Milla Jovovich

Rebel with a divine cause

01/12/2011 @ 23:13

 By Margarita McDonald

Variously referred to as the "reigning queen of kick-butt", an "A-list action star" and "Every Geek's Dream Girl”, Milla Jovovich has overcome ostracism as a child and rebellious streak to be recognised as one of the world’s most cosmopolitan and popular Hollywood stars.  
Milla Jovovich has kept a diary since childhood documenting the many corners of the world she has visited and “all the mad things” she has done. At one stage strong rumours were circulating in the industry that she planned to convert the diaries into an autobiography, claims she vehemently denied.
 
"I have no idea where that came from. I guess somebody said something about me publishing my diaries online and when I heard that I was like, 'No way'.”
 
For many, this is a shame. In an industry full of anodyne actors and uncouth reality TV stars, the 36-year-old Ukrainian-born model, actress, musician and fashion designer – fluent in Russian, English, Serbian and French – is a refreshingly multi-faceted, engaging and outspoken character.
 
She has advocated the legalisation of cannabis, featured on the cover of High Times magazine and, in a 1994 article, revealed that her only vices were cigarettes and marijuana. She practices yoga and avoids junk food (trying to lead a healthy lifestyle), prays and considers herself a “spiritual person” (without being associated with any religion), practises Brazilian jiu-jitsu and other martial arts, plays the guitar, writes poems and song lyrics – and still keeps her diary up to date.
 
She established herself as an international film star playing the lead role of Alice in Resident Evil in 2002, was the highest paid supermodel in the world in 2004 (earning over $10 million) and made her debut as a singer, songwriter and musician with the 1994 release of The Divine Comedy. 
 

THE BEGINNINGS

 
Born in Kiev (then the USSR, now Ukraine) on 17 December 1975, Milica Natasha Jovovich was five years old when she emigrated with her parents (a Serbian doctor and Russian actress) to London.
 
Shortly after they moved to California, where her parents were forced take on house cleaning jobs to support the family, including a half-brother born in 1988 after her father had a relationship with an Argentinean woman.
 
Her parents divorced when Milla’s father was jailed for his involvement in an illegal medical insurance operation. He was released after five years, and his daughter later noted, "Prison was good for him. He's become a much better person. It gave him a chance to stop and think."
 
In the meantime, Milla had a difficult time, suffering ostracism at school because she had emigrated from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. "I was called a commie and a Russian spy. I was never, ever, ever accepted into the crowd." This left many emotional scars but she overcame this dark period in her childhood with a resilient spirit combined with a rebellious nature and a propensity for risk-taking.  
 
It also helped when, still 11, she was featured in Revlon’s “Most Unforgettable Women in the World” advertisements and had her first cover shoot, for Italian fashion magazine Lei. She signed her first professional modelling contract at 12 and went on to appear on the cover of The Face, Vogue and Cosmopolitan.
 
As a child she had taken music, ballet and acting lessons, and she was able to become one of the few supermodels to also develop a serious film career. She made her film debut in 1988 (at 12) in Two Moon Junction and during the 1980s and 1990s played supporting roles as a teenage actress in film and on TV.
 
She starred in Return to the Blue Lagoon in 1991, co-starred opposite Bruce Willis in 1997’s The Fifth Element and was the title character in Joan of Arc (1999). After a difficult personal period in her life, she rebounded in 2002 as Alice in Resident Evil, and its two sequels.
 
Away from modelling and acting, she gained critical acclaim as a singer, songwriter and musician with the release of her debut album, The Divine Comedy, featuring pop-infused traditional Ukrainian folk songs. The title was a reference to the epic poem by Dante of the same name, and was chosen by Milla after seeing a proposed cover artwork sketch by Russian artist Alexis Steele. "It had all the struggle that I'm singing about. It is the divine comedy."
 
She toured the US in 1994 promoting the album, and its only single, Gentlemen Who Fell, and has since performed live with her band Plastic Has Memory and written tracks for film soundtracks – but is still to release a second solo album.
 
She continues to write songs she describes as “demos”, provided for free download in MP3 format on her official website.
 
Milla and fellow model and friend Carmen Hawk launched the Jovovich-Hawk clothing line in 2003, gaining favourable attention from fashionistas. Vogue magazine praised it for its "girl-about-town cult status most designers spend years trying to achieve”. The pair mutually agreed to end the business in 2008 due to increased demands on their time. "I'm an artist. I'm not someone who can deal with shipping rates and taxes,” explained Milla.
 
On a personal level, Milla married Shawn Andrews in 1992 while filming Dazed and Confused together. Her mother annulled the marriage two months later: Andrews was 21 and Jovovich 16. The model then moved to Europe and met and lived with ex-bassist for Jamiroquai Stuart Zender. Back in Las Vegas in 1998, she married The Fifth Element director Luc Besson but they divorced the following year. She was also romantically linked with poet and musician Anno Birkin and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante.
 
Milla is known for giving a great deal of her time to charitable causes. She has served as master of ceremonies and co-chair (with Elizabeth Taylor) for the amfAR and Cinema Against AIDS event at the Venice Film Festival, and is involved with the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and the Wildlands Project.
 
In March 2011, Jovovich was a guest at Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday celebration, where she sang and gave a speech thanking the former Soviet Union leader. When she and her family had left the Soviet Union in 1980, she said, they were sadly sure they would never see their relatives again, but thanks to him they had been reunited.
 

BEHIND THE PUBLIC PERSONA

 
“Oh, my God! I used to ride my bicycle around for hours in the garage of our apartment building singing (Madonna’s) Material Girl."
 
“I worked like hell (on The Fifth Element): no band practice, no clubs, no pot, nothing.”
 
“We've got really infantile mentalities on this movie (Resident Evil). We're like: 'It's gross – cool! It's disgusting – print it!' You have to think like a 15-year-old. Wet dress. Zombies. Guns. Cool!"
 
"If this movie (Resident Evil) was made in America they would have had a guy and we would have been his harem or entourage. Big studios don't trust that women will bring in that kind of audience. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was really an exception to the rule. Most of the time, if you make a big action film there has to be a big action guy in it. It's very European to trust a woman to play that kind of a role."
 
“I think that's one of the only reasons God created celebrities. To help those who can't help themselves.”