Milla Jovovich

For most models, limbering up involves fixing their lips in the infamous ‘say shoe’ pose to get that full-blown pout effect. Milla Jovovich needs no such chicanery. Indeed, her infamous bouche is even more impressive up close than one could have imagined. Even before you factor in the matching lips theory then, it’s small wonder that she’s the object of so many male fantasies.

Of course, her exotic background doesn’t exactly hurt either. The daughter of a Russian actress and a Serbian paediatrician, Milla spent her first years in the Ukraine and London, until her parents moved to California shortly before her sixth birthday. After encouragement from her mother, she got into modelling at the very tender age of eleven and almost immediately caused a stir when she was rather disturbingly proclaimed one of ‘Revlon’s Most Unforgettable Women In The World’ by photographer Richard Avedon. Within a year she was a cover-girl veteran and by 1988, she began to appear in movies.

Though she received plenty of attention for turns in Return To The Blue Lagoon (1991) and Chaplin (1992), it was her role as Leeloo in Luc Besson’s stylish sci-fi romp The Fifth Element that gave her superstar status.

She has been married twice, at age sixteen to Dazed And Confused co-star Shawn Andrews (the marriage was annulled after two months) and most recently to Besson who also collaborated with Milla on Joan Of Arc – The Messenger. But the marriage was a stormy one and Milla filed for divorce in 1997 after two years. She has also had several high profile romances, most notably with Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist John Frusciante.

Currently she is dating director Paul W.S. (not Thomas) Anderson, who met her when casting for Resident Evil and promptly tore up the list of other interested stars after meeting her.

The movie, based on the mega-selling series of video games, sees Milla in ass-kicking mode and is sure to please teenage boys everywhere with its growling Marilyn Manson scºore, gory special effects, fast cuts and even faster women (as well as Milla, Michelle Rodriguez has a prominent role)

We caught up with Milla on the promotional tour for Resident Evil and found that far from being the difficult diva that some interviewers have described, she’s sweet, coquettish, girlish and prone to giggling . A lot.

TB: Video game adaptations are far from the most critically acclaimed genre. Were you worried about doing Resident Evil?

MJ: “No, I was pretty confident. I think I definitely brought some credibility to a project that might otherwise have been seen as a little action-flick. But I did the film because of Resident Evil, the game, and me and my brother playing it, or rather him playing it and me telling him what to do! So I wasn’t really worried because it wasn’t a career move for me, it was just something that I thought would be really fun, and also I hadn’t done an action film in a while. And I’d got a lot of scripts that were really stupid which I just wasn’t interested in – so I felt myself completely going with it and it seemed like so much fun.”

TB: Does she have a respectable high score then?

MJ: “Oh God. You know what? I tried to play Resident Evil on television in Germany, and it was just so embarrassing because I was getting killed immediately. I’d just begin and all you could hear is like that whomp-whomp sound. I was terrible.”

TB: Between Tomb Raider and Alias there seems to be a new breed of glamorous female action stars: do you see yourself as part of that trend?

MJ: “I definitely think that people are much more open to seeing women kick butt on screen – they buy it, they believe it. I’d much prefer to watch women fighting than men, I mean if you’re watching Crouching Tiger, it’s like so much cooler to see a woman kick butt, plus she looks so good doing it. Don’t you think? But you know, that said, I think if this movie had been made in America you would definitely not see me in the shower in the poster, they would have had some guy with his harem. It’s very European in its sensibilities, because in America they just don’t trust that women are going to bring in that kind of an audience. Tomb Raider was really an exception to the rule, but most of the time, a big action film will have a big action man, and it’s very European to entrust a woman with that kind of role.”

TB: So the Jill Valentine (A popular and scantily clad character popularised by the Resident Evil gaming series, M’Lord) factor loomed large in your acceptance of the role then?

MJ: “Well, when I was playing Nemesis with my little brother, the thing that I loved was that Jill Valentine had this little mini-skirt and tank top when she went underground to fight evil. And I thought ‘for sure, I have to be like sexy, hot, like some skimpy little outfit’. But we kind of got stuck on how to get me down there in a mini-skirt and a tank top: so we thought ‘evening dress’, and it looks great.”

TB: It may have looked great, but after wearing the same fabulous red dress for weeks, it must have seemed considerably less red, not to mention less fabulous?

MJ: “Yeah. I know! I mean, for most of the movie it’s pretty dirty and ripped-up and full of glycerin and whatever, so it was pretty nasty day after day to wear that little thing. And for the last half of the movie I’m completely drenched, which was not fun at all. Not in eveningwear!”

TB: And then there’s those big clunky boots...

MJ: “But they were Prada darling!”

TB: So you wouldn’t object to more zombie splatterfest scripts dropping through the letterbox?

MJ: “Yeah, for the most part I have a feeling that no-one is ever going to offer me the lead in a romantic comedy any time soon, because you have to have a hit first before you’ll get an offer. And I guess I’m just not a rom-com kinda girl! I think also that after The Fifth Element I was typecast in America as this strange, intense, alien action person, so any time a major script is offered it is usually to play an action hero. Basically I guess it’s because I’ve done that already and people believe it.”

TB: Does her arthouse career offer welcome respite from Hollywood typecasting?

MJ: “Sure. I like to make a lot of movies, I’ve always made a lot of smaller ones that just aren’t going to get a wide release, where I get to experiment and do different things.”

TB: The Million Dollar Hotel (the Wim Wenders film of a script by Bono) fits that bill.

MJ: “Yes. You know, I think I belonged at that hotel more than anywhere else! My character was someone who just hid herself from the world, so I had to operate on this whole other level from everyone else – I had to slump and slouch. But it was a film of total magic realism. Like something by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

“As for Resident Evil, I had to push myself to do this, because I felt like I was tired of being emotionally stressed all the time, and not having much of a life because I go to work and I’m going crazy at work trying to put 100% into it. But of course, you can’t just go home and switch off and have dinner. You get into a depression, and unfortunately I think anyone who’s passionate about what they do always ends up bringing stuff home. So I try and pace myself too.”

TB: So you’re not rushing immediately into Resident Evil II, then?

MJ: “I just couldn’t right now. I don’t think I would make another action movie straight after that, because it would just be too much, I would kill myself doing that much physical work. The fact that I didn’t get a serious cold during Resident Evil was a miracle, I was borderline sick a lot but somehow went through and made it to the end. If I’d gone straight into another action movie, I think I’d have gotten really ill, my body would have caved in.”

TB: Has that happened before?

MJ: “Yeah, definitely. There’ve been a few films which I didn’t end up doing because I felt like at that point in my life they might spin me into the wrong direction, where I could end up being really depressed and really not a pleasant person to be around.”

TB: You mean you didn’t get to do the whole pampered superstar thing during the shoot?

MJ: “No way, because it was a European movie! I definitely had to work. I trained to be able to do the things I did on screen, that’s for sure. I did a month of pretty intensive training before I did any of the stunts in Resident Evil. The dog sequence, which is pretty much my biggest fight scene, took me three-and-a-half months of production to work on it at lunchtime or whatever, and truly get it right. It’s just that when I watch an action film, the ones that I love, you can see the actress’s face when she’s doing stunts, so you’re not just seeing flashes of the back of somebody’s head. So there were a lot of bruises, but it was worth it. It’s worth it, because all that hell you went through was for something. I mean, we were doing sixteen-hour days going through underground unfinished railway stations with howling wind and crazy dogs, it’s definitely not something you do because you really feel like it.”

TB: Word has it that you gave as good as you got though. True?

MJ: “Oh yeah, to say the least! (a fit of giggles) I got pretty bruised up but I did some bruising as well, I gave Paul (Anderson, director – also her current boyfriend) a black eye during production, and the Director of Photography as well... Listen, they got in my way!! I’m sorry!! I have a really great punch, and I connect really well, and unfortunately they got in my way and I don’t have the best control, that’s the problem, so when I punch it’s like if you’re standing there, I’m probably going to hit you, so unless you have great reflexes... (laughter). So that’s what happened with Paul, we were rehearsing one of the action scenes, and he was just playfighting at three in the morning, and I told him ‘DON’T PLAY WITH ME LIKE THIS OR I’LL HURT YOU’ and he didn’t believe me, and that was it, I didn’t mean to but it happened. I gave him a big black eye.”

TB: Oh well. You could always take the road more travelled and go for that rom-com market after all...

MJ: “Yeah, but you know what? (giggling again)I think now I’d be interested to do a beautiful leading lady script, since I’ve never done that before in my life..It would be different but y’know, I don’t get offered those kind of roles really at all. I’ve always felt a little bit like an alien in Hollywood.”

TB: Do you feel a little bit alien, more generally, as a US immigrant?

MJ: “Oh yeah, definitely. I feel that way in America in general, with the upbringing I had and the education my family gave me, was always very European, and the kind of bond I had with my family was something I could never relate to with other American kids around me, there was never that tightness. So I guess when I come to Europe, I always feel much more at home. But in saying that, I love America, it’s my home and it’s where my family is and I like it, it’s great. I think in Europe there’s much more interesting choices being made.”

TB: Do you still feel connected to Kiev, where you come from originally?

MJ: “Yeah, definitely, I feel like so much of a connection in an emotional, spiritual and intellectual way. I also feel a lot of distance as a modern woman, of course, because obviously in Russia there are not very many opportunities and that’s why my parents left. It’s a really difficult life, so obviously I’m very blessed to get out of there.”

TB: Do you go back much?

MJ: “I’ve been back about five times, and I went back to Yugoslavia once about ten years ago. I love Eastern European culture and it’s made me who I am, but because I work a lot I don’t get much time to go on vacation, so when I do I’ll try and get away somewhere tropical and nice and just get some sun and rest, ’cause Russia’s like not really a vacation spot, nor is Yugoslavia.(Laughing) Room service isn’t that great there.”

TB: What with her father, Bogdanovitch Jovovich, being a Serb (a fact not exactly advertised in the US), what’s her take on the region?

MJ: “I always find that I definitely haven’t met one Yugoslavian who isn’t completely out of their mind. They’ve got a lot of complexes and emotional scars, and the men are for the most part very macho and very different from the sort of behaviour I’m used to. So I always take my dad with a pinch of salt – he’s very pro-Serb, pro-Montenegro, very nationalistic – and take the media with a pinch of salt. My dad always says ‘The Serbs are the best, and they have nothing to be ashamed of’. I made sure for myself to talk to my grandfather, talk to my cousins, talk to people who were living there, as many as possible. And what I found out in the end is that they’re all completely bananas – it doesn’t matter what part of Yugoslavia you’re from, you hate a lot and you have a lot of anger and you’re nuts.”

TB: Well, given the quaint national custom of taking plum brandy for breakfast, that’s not massively surprising, is it?

MJ: “Yeah, I know, that must be it! I mean sure, the younger ones will have Muslim and Croatian friends and ‘hang out’ and go to rock concerts and do normal teenage stuff, and they’re ‘Hey, like, why are we being bombed?’ It’s their fathers, and their grandfathers, that have the problems. I mean I was repeatedly told Serbian stories growing up. My great-grandfather’s four brothers were all flagbearers in the army, my great-grandfather’s clothes are in the museum in Belgrade and they sing songs about my great-grandmother because she smuggled weapons into the country. The favourite dinner-time story at my house was my dad recounting how his grandma got her four brothers’ heads sent back to her in baskets by the Turks.”

TB: It’s easy to see why he saved that one for dinnertime…

MJ: “Yeah, but you get used to it! I mean, that’s just us, that’s just my family history – my family was very prestigious in Yugoslavia, it’s a big political family. Which is why I can’t change my name to something easier.”

TB: But surely your exoticism is part of your appeal anyway?

MJ: “Oh, I just can’t tell you the trouble I’ve had with my name. Everywhere I go, someone’s spelled it wrong. It’s a nightmare. It really is.”

TB: Do you have any regrets careerwise? Do you look back in anguish on your freshman acting efforts in Night Train To Katmandu or Two Moon Junction?

MJ: “They’re films that everyone should have in their collection! They should put them together on a DVD boxed set. No, personally, I don’t really think I started acting until I did a good film, and so everything before that point is just kind of me being young and not really knowing where my head was coming out of.”

TB: Do you ever see those early movies?

MJ: “I try to stay away from those dark closets.”

TB: And how about regrets of a more personal nature? To have two divorces under your belt at 26 must be a bit rough, right?

MJ: “Oh yeah. And I’m definitely much less impulsive than I used to be. You know everything goes through that filter – I feel like I can’t be judgmental, because as soon as I start judging I get too much into myself and what I think rather than what people might think, good or bad, what their reasons are, why they do things… I just try not to get too judgmental over things. I’m much more cautious now, but I’m not going to ruin my life by going ‘ALL MEN ARE DOGS!!”

TB: Do you feel like you’ve been burned then?

MJ: “Mmm, yeah. I feel like I’ve put myself in situations that were probably a little too hot to handle, so yeah. But I put myself in these situations where I let myself get hurt, and I hurt the people around me. I’m not in any huge hurry to go get married again, I think marriage is something that you sort of do when you’re really ready to have a family with somebody, not just to consummate your love or to prove something to your friends or your family, which is pretty much how my first marriage was.”

TB: And how about your music career? Are you still writing songs?

MJ: “Yeah, I never stop writing and I have a lot of music that I’ve recorded over the last eight years, but I have to say I’m not in a big rush to turn my music into a sort of, just something for people to go out there and buy and make a big business out of it. I love performing, I love writing, but I feel like so much of my life is spent working that right now my music is sort of an escape from that, and if I was to make that professional there would be just nothing in my life that’s sort of for me to do, that has nothing to do with money, that has nothing to do with people’s opinions, it’s just kind of mine. And I love doing it so much because I don’t have to do it. So if I suddenly had to do it for a record company, I’d be scared that suddenly my whole life would be about work and I would have nothing to sort of call mine. I would love to put out another record at some point, but it took me my whole life to write my first one. I’m not in a rush to make a career out of it.”

TB: And what direction is the music going in?

MJ: “It’s hard to know exactly, there’s so many different influences that I love, but it all starts off with me on a guitar and then it really depends on who’s my friend at the moment that plays an instrument that’s there. Because usually if someone plays and I’m playing, we’re going to do something together, and it’s just going to be a great sort of exchange. So if my friend happens to play the sitar, that’s what the song ends up with. Usually when I perform and I get a band together, it’s pretty rock-oriented but it’s got an acoustic base and it’s still very thoughtful. I love everything from funk to Fela Kuti to acoustic Joni Mitchell to PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. My first record was Kate Bush, I was a huge fan of hers at twelve or thirteen, I’m still a huge fan in fact. She’s got that kind of music that you can rediscover every couple of years.”

TB: And then there’s the day job. As the beautiful, 26-year-old spokesperson of a major cosmetics company, and in view of the treatment Isabella Rossellini received from Lancôme, does the certainty of the ageing process hold any fears for Milla?

MJ: “Not at all, I knew from when I started modelling that this was a very short-lived business and not something you can depend on doing forever, people come and go like that and you have to work. So I never had any delusions about that, which is why I do as many things as I do, I design clothing, I write music, all that stuff.”

TB: So you don’t check the mirror every morning for crows’ feet?

MJ: “No I’m okay that way. I mean you see people like Andie MacDowell that are still one of L’Oreal’s most important people, and she’s getting older and she looks amazing, and there’s more and more older women today being looked at as beautiful. I think ten years ago, it might have been more prevalent, getting older(!), but I think women have a better image of themselves now. So I hope I have a couple more years yet!”