Milla Jovovich is an American actress, musician, fashion designer and model who has acted in numerous Hollywood productions. She is also a musician and has released four singles and two studio albums. Jovovich also designed clothes for her own clothing line called Jovovich-Hawk. The actress achieved global recognition for her movie Resident Evil (2002) and has since reprised that role in the subsequent five installments.
Early Life
Jovovich was born in Kiev, Ukraine which was then a part of the Soviet union. Her Serbian father was a Doctor and her mother, Galina Jovovich, a Russian actress. Jovovich was raised to appreciate her Russian heritage by her mother. The first books she read were in Russian and was surrounded by the atmosphere of Russian classical theater. Her mother Galina enrolled her in acting classes at the age of ten and also made her attend a school meant especially for young actors. In 1980, the family of three immigrated from USSR to London for political reasons. After that, they immigrated to Sacramento, California, eventually settling in Los Angeles seven months later. She became fluent in English after three months of public school but was never accepted by her peers who viewed her as a ‘Commie’ and ‘Russian spy’.
Personal Life
Jovovich married her ‘Dazed and Confused’ co-star Shawn Andrews in 1992, a marriage which was annulled by her mother. The actress was barely sixteen at the time. She later dated Jamiroquai ex-bassist Stuart Zender from 1994-95 and photographer Mario Sorrenti from 1995-97. She married director Luc Besson in 1997 who she met on the sets of ‘The fifth element’. However, the couple divorced in 1999. She befriended poet and musician Anno Birkin who inspired her music and compositions. Unfortunately, he died in a car accident in 2001 just after they developed romantic feelings for one another.
In 2009 Jovovich married the film writer and Director Paul W.S. Anderson. who she met on the sets of Resident Evil. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on November 3, 2007.She had her second child, also a girl, on April 1, 2015. The older daughter is named Ever and the younger one is named Dashiel.
Jovovich does not practice any religion and believes she is a spiritual person. Her only sins according to her are smoking cigarettes and cannabis. She also practices Yoga and consciously avoids junk food.
Movie career
Jovovich first role as a professional actor was in the 1988 musical thriller The Two Moon Junction. At age fifteen, she bagged the lead role opposite Brian Krause in the 1991 movie The Return to the Blue Lagoon. In 1992, she acted in a comedy movie titled Kuffs with Christian Slater. She also played the role of Mildred Harris in Chaplin in the same year. After taking a hiatus from acting for a few years, she returned to the silver screen with the French sci-fi film The Fifth Element alongside Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. The movie was highly praised for its visual style. In 1998, she did Spike Lee’s drama He Got Game and the historical war drama The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc and received much praise.
The year 2002 saw her play Alice in Resident Evil which was based on the game developed by CAPCOM. Although the movie was successful commercially, critics panned the film. Jovovich next acted opposite Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody in the 2003 movie Dummy where she essayed the character of a punk rock artist. The following year, she reprised the role of Alice in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which was a massive success but was panned by critics.
Jovovich once again reprised the character of Alice in the 2007 movie Resident Evil: Extinction which alike its predecessor was a commercial hit. The actress then starred in the the thriller The Perfect Getaway (2009) and as Abigail Tyler, a psychologist, in the sci-fi horror film The Fourth Kind (2009).
In the year 2011, she was seen in a British-Canadian-American movie titled Faces in the Crowd where she played the role of a murder witness who suffers from face-blindness. In Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), which was the fifth instalment of the series, she reprised the character ‘Alice’ which made huge colections at the box office. The actress was also a part of the 2014 movie titled Cymbeline based on the Shakespearean play which was not a success both critically and commercially. Her next movie Survivor (2015) also turned out to be a commercial failure and was panned by the critics. In 2016, she appeared in the Ben Stiller movie Zoolander 2 which didn’t get good critical response and was received average reviews at the box office.
Jovovich’s 2017 releases includes the final instalment of the Resident Evil series titled Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Shock and Awe.
As a Singer
It was in 1988 that Jovovich started her journey as a singer after SBK records – a former record label – heard her demo and offered her a contract. In 1994, Jovovich released the album The Divine Comedy that featured a fusion of traditional Ukraine songs with pop. The album received positive reviews from the critics and Jovovich was then compared to musicians Kate Bush and Tori Amos. The singer spent most of 1994 touring and promoting her album and also opened for the bands Crash Test Dummies and Toad the Wet Sprocket. Preferring to perform smaller acoustic sets, she even turned down an opportunity to perform on Saturday Night Live.
In 1999, Jovovich formed the experimental band Plastic Has Memory together with Chris Benner – she wrote, sang and played the electric guitar for the band. The band went on to perform in more than 10 shows in New Work and Los Angeles, however, never released an album and has discontinued. The following year Jovovich worked on the soundtrack of the movie The Million Dollar Hotel (2000).
In 2001, her vocals were featured in the cover of the song 'We are Family' – for raising money for the redcross. In the subsequent years, she appeared as a guest vocalist on Deepak Chopra's song 'Former Love' from the album A Gift of Love II: Oceans of Ecstacy (2002) and on 'I Know it's You' by the band The Crystal Method. The singer has also contributed to the sound tracks of movies Dummy (2002), Underworld (2003), Underworld: The Rise of Lycans (2009), and Blood into Wine (2010). In 2012, she released her fourth single, Electric Sky.
TV Career
Jovovich’s career started with a television movie The Night Train to Kathmandu. She appeared in one episode each of the TV shows Paradise, Married with Children, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, and King of the Hill. She has also made a guest appearance as herself in Project Runaway in 2009.