NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 29: Mila Kunis attends the "Luckiest Girl Alive" NYC Premiere at ... [+]
Mila Kunis was just 14 years old when she first joined the hit television series The ‘70s Show, playing the spunky character of Jackie Burkhart for eight seasons. Since then, Kunis, 39, has blossomed over her many years in Hollywood, becoming the versatile actor she is today. Her latest film Luckiest Girl Alive (now streaming on Netflix) is a shining example of just that, showcasing the artistic depth Kunis is willing to go in order to properly tell this rather “heavy” yet unfortunately necessary & timely story.
Kunis plays the central character Ani FaNelli, a sharp-tongued New York journalist whose seemingly perfect life begins to unravel when she is forced to finally confront the traumatic events of her past. Being not only the star of Luckiest Girl Alive but also a producer on the project, I first asked Kunis what joys and satisfaction came out of having such an active hand on both sides of the camera.
“I have to tell you, I loved every aspect of it,” Kunis tells me. “I loved understanding exactly what goes into the true form of love of art-making. I loved being able to watch the product unfold through the edit bay, through the marketing - to be able to have any sort of influence, let alone have your influence be heard. Often times as an actor, you have an opinion and people placate to that opinion - but when you’re a producer, they actually have to take it into consideration. It was really lovely to be able to have a say, based on the passion that I have for the project, to make sure that was put forth into the marketing campaign and all the other facets that go into filmmaking.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 29: (L-R) Ian Bricke, Lisa Nishimura, Ted Sarandos, Carson MacCormac, ... [+]
Jessica Knoll, Luckiest Girl Alive’s bestselling author, screenwriter and executive producer, also spoke briefly with me to talk about the quality input and impact Kunis had on this film, a project which Knoll reveals took several years to ultimately get made.
Knoll starts by saying of Kunis, “She brought a lot of value as a creative partner and producer, not just because she’s smart and has great ideas and all the things, but so many of us were involved in this project - like early 2015 when it was first optioned. A bunch of our producers on this project had been on it since then. Then Mike Barker, our director, came on in 2018. So, by the time Mila came on right before, it was like December 2020, a lot of us had eyes on this for a long time. It was incredibly helpful, especially for the ending and the third act, for Mila to come in when she did with a fresh set of eyes and her ideas of the character’s arc.”
With Luckiest Girl Alive bringing multiple serious subject matters to the surface with its thought-provoking narrative, I wondered how Kunis finds way to comfort and protect her own mental health while working long hours on-set and having to maneuver through an emotional script.
Mila Kunis as Ani in "Luckiest Girl Alive."
“The most honest answer is I have an incredible support team at home,” says Kunis, speaking of her husband of seven years and the father of their two kids, Ashton Kutcher. “I have an amazing partner-in-crime, 24/7, and it makes my life so much easier. I think for me, if I was speaking totally honest, work for me is easy - I love it! Work is super focused. We only have to worry about one thing - just doing your job. All you have to do is you just have to show up, be prepared, be ready, be present and then it’s really fun. The hardest thing for me is to be away from my family and when I have peace of mind knowing that my family is happy and healthy and thriving and doing these amazing things, it makes my job so much easier, thus making my mental health, my mental well-being that much greater. So I think for me, just being able to simply focus on one task, knowing that everything else is being taken care of by my partner, relieves a lot of stress.”
With Netflix subscribers now able to stream Luckiest Girl Alive whenever and wherever they want, I was curious what is Kunis’s greatest hope, or perhaps even a lesson, that viewers take away from watching this dramatic thriller.
Kunis responds, “I hate being the person that says I hope this starts a conversation because I never want to tell people to a) think and b) how to think. So, I hope that first and foremost, they’re entertained - I really do. I hope that they watch it and they’re enthralled. I think that’s what makes this project so amazing is that it actually does draw you in pretty quickly and then you’ll be invested in the characters and the outcome of the story. That’s my first ‘go’ for the project. My second one would be if you finish the project and it opens up your mind to have either a little bit more empathy or a little less empathy - hopefully a little bit more empathy towards what’s happening in society today, and to start having the uncomfortable conversations, whether with yourself or with your peers or with others. I mean, that’s the cherry on the top that you can’t make people do, but you hope art inspires people to do across all boards.”
Being a mother today and after immersing herself within this film’s sometimes unsettling storyline, which includes teenage sexual assault and gun violence in a school setting, I asked Kunis the following question: What message might you have for other parents out there in the real world, who are unsure of how to bring up these difficult discussions and protective warnings with their own children today?
(L to R) Nicole Huff as Olivia, Alexandra Beaton as Hilary, Gage Alexander McIver Munroe as Peyton, ... [+]
“That’s a great question, so when you figure that one out, please forward that answer to me,” Kunis initially jokes. “I am playing it by ear. It’s hard, right? My kiddos are little. There’s so many levels to this question. I grew up with earthquakes drills. I live in LA, so we have earthquake drills in school and then we have fire drills in schools. Those are the two drills that I always did in school. Now, my kids have a third drill that they have to do and I don’t even need to explain it to them, unfortunately. At a very early age, they start doing the drills for the worst possible outcome when dropping your kid off at school.”
Earlier this year, Kunis and Kutcher created a “Stand With Ukraine” GoFundMe page to encourage people to donate to the efforts surrounding the ongoing conflict happening around Russian forces invading Ukraine. Through the efforts of this Hollywood husband and wife team, they far exceeded their fundraising goal of bringing $30 million in aid to the Ukrainian people. Kunis’s initiative and humanitarian efforts lead her to be selected as one of Time Magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People of 2022.”
Knowing Kunis was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine and left there with her family for the U.S. in 1991 when she was only seven years old, I decided to ask Kunis what feelings or thoughts go through her head most these days about the turmoil still happening in her native Eastern European country.
“You never know what you’re doing,” Kunis says. “You don’t know if you’re rescuing or re-building. That’s the constant battle when it comes to anything like this - it’s always ever-changing. When we started this originally, it was all about getting the refugees out and figuring out how to band-aid a problem until another country can come in with a billion dollars and do the right work. So, that’s initially what we did. We just wanted to band-aid a problem really quickly and we knew how to do it and we knew how to do it quickly and fast and efficiently until someone came in who was bigger, better and stronger than us. It happened, like other countries stepped in and it all worked out in that regard. As far as what’s happening within the country, you just have to keep it up in the news. I think as long as people read the news and stay educated hopefully on understanding the importance of the outcome of this war, that’s all I can ask for, to be honest.”
Mila Kunis as Ani in "Luckiest Girl Alive."
Since her early That ‘70s Show days of her Hollywood career, Kunis would go on to be cast in many more memorable roles in popular films such as Black Swan, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Friends With Benefits and Bad Moms. Now with Luckiest Girl Alive as her latest starring role, I wondered if Kunis would say that her professional mindset or her approach and interest towards Hollywood projects has evolved at all over the years.
“Oh, drastically,” Kunis reveals. “When I’m like 14 to 29 [years old], I worked because I loved it. I loved everything about this industry, I didn’t care what I was doing. I had bills to pay, I had a mortgage, I had a job. It was a job and I was only responsible for myself. When your career takes a little bit of a turn and then all of a sudden, you’re super fortunate where projects are handed to you, so to speak, where you don’t have to audition and go through this process, it’s a little bit of a learning curve as to figure out what projects to take on and what projects to not take on. I will say that after having kids, everything changed because I had to look at a project and go Is this worth me leaving my family for? It’s got to be inspiring, it’s got to be different, it’s got to scratch some sort of itch in me in order for me to go That’s worth me not waking up with my kids in the morning and not putting them to bed at night.”
