.jpg)
Born in Ukraine, Jovovich immigrated with her parents to the United States when she was five. In 1987 she began modeling at the age of 12 when Herb Ritts photographed her for the cover of the Italian magazine Lei ("She").[3][4] Richard Avedon featured her in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements, and she also starred in campaigns for major companies.[citation needed] In 1988, Jovovich had her first acting role in the television film, The Night Train to Kathmandu, and that year also appeared in her first feature film, Two Moon Junction.
Jovovich gained attention for her role in the explicit 1991 romance film Return to the Blue Lagoon, as she was then only 15.[5] She was considered to have a breakthrough with her role alongside Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman in the 1997 French science-fiction film The Fifth Element, written and directed by Luc Besson. She and Besson married that year but soon divorced. She starred as the heroine and martyr in Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).
In 2002, Jovovich starred in the film Resident Evil, adapted from the video game of the same name. It was disliked by critics,[6][7] but was commercially successful.[8] She reprised her role in four sequels made between 2004 and 2012.[9]
Jovovich released a music album, The Divine Comedy, in 1994. She continues to release demos for other songs on her official website and contributes to film soundtracks. In 2003, she and model Carmen Hawk created the clothing line Jovovich-Hawk. Jovovich has her own production company, Creature Entertainment.[10]
Milla Jovovich was born in 1975 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, the daughter of Bogić Jovović, a Serbian pediatrician,[11][12] and Galina Jovovich (née Loginova), a Russian stage actress.[13][14] She was raised in the Russian Orthodox religion.[15] She identifies as Russian, Montenegrin,[16] Ukrainian and American.[17][18][19]
Milla's paternal family's estate was in Zlopek near Peć. Her paternal great-grandfather, Bogić Camić Jovović, was a flag-bearer of the Vasojevići clan and an officer in the guard of King Nicholas I of Montenegro; his wife was Milica, after whom Milla was named. Her paternal grandfather Bogdan Jovović was a commander in the Pristina military area. He investigated finances in Skopje and Sarajevo, where he uncovered massive gold embezzlement by the military. He was punished for refusing to testify against a friend charged in the crime. This resulted in the government briefly imprisoning Jovović in Goli otok. Fearing arrest again, he escaped to Albania and later moved to Kiev (a different version of the story claims that he was the one who took the gold). Milla's father Bogić and his sister later joined their father Bogdan in Kiev, where both siblings graduated in medicine.[20] Her mother Galina Loginova was born in Tuapse (now in Russia) but moved with her family in childhood to Dnipropetrovsk (now in Ukraine).[21] Her mother acted in several films, including Vykrutasy (a.k.a. "Lucky Trouble"), a Russian romantic comedy released in 2011, starring her daughter Milla and actor Konstantin Khabenskiy.
In 1980, when Milla was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union for political reasons[22] and emigrated to London. They subsequently immigrated to Sacramento, California, settling in Los Angeles seven months later. Milla's parents divorced soon after their arrival in Los Angeles.
In 1988, her father had a relationship with an Argentine woman, and they had a son, Marco Jovovich.[23][24] Due to her parents' divorce years before, Milla saw little of her half brother.[25]
In Los Angeles, Galina Jovovich tried to get acting jobs, but found little success because of language barriers, and eventually resorted to cleaning houses to earn money. Both parents served as cooks and housekeepers for director Brian De Palma.[26] Milla's father was convicted and imprisoned for participating in an illegal operation concerning medical insurance; he was given a 20-year sentence in 1994,[27] but was released in 1999 after serving five years.[28] According to Milla, "Prison was good for him. He's become a much better person. It gave him a chance to stop and think."[29]
Milla attended public schools in Los Angeles, becoming fluent in English in three months.[30] In school, she was teased by classmates for coming from the Soviet Union: "I was called a commie and a Russian spy. I was never, ever, ever accepted into the crowd."[31] At age 12, Milla left seventh grade to focus on modeling, which she had started at age nine.[32] She has said she was rebellious during her early teens, engaging in drug use, shopping mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud.[29] In 1994, she became naturalized as a U.S. citizen at the age of 19.[33]
When Milla was eleven she was taking a series of actors head shots when the photographer became intrigued by her mature presence. After the shoot the photographer recommended her Mother, Galina take young Milla to meet a modeling agency in Los Angeles called Prima / East West. Milla was signed to the agency upon arrival. A few days later after shooting her first test, her pictures were shown to famed photographer Herb Ritz who immediately recognized the child Milla's beauty and strong presence.. The next day Ritts booked the 11-year-old Milla for the cover of Lei, an Italian magazine and "The Face" Magazine out of London. The covers gave the young Milla her launch and soon after legendary photographer Richard Avedon hired her for the American Edition of Mademoiselle. When the magazine became aware of Milla's age they refused to run the cover insisting that the magazine was a Women's magazine. Avedon threatened to stop shooting for the publication if they did not honor his artistic choice and the magazine relented and ran the cover, making Milla at eleven years old the youngest model to ever appear on the cover of an American Women's Fashion Magazine. Avedon was also head of marketing at Revlon at the time, and chose young Jovovich to appear with established models Alexa Singer and Sandra Zatezalo in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements.
It was Milla's early work with Ritz, Avedon and Peter Lindbergh that led to her success in advertising, bringing the young model contracts and covers for both Vogue and Cosmopolitan.[22] Since then, she has been featured on more than 100 magazine covers, including all the major fashion ones in the US.[34] She has been part of campaigns for Banana Republic, Christian Dior, Damiani, Donna Karan, Gap, Versace, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Coach, Giorgio Armani, H&M, and Revlon. Since 1998, Jovovich has been an "international spokesmodel" for L'Oréal cosmetics. She was referred to in a minor cameo in Bret Easton Ellis' novel Glamorama, a satire of society's obsession with celebrities and beauty.[35]
Jovovich was said to be designer Miuccia Prada's muse in 2002;[36] a 2003 article claimed she was Gianni Versace's "favourite supermodel".[10] In 2004, Jovovich topped Forbes magazine's "Richest Supermodels of the World" list, earning a reported $10.5 million.[13]
In 2006, Jovovich was picked up by Mango, a Spanish clothing line, as their new spokesmodel and is featured in their ad campaigns;[37] she can also be seen in ads for Etro. She has noted that "Modeling was never a priority"[38] and that the money she earns enables her "to be selective about the creative decisions [she] make[s]".[10]
In 2012, Jovovich was hired as the new "face" of a global advertising campaign for wristwatch and jewelry retailer Jacob & Co. [39]
Jovovich's mother had "raised [her] to be a movie star."[29] In 1985, Galina enrolled Jovovich at the age of 10 in the Professional Actors School in California.[22][40][41]
In 1988, Jovovich appeared in her first professional role as Lily McLeod in the made-for-television film The Night Train to Kathmandu. Later that year, she made her debut in a feature film as Samantha Delongpre in the romantic thriller Two Moon Junction. She had several roles in television series, including Paradise (1988), Married... with Children (1989) and Parker Lewis Can't Lose (1990).
At age 15, she was cast as the lead as Lilli Hargrave in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), opposite Brian Krause. Given her age and beauty, she was often compared to Brooke Shields, a child model-turned-actress who had starred in the original Blue Lagoon.[42] The role was controversial, as Jovovich appeared nude in the film, as had Shields in The Blue Lagoon..[31] For this role, Jovovich was nominated both for "Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture" at the 1991 Young Artist Awards, and "Worst New Star" at the 1991 Golden Raspberry Awards.
In 1992, Milla Jovovich co-starred with Christian Slater in the comedy Kuffs. Later that year, she portrayed Mildred Harris in the Charlie Chaplin biographical film Chaplin. In 1993 she acted in Richard Linklater's film Dazed and Confused. She played Michelle Burroughs, on-screen girlfriend to Pickford (played by her then-boyfriend Shawn Andrews). Strongly featured in promotions for the film, Jovovich was upset to find her role much reduced in the released film.[42] Discouraged, she took a hiatus from acting roles,[43] moving to Europe. She started to work at music.
Breakthrough (1997–2001)[edit]
Jovovich at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival
Jovovich returned to acting in 1997 with a lead role in the French science fiction action film The Fifth Element, alongside Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. This was written and directed by Luc Besson. She portrayed Leeloo, an alien who helps to save the planet. Jovovich said she "worked like hell: no band practice, no clubs, no pot, nothing"[44] to acquire the role and impress Besson. They married on December 14, 1997, but later divorced.[42]
Jovovich co-created and mastered an alien fictional language of over 400 words for her role.[42] She wore a costume that came to be known as the "ACE-bandage" costume; the body suit designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier was made of medical bandages.[42][45] The Fifth Element was selected as the opening film for the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and its worldwide box office gross was over $263 million, more than three times its budget of $80 million.[46] The Fifth Element was often praised for its visual style; critic James Berardinelli wrote, "Jovovich makes an impression, although her effectiveness has little to do with acting and less to do with dialogue".[47] Jovovich was nominated for "Favorite Female Newcomer" at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and "Best Fight" at the MTV Movie Awards. The film inspired a video game and a planned Leeloo action figure, but the figure was never released due to licensing problems.[48] In a 2003 interview, Jovovich said Leeloo was her favorite role.[49]
In 1998, Jovovich appeared in Spike Lee's drama He Got Game, as abused prostitute Dakota Burns; she acted with Denzel Washington and Ray Allen. In 1999, she appeared in the music video for the song "If You Can't Say No" by Lenny Kravitz. That year she returned to the action genre playing the title role in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, under direction of Luc Besson. She cut her hair short and wore armor in several extensive battle scenes. Jovovich received generally good reviews for her performance, although she also received a Razzie Award nomination for "Worst Actress".[42] The historical drama did moderately well at the box office, gaining $66 million worldwide.[50] In 2000, Jovovich appeared as the troubled Eloise in The Million Dollar Hotel, a film based on a concept story by Bono of the band U2 and Nicholas Klein. Directed by Wim Wenders, Jovovich starred alongside Jeremy Davies and Mel Gibson; she provided vocals on the film's soundtrack. That year she also played bar owner Lucia, in the British western film The Claim (2000). This was followed by a cameo as the evil Katinka in the comedy Zoolander (2001).
n 2002, Jovovich starred in the horror/action film Resident Evil, released in the United States on March 15, 2002 and based on the CAPCOM video game series of the same name. She portrayed Alice, the film's heroine, who fights a legion of zombies created by the Umbrella Corporation. Jovovich had accepted the role because she and her brother Marco had been fans of the video game franchise.[51] Jovovich had performed all the stunts required in the film, except for a scene that would involve her jumping to a cement platform, which her management deemed too dangerous,[52] and had trained in karate, kickboxing, and combat-training.[53] The film was commercially successful, grossing $17 million on its opening weekend, and gaining $40 million domestically and $102 million worldwide.[54] Later, she portrayed the manipulative gang wife Erin in No Good Deed (2002), Nadine in the romantic comedy You Stupid Man (2002), punk rocker Fangora ("Fanny") in Dummy (2003), and provided a guest voice on the television series King of the Hill. The role of Fangora in Dummy allowed Jovovich to act in film with Oscar-winning Adrien Brody, who was a friend prior to filming. Jovovich found it easy to identify with this role because she felt Fangora possessed similar qualities to the actress' own life.[49]
In 2004, Jovovich reprised the role of Alice in the sequel to Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The role required her to do fight training for three hours a day,[49] in addition to the three months prior to filming in which she had "gun training, martial arts, everything".[55] Apocalypse received even more negative reactions from the critics than the first film, but it was an even greater commercial success, ranking number one at the box office unlike the first film. Following the release of the film, Jovovich was unhappy with the critical results and director Alexander Witt's effort.[56] She noted during an interview that year that her large action films take care of the commercial part of her career, while she acts in "independent little films that never come out" to appease her artistic side, and "It's a good balance".[49] The following year, she was featured in Gore Vidal's faux trailer remake of Caligula, as Drusilla. In 2006, Jovovich's film, the science fiction/action thriller Ultraviolet, was released on March 3. She played the title role of Violet Song jat Shariff, a role that also involved heavily choreographed fight sequences. It was not screened for critics, but when reviewed, it was critically panned,[57] grossing $31 million worldwide.[58] That year, Jovovich also starred in .45, as Kat, the revenge driven girlfriend of an illegal gun and drug dealer with Scottish actor and DJ Angus Macfadyen.
.jpg)
Jovovich speaking at WonderCon 2012 about Resident Evil
In 2009, Jovovich starred in David Twohy's A Perfect Getaway with Kiele Sanchez, Timothy Olyphant, and Steve Zahn. The film is a thriller about a newlywed couple (Milla and Zahn) on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Filming began Spring 2008.[56]
Jovovich played Lucetta, the wife of a jailed arsonist (played by Edward Norton) in Stone, a psychological thriller starring Robert De Niro. Filming began in May 2009 at the recently closed Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan.[63]
Jovovich played the role of Dr. Abigail Tyler in the science-fiction thriller The Fourth Kind[64] and starred in the psychological thriller Faces in the Crowd,[65] which was written and directed by Julien Magnat;[66] in the latter film, she plays the survivor of a serial killer’s attack that leaves her suffering from a condition called prosopagnosia, which renders her unable to recognize faces.[67]
Jovovich returned as Alice[68] in the fourth movie of the Resident Evil series, Afterlife, which was directed by her husband, Paul W. S. Anderson.[69] She had a role in Dirty Girl, which premiered on September 12, 2010 at the Toronto Film Festival, opposite Juno Temple, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen, and Tim McGraw. Jovovich starred in Paul W. S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers, as Milady de Winter, in 2011.
Jovovich is set to star in David R. Ellis' horror film Bad Luck, based on a screenplay by David J. Schow.[70] She appeared in Famke Janssen's directorial debut film Bringing Up Bobby, which also stars Marcia Cross. Vykrutasy, a Russian film which translates into Lucky Trouble, also stars Jovovich.
Jovovich was set to portray Amalia Bezhetskaya in The Winter Queen in 2007; however, with the announcement of her pregnancy early that year, the film was postponed. In the spring of 2011, Seven Arts and GFM Films announced they would be merging their distribution operations. The joint venture is expected to release The Winter Queen under the direction of Fyodor Bondarchuk.[71]
She returned to her role as Alice in the fifth installment of Resident Evil for Resident Evil: Retribution, which was released on September 14, 2012.[72]
Awards and nominations[edit]
Jovovich has been nominated for numerous awards. In 1992, she was nominated for Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture at the Young Artist Awards for her role in Return to the Blue Lagoon.[73] She was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star for her role in this film.
She was nominated for the OFTA Film Award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Actress for her performance as Leeloo in The Fifth Element in 1997. In 1998, she was also nominated for the Saturn Best Supporting Actress award,[74] the Blockbuster Entertainment Best New Actress award,[75] and the MTV Movie Best Fight Scene Award (between her and aliens)[76] for the role as well. Conversely she also received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for the same role.[77]
She received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, in 2000.
In 2002, she received a nomination for the Saturn Best Actress Award for her role as Alice in Resident Evil and won Best Actress in a sci-fi/action film for Resident Evil: Extinction from the Scream Awards in 2008.
She was also nominated for Best Horror Actress at the 2010 Scream Awards for her performance as Dr. Abigail Tyler in The Fourth Kind, and won the Hollywood Spotlight Award for Best Actress at the 14th Annual Hollywood Awards Gala for her role as Lucetta in the 2010 film Stone.[78]
In 2011, she won the Scream Award for Best Science Fiction Actress for Resident Evil: Afterlife and in 2012 she received a nomination for Choice Movie Actress: Action from the Teen Choice Awards.
In 2013, she was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her performance in Resident Evil: Retribution.
No comments:
Post a Comment