An exotic beauty with high cheekbones, striking blue eyes and a saucy demeanor, Milla Jovovich started modeling as a child. By the time she was 12, she was photographed by Richard Avedon as one of Revlon’s “Most Unforgettable Women in the World”. The Kiev-born Jovovich segued to the big screen in the campy “Two-Moon Junction” (1988) and landed her first starring role as the turn-of-the-century young woman stranded on a South Seas island in “Return to the Blue Lagoon” (1991), the sequel to the 1980 Brooke Shields-Christopher Atkins box-office hit, “The Blue Lagoon”. After being wasted as Christian Slater’s girlfriend in “Kuffs” and as Mildred Harris in Richard Attenborough’s biopic “Chaplin” (both 1992), the actress found that most of her role in Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” (1993) ended on the cutting room floor. Discouraged, she briefly retired from acting to concentrate on her fledgling singing career.
In 1997, she returned to the big screen co-starring with Bruce Willis in the sci-fi thriller “The Fifth Element”, directed by future husband Luc Besson. Two years later, before the marriage floundered, Jovovich played the Maid of Orleans for Besson in “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc”, which failed to impress audiences or critics. Her performance as a whorehouse madam in 1880s California in “The Claim” (2000) also divided viewers, but she showed her game side when she sent up Eurotrash models as Katinka Ingabogovinanana in the Ben Stiller comedy “Zoolander” (2001). More obtuse was her turn in the indie “Dummy” (2002) playing a suburban punk rock chick and neighbor to an eccentric young man (Adrien Brody) who can only expresses his inner insecurities through his ventriloquist dummy.
Changing gears to more commercial minded fare, Jovovich became the big screen version of the video game heroine Alice for “Resident Evil” (2002), an action-horror-thriller that, despite critical drubbing, proved to be a box office success, allowing the actress to show her butt-kicking side, along with a titilating amount of skin (She also commenced a romance with writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson that led to an engagement). She would next appear in Bob Rafelson’s little-seen noir wannabe “The House on Turk Street” (2002) opposite Samuel L. Jackson and the minor indie romantic comedy “You Stupid Man” (2002) before returning for the 2004 sequel “Resident Evil: Apocalypse.”
- Also Credited As:
Milla, Milla Natasha Jovovich
- Born:
on 12/17/1975 in Kiev, Ukraine
- Job Titles:
Actor, Model, Singer, Songwriter
Significant Others
- Companion: Sean Lennon. dating November 2004
- Companion: Jeremy Davies. dated from May 1999 until late 1999
- Companion: John Frusciante. guitarist with Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Companion: Mario Sorrenti. dated from 1995 to 1997; born c. 1971
- Companion: Paul Anderson. helmed “Mortal Kombat”; reportedly dating as of late 2001; engaged as of March 2003
Education
- Excelsior High School
Milestones
- — Will star opposite Billy Bob Thornton in “Fade Out,” written and directed by Michael Cristofer (lensed 2005)
- 1981 Moved to California with family when she was five
- 1985 Began to study acting at age nine
- 1987 Started modeling career at age 11
- 1988 Feature film debut, “Two-Moon Junction”
- 1988 Named as one of Revlon’s Most Unforgettable Women in the World at age 12
- 1988 TV acting debut, “The Night Train to Kathmandu” (The Disney Channel)
- 1991 First starring role, “Return to the Blue Lagoon”
- 1991 Left Elite modeling agency for Next
- 1991 Quit modeling for two years to concentrate on her film career
- 1992 Portrayed Chaplin’s first wife opposite Robert Downey Jr. in “Chaplin”
- 1993 Returned to modeling
- 1993 Starred in Richard Linklater’s teenage comedy “Dazed and Confused”
- 1994 Posed for the cover of High Time holding a joint and wearing a T-shirt that read “Wicked”
- 1994 Released first recording album
- 1997 Co-starred with Bruce Willis in Luc Besson’s sci-fi thriller “The Fifth Element”
- 1999 Reteamed with Besson to star as Joan of Arc in “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc”
- 2000 Played a frontier whorehouse madam in “The Claim”
- 2001 Appeared in the Ben Stiller comedy “Zoolander”
- 2002 Starred opposite Michelle Rodriguez in Paul W.S. Anderson’s Sci-Fi thriller “Resident Evil”
- 2004 Returned to star in “Resident Evil: Apocalypse”
- 2005 Portrayed a rogue warrior with fierce fighting skills and chameleon-like abilities in the sci-fi thriller, “Ultraviolet”
- Will co-star with Kevin Kline in the drama “Welcome to America,” based on the New York Times Magazine cover story “The Girls Next Door” about the world of sex trafficking (lensed 2006)
