this – especially as she was very young when she broke through in the business.
Looking at what happened to Ani in The Luckiest Girl Alive, Mila said: “I’m just so grateful that something in my life prevented me from getting in that kind of situation. I’m just happy I didn’t get there and that now maybe people will see this and they we all have the same conversation.”
● The Luckiest Girl Alive streams from next Friday on Netflix.