French postcard by Sonis, no. C. 851. Photo: Gaumont. Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997).
German freecard by Edgar Medien A.G., no. 5.533. Photo: Constantin Film. Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2002).
Richard Avedon
Milla Jovovich was born Milica Bogdanovna Yovovich in 1975 in Kyiv, in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and now Ukraine. She is the daughter of Bogdan Jovović, a Serbian doctor and Galina Loginova Jovović, a Russian actress. When Jovovich was five years old, her family emigrated from the Soviet Union to London in 1981 for political reasons. They then moved to the United States and lived in Sacramento, California, before moving to Los Angeles seven months later. A short time later, her parents separated. They eventually divorced, because her father was arrested and spent several years in prison.
In Los Angeles, her mother tried to get acting jobs but failed because of language barriers. She eventually resorted to cleaning houses to earn money. Milla’s mother supported her in her plans to become an actress, so Jovovich enrolled at a professional acting school in California in 1985. When she was 11, Jovovich was noticed by photographer Richard Avedon and left seventh grade to focus on modelling. In October 1987, she appeared on the cover of Italian fashion magazine Lei, photographed by Herb Ritts. This was the first of many covers in her career.
In 1988, she played her first professional role in the television film The Night Train to Kathmandu (Robert Wiemer, 1988) as Lily McLeod. In the same year, she had a small role as Samantha Delongpre in the erotic thriller Two Moon Junction (Zalman King, 1988) starring Sherilyn Fenn. When she was 15, Jovovich had a leading role in the romantic South Seas adventure Return to the Blue Lagoon (William A. Graham, 1991), a sequel to The Blue Lagoon (Randal Kleiser,1980) starring Brooke Shields. The role was controversial as, like Shields, Jovovich appeared nude in the film. The film was not financially successful, grossing just $2.8 million on an $11 million budget. Like its predecessor, it received negative reviews from critics.
In 1992, she starred alongside Christian Slater in the action comedy Kuffs (Bruce A. Evans, 1992) and landed a small role as Mildred Harris in the biopic Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992) starring Robert Downey Jr. The following year, she starred in the cult film Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) as Michelle Burroughs, the girlfriend of Pickford (Shawn Andrews). During filming, Andrews also became her boyfriend in real life. The 16-year-old Jovovich married him, but the marriage was annulled less than two months later at her mother's request.
Strongly featured in promotions for Dazed and Confused, Jovovich was upset to find her role much reduced in the released film. Milla decided to take a break from acting for the next 3 years to focus on her music career. Jovovich became a US citizen in 1994. In the same year, she was signed to EMI Records. She released her first album ‘The Divine Comedy’ under this label, which she had already written at the age of 15 and recorded at 16. It received some good reviews but fell short of expectations. A concert in Austin, Texas, on 16 December 1994 - the day before her 19th birthday - was recorded live.
French postcard. Photo: Columbia Pictures. Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause in Return to the Blue Lagoon (William A. Graham, 1991).
An alien called Leeloo
Milla Jovovich made her breakthrough in the cinema as Leeloo in the French Science Fiction film Le cinquième élément/The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997) alongside Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker. For the role, Besson and Jovovich co-developed an alien language that had only 400 words. Besson and Jovovich held conversations and wrote letters to each other in the language as practice. By the end of filming, they were able to have full conversations in this language.
Jovovich wore a costume that became known as the ‘ACE-bandage’ costume. It consisted of a revealing full-body suit made of medical bandages and was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. At the time, Le cinquième élément/The Fifth Element was the most expensive film ever produced outside of Hollywood The film was the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival and grossed a total of US$263 million, more than three times its budget of $80 million. Jovovich was nominated for several awards including the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight Scene but also a Golden Raspberry. In an interview in 2003, she revealed that Leeloo was her favourite role.
In 1997 she married Luc Besson. She played abused prostitute Dakota Burns in Spike Lee's drama He’s Got Game (1998) opposite Denzel Washington. Besson directed her as the French national heroine and saint in Jeanne d'Arc/The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Luc Besson, 1999), but later that year the couple divorced. Although she received good reviews for the film overall, she was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry for her role.
Jovovich played the troubled Eloise opposite Mel Gibson in Wim Wenders' thriller The Million Dollar Hotel (Wim Wenders, 2000), based on a screenplay by Bono of the band U2 and Nicholas Klein. Jovovich also sang some of the songs on the film's soundtrack. She then played the bar owner Lucia in the British Western The Empire and the Glory (Michael Winterbottom, 2000) and the diabolical Katinka in the comedy Zoolander (Ben Stiller, 2001). This satire on the fashion industry was both a critical and box-office success.
Jovovich had a huge success as the star of Resident Evil (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2002), based on the popular video game series. She played Alice who fights against zombies and the diabolical Umbrella Corporation. She took on the role because she and her brother were fans of the video game series. She did most stunts herself and trained in karate, kickboxing and other martial arts for the film. Resident Evil grossed 102 million US dollars.
Vintage postcard.
The highest-paid supermodel in the world
Since 2002, Milla Jovovich has been with director Paul W.S. Anderson, who she met on the film set of Resident Evil. They got engaged in 2003 and married in 2009. They have three daughters Osian Lark Elliot Jovovich-Anderson, Dashiel Edan Anderson and Ever Anderson. Milla appeared in ad campaigns for Chanel, Versace, Emporio Armani, Donna Karen, and DKNY. In 2004, she made $10.4 million, becoming the highest-paid supermodel in the world.
Modelling and advertising work gave her the financial security she needed to make critically acclaimed films such as the crime thriller No Good Deed (Bob Rafelson, 2002) with Samuel L. Jackson, and the romantic comedy-drama Dummy (Greg Pritikin, 2003) with Adrien Brody.
She returned as Alice in the sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Alexander Witt, 2004). It is set directly after the events of the first film, where Alice escaped from an underground facility overrun by zombies. She now bands together with other survivors to escape the zombie outbreak. The sequel received worse reviews than the first part but had greater commercial success. Next, she appeared in the Science Fiction film Ultraviolet (Kurt Wimmer, 2006) which performed poorly at the box office.
The third instalment of the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil: Extinction (Russell Mulcahy, 2007) grossed $24 million on its opening weekend in the United States and $147 million worldwide against a $45 million budget. She then played Lucetta, the wife of an imprisoned arsonist (Edward Norton), in the psychological thriller Stone (John Curran, 2010) alongside Robert De Niro. She returned as Alice in the fourth instalment of the Resident Evil saga. Resident Evil: Afterlife (Paul W. S. Anderson, 2010), produced by her husband Paul W. S. Anderson. It was the first film in the series to be shot entirely in 3D. Jovovich starred as Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers (Paul W. S. Anderson, 2011), which was also produced by her husband.
Jovovich appeared as a Ukrainian con artist in Famke Janssen's directorial debut film Bringing Up Bobby (2011) and played a leading role in the Russian relationship comedy Vykrutasy/Lucky Trouble (Levan Gabriadze, 2011). This was followed by Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2012), another instalment in the Resident Evil saga. Since 2014, she appeared in at least one film every year. Jovovich once again played the lead role in the sixth and final instalment of the Resident Evil series Resident Evil: Retribution (2016). The final chapter was the highest-grossing film in the franchise, earning over US$312 million worldwide. Time Out: "While the franchise has slackened into dependably dumb post-apocalyptic thrills, star Milla Jovovich has only gotten better, seasoning her long-legged athleticism with a commanding stare". Lately, Milla Jovovich could be seen in the American Science Fiction thriller Breathe (Stefon Bristol, 2024) also starring Jennifer Hudson.
English postcard by Cinema. French poster by Gaumont for Le cinquième élément/The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997) with Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich.
French postcard by Sonis, no. C. 1053. French poster by Gaumont / Leeloo Productions for Jeanne d'Arc/The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Luc Besson, 1999) with Milla Jovovich.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment