About Milla Jovovich
A stunning beauty of Ukrainian extraction, Milla Jovovich (pronounced MEE-la YO-vo-vitch) was a popular fashion model and spokesperson that parlayed her fame into several side careers, including actress, designer and musician. Of the three, acting gave her the greatest success outside of modeling, thanks to roles in “The Fifth Element” (1997) and all three “Resident Evil” features – “Resident Evil” in 2002; “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” in 2004; and “Resident Evil: Extinction” in 2007 – which minted her as an action heroine on par with Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton of “Terminator” (1984) fame.
Born Milica Natasa Jovovic in Kiev, Ukraine, on Dec. 17, 1975, Jovovich’s parents were Bogdanovitch Jovovic, a pediatrician, and Russian actress Galina Longinova. The family left Kiev in 1981, landing first in London and then settling permanently in Sacramento, CA. Jovovich’s parents struggled to make ends meet in their new home, so Longinova resorted to cleaning houses (among her clients was director Brian DePalma) when her Russian acting credits failed to find her roles in the States. Jovovich’s father was incarcerated for five years due to his role in an insurance fraud scheme, and was not released until 1999.
At the age of 11, Jovovich expressed interest in following her mother’s footsteps into acting, so Longinova enrolled her in drama classes. Her mother also had photographs taken of Jovovich, and wasted no time submitting them to an agency. Almost immediately, she was signed and began landing top print modeling jobs. Famed photographer Richard Avedon featured the 11-year-old unknown in his “Most Unforgettable Women of the World” spots for Revlon. That same year, she was the youngest person ever to grace the cover of Mademoiselle. Covers for Vogue, The Face in London and the esteemed Italian fashion publication Lei were soon to follow, with the in-demand Jovovich soon pulling down $3,500 a week for her print work. By 1985, she had earned over a million dollars from modeling.
Growing up in the eye of the fashion hurricane had its pitfalls for Jovovich. She admitted to indulging in the usual teenaged pitfalls like shoplifting and recreational drug use, but her mother remained a steadfast pillar of support and discipline throughout the period. Longinova’s theatrical background also prepared her daughter for an inevitable detour into movies, starting in 1988 with a lead role in “The Night Train to Kathmandu,” an unmemorable teen drama for American television. Jovovich segued into stranger territory for her next picture, Zalman King’s outrageously campy potboiler “Two Moon Junction” (1988), for which she played the younger sister of sexually overheated Southern girl Sherilyn Fenn.
In 1991, Jovovich graduated to leading lady status with the glossy “Return to the Blue Lagoon” – amusingly, Jovovich was frequently labeled in the press as the “Slavic Brooke Shields” – which required her to perform partial nude scenes, despite her age – being only 15 at the time. When released on DVD, the film was re-framed to obscure her revealed breasts. She also made appearances on American television series like “Married with Children” (Fox, 1987-1997) and the pilot for “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” (Fox, 1990-93), most of which usually cast her for her physical attributes than for her acting ability.
In 1992, Jovovich returned to theatrical features with a thankless role as Christian Slater’s underage girlfriend in the dreadful comedy “Kuffs.” This was followed by a turn as silent film star Mildred Harris, who caused a scandal by marrying Charlie Chaplin when she was just 16, in Richard Attenborough’s esteemed biopic, “Chaplin” (1992). Jovovich then segued into a small part in Richard Linklater’s much-loved cult high school comedy “Dazed and Confused” (1993). However, upon its release, she was incensed that her face was used prominently in the promotional one-sheets, but her actual role was trimmed down considerably from the original script. During the production, Jovovich eloped with a “Dazed” co-star, actor Shawn Andrews, despite being only 16. A furious Longinova intervened and arranged for the marriage to be annulled, after which she dispatched Jovovich to Europe for head-clearing purposes. While there, she recorded an album of ethereal pop titled The Divine Comedy (released in 1994), which featured a nude portrait of her as its cover art. The album was largely well-received by fans and critics, yet failed to yield a singles chart hit. A 1998 album, The Peopletree Sessions, was released against her wishes by the producer, and featured a harder, more electronic sound than her previous CD. Jovovich also performed in a band called Plastic Has Memory in 1999, which contributed a song to the “Underworld” (2003) soundtrack. She also lent her vocals to a 2004 album by the American electronica outfit The Crystal Method. Ever busy, she also found time to release several songs for download via her web site, millaj.com.
In 1997, Jovovich returned to acting in the ambitious British/French science fiction film “The Fifth Element,” in which she co-starred opposite Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman as an alien “perfect being” and the embodiment of love which will aid in the salvation of the world. Though Jovovich’s physical beauty was the core of the character’s appeal – her barely-there wardrobe and funky orange hair did not hurt either – “The Fifth Element” did require her to co-create and master a 400-word alien language, and to perform in a great deal of action sequences. It was her mastery of kicking butt on screen in this film which did much to bring her out of her previous screen image of fragile porcelain doll. Jovovich went on to marry “Element” director Luc Besson in 1997, but the pair divorced in 1999 after a tempestuous relationship. Their final effort together was “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” (1999), an expensive biopic of the French historical figure. Again, Jovovich rose to the challenge of a demanding physical role, appearing in armor throughout several extensive battle scenes, and attempted to hold her own opposite such acclaimed performers as John Malkovich, Dustin Hoffman, and Faye Dunaway. The picture performed only moderately well at the box office, but Jovovich received respectable reviews from impressed critics who could not fathom this girl with the commanding screen presence came from the emotionally vacuous world of modeling.
In the wake of her dissolved union with Besson, Jovovich dated several other entertainment figures, including troubled Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and wild boy actor Stephen Dorff. She also continued to seek out challenging parts that proved her worth as an actress. She was an abused prostitute in Spike Lee’s “He Got Game” (1998); a Portuguese brothel owner in Michael Winterbottom’s “The Claim” (2000); an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “The Mayor of Casterbridge;” and Jeremy Davies’ love interest in arthouse favorite Wim Wenders’ “The Million Dollar Hotel” (2000). During the latter film, Jovovich and her co-star Davies later enjoyed a brief relationship as well.
In 2002, Jovovich returned to mainstream features with an amusing turn as the severe assistant to Will Ferrell’s scurrilous fashion mogul in “Zoolander,” Ben Stiller’s fitfully funny parody of the people and attitudes of the international fashion scene. Jovovich’s own modeling career continued to blaze brightly as she approached her second decade in the industry; she was a regular face on the cover of top publications for women and fashion, and appeared in print and television ads for L’Oreal, Almay, and Prada – the latter of which considered her something of a muse for its clothing line. Jovovich branched into creating her own haute couture in 2003 with the Jovovich-Hawk clothing line, which she co-created with fellow model Carmen Hawk. By 2006, their creations appeared in over 50 stores around the world and received a nomination for a fashion fund award from Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Jovovich wore shorts of her own creation in “Resident Evil: Extinction” and in 2008, she and Hawk were designing an exclusive line for Target’s clothing departments.
Jovovich’s acting career also kicked into high gear in 2002 when she took the lead in “Resident Evil,” a theatrical feature based on the popular video game of the same name. As Alice, the game’s heroine and apparent savior of humanity after a corporate-created virus turns the staff of an underground laboratory into flesh-hungry zombies, Jovovich demonstrated terrific physical agility and, as the film’s director, Paul W.S. Anderson noted, an ability to “kick ass and look beautiful while doing it.” The picture took in over $102 million worldwide, which spurred two very similar (and equally popular) sequels, both produced by Anderson and directed by Alexander Witt (“Resident Evil: Apocalypse) and cult favorite Russell Mulcahy. Jovovich’s action hero status also inspired her casting as a gun-toting guerilla fighter battling vampiric killers in the futuristic thriller “Ultraviolet” (2006), and as an abused woman who turns the tables on her drug dealer boyfriend by seducing his friends in the indie “.45” (2007).
Jovovich also found time to explore less action-packed movies, including the offbeat comedy “Dummy” (2003), as the punk singer pal of aspiring ventriloquist Adrien Brody; and as a manipulative criminal moll in the little-seen suspense picture “No Good Deed” (2003) directed by Bob Rafelson. Her most interesting project during this period was a turn as Drusilla, the mad sister and lover to Caligula, in Francesco Vezzoli’s deliriously campy short “Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal’s Caligula” (2005), an imaginary coming attraction for an all-star revamp of Bob Guccione’s notorious film version of "Caligula," and starring Helen Mirren, Gerard Butler, and Courtney Love as Caligula.
Jovovich and Anderson’s relationship expanded beyond director and muse during the making of the “Resident Evil” trilogy – the pair became engaged and expected their first child in November 2007. Jovovich also made plans to publish her private diaries, which she had kept since the launch of her modeling career, as an autobiography detailing the immense amount she had been able to accomplish at such a young age.
