A SENSE OF MILA

It took Mila Kunis eight years to graduate from high school on That '70s Show, but the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star has turned into quite a woman. So much for growing pains.

By Nate Denver
Photographs by Brian Bowen Smith

When she was just seven years old, Mila Kunis's parents picked up everything they had- which wasn't much- and left Russia to provide their children with the options they themselves had lacked. Now, 18 years later, Mila is a working actress and her brother is a Berkeley-educated scientist. Good move, folks.

In the post- That '70s Show era, Ms. Kunis (a.k.a. Meg Griffin on Family Guy) is finally free to explore the wider world of film; she's starting with a bang (and a bikini) in Judd Apatow's newest crude comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In between marathon World of Warcraft sessions with boyfriend Macaulay Culkin, she sat down with Complex to talk about swinging Vikings, invisibility, and Chuck Norris. See? Celebrities really are just like us!

Was acting in a movie with Judd Apatow's crew fun after being on a sitcom for so long?

Mila Kunis: It's such a different way of making a comedy. Doing '70s was so scripted. It was word for word- you had 20 pages, you don't improv, you don't really have much say, you just kind of do what you're told. You come to a Judd set, and it's a free-for-all. They hire you because they trust you: "Don't fuck up, and enjoy yourself; go have fun." I've never gone through so many feet of film before in my life- you improv and some stuff sticks, some stuff doesn't.

How are you at improv?

Mila Kunis: I think you just zone out and have diarrhea of the mouth and hope something funny comes out.

How does traditional acting compare to voice acting?

Mila Kunis: For Family Guy, I come to work one day out of the month. I come in my pajamas, I hang out and play Ping-Pong, I record a couple pages of stuff, and I leave. I hope that job never ends. It's like money from the sky. People are like, "Oh, can I come visit you at Family Guy?" They come and are like, "That's it? This is all you do?"

Do you like other cartoons?

Mila Kunis: I do. I come from Donald Duck, Rescue Rangers, you know, old cartoons. I love Gummi Bears.

Your eyes are two different colors, like David Bowie's.

Mila Kunis: David Bowie lives down the street from me, man! Do you know how fucking rad that is?

Have you seen him?

Mila Kunis: From a distance. I'd like to think he saw me back, but I don't think he did.

He probably did. Your two-tone eyes probably locked.

Mila Kunis: Makes sense to me. I have Bowie records that I stole from '70s Show. I jacked 'em so fast. I was like, that is mine!

Have you ever met a karate master?

Mila Kunis: Does Chuck Norris count?

Hell, yes!

Mila Kunis: I did Walker, Texas Ranger when I was 10 years old, and he taught me karate. I can say Chuck Norris taught me how to kick a punching bag. He was the raddest, coolest guy on the planet.  He was great to my family.

Do you feel like you missed out on a normal childhood by being an actress?

Mila Kunis: No, I just feel like I'm very privileged. I had a very healthy, normal upbringing. We were very poor, so I never had material things in life, but I always had lots of love and attention. I never fucked up in school because I always had something to look forward to. I had to go to work and to auditions and it was just so exciting and it was something that drove me to be a good person. If I didn't have that, it could have been ugly.