Mila Kunis has a very interesting new interview with The Telegraph Magazine. I think it’s supposed to be shilling for Gemfields, an “ethical mining” gemstone company, but Mila spends most of the interview chatting about her personal life, her marriage, motherhood, money and more. It’s one of the better interviews I’ve read with Mila. I’ve been worried – justifiably so – that Ashton Kutcher’s douche would rub off on Mila, and there were some moments (like this interview last year) where I thought she was lost. But she’s utterly charming and cool in this piece. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
She loves bathroom humor: “I like fart jokes, for sure.”
How Jupiter Ascending bombed: “I don’t live to work; I work to live. I never took my career too seriously before. After becoming a mum, I definitely don’t.”
She loves Hillary Clinton: “I would love her to have a woman [in the White House], to think, ‘If there’s a woman president, what is there that I can’t do?’”
Her political views: “I’m a Democrat. My husband is a Democrat. I’m not one of those who voted for Obama and then said, ‘He didn’t do me right so now I’m off the Obama ship’. I stand by him to this day. He’s implemented health care. It’s not perfect, but it’s beginning the process.”
Gun laws, ownership: “I will say this: we have a gun at the house. But would I give it to my daughter as a gift at 15? No. I can take a gun apart and put it back together blindfolded… My child shouldn’t be as well trained as us, nor should she know there is a weapon in the house – ever. But I respect the gun. My husband grew up in Iowa, and is from a hunting family. He’s worked with rifles his whole life….I probably wouldn’t have the gun if I didn’t have stalkers or people constantly trying to break into my house.”
She doesn’t really identify with the Ukrainian people: “But do I feel that that country is in need of dire help? Yes. Putin is a very strong-willed human being who is gathering more power, and that’s scary.”
Being bullied when she came to America: “I’m a Russian Jew! There’s so much material. But was I bullied any more than an average kid? No. Nothing that my parents weren’t, ‘Suck it and go back to school’ about. Back then, it was just, ‘You’re ugly.’ ‘No! You’re ugly.’ And you’d go home. Now kids go home and they are still interacting with their peers online. It’s a constant barrage.”
Her parents were not stage parents: “My parents never took a penny from me. So whatever I earned just stayed locked up in a bank account until I was 18. It didn’t matter how much money I was making, they were poor, thus I was poor. When I finally looked at my bank account I screamed, ‘What?’”
She was never a mess because of That ‘70s Show: “I was [there from age] 14 to 22. I could’ve gone in either direction. But nobody did drugs or was an alcoholic. [My older co-stars] said, ‘Drugs are stupid.’ And I’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, drugs are really dumb.’ I think when you are a young actor couple you are screwed. It got to a stage where I couldn’t leave the house. I love what I do, but the reality is that my privacy is gone. I’m not complaining, I just don’t like the idea that my child can’t go to the park with her mother. And if she does, then I have to trail a sh-tload of paparazzi with me.”
Mila says Ashton is a diaper-changing hero: “My husband is an incredibly hands-on dad. When my child was born, I was breast-feeding and he said, “That’s your connection, I want to change every diaper.” When we’re in public, if it’s a pee-pee diaper you can change her at the table, but if it’s a poo-poo diaper you don’t want to affect the people eating. So he’s like, “Err, I guess I’m going to the ladies’ room to do it.”
I don’t have a problem with what she says about gun ownership – I think we should remember that she’s being interviewed by a British outlet and they (like much of the first world) are horrified by what they see as America’s lax gun laws. It felt like The Telegraph was trying to get Mila to do some anti- or pro-gun screed and what they got was a simple admission that she and Ashton are gun-owners and they treat gun ownership responsibly. I also like what she says about being a Democrat and not a fair-weather Obama supporter – at least she didn’t play coy or go on some intense political screed. She’s a Dem, she loves Obama and Hillary Clinton. End of story.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I love the way her parents protected her money and never chose to live off her fame.
As a European, this still sounds so very strange. Being able to dismantle a gun blindfolded? Jesus.
Also, “I never took my career too seriously before”? For the love of God, don’t do it then.
If you have a gun in the house for protection, you have an obligation to know how to dismantle it.
Apart from my uncle who is a policeman, I don’t know anyone who has a gun, I didfn’t know that.
But our violent crime rates are very very low, so maybe if that’s the reason people don’t have guns.
So this! You need to be intimately familiar with your gun when you own one. This is part of being a responsible gun owner. It would be weird and scary if you have a gun in your house and had no idea how it worked.
It’s also irresponsible to not tell your children there’s a gun in the house. They’ll find it and not know how to use it. Children with gun owning parents need to take gun safety courses and know how to handle the weapon safely. Then it should be kept away from them. It’s like saying “We don’t let our child know about the swimming pool, so we won’t need to build a fence around it.”
And yes, if you own a gun or live in a home with a firearm, you are obligated to know how to handle it, dismantle it, assemble it, clean it, and keep it safe.
I agree with everything she said except the part about her daughter not EVER knowing about the gun or to be trained in it. Granted, she’s an infant but by “ever” I assume she means never. We have guns locked in a gun safe. My husband takes our 13 year old shooting and about twice a year they take apart the guns all the way, clean them, and lock them away. A respect for the gun and for what it can do goes a long way towards improved gun safety for all. Just because our guns are locked up, I don’t want to assume everyone’s are and should my son get hold of one at another home, I want him to be respectful and know what he’s doing.
Career? She’s the voice of Meg on Family Guy. And I notice she barely does that anymore. Calm the down girl.
That’s good. I side eye anyone who doesn’t take their career seriously, so it’d be a shame (and a bit revolting) if she was like, in Jennifer Lawrence’s position. If she doesn’t take it seriously, she doesn’t deserve to have one.
Oh god. What does it matter to you? She’s not a brain surgeon.
There are many, many talented people who wants a chance to be in the place of someone who doesn’t take acting seriously. Asking what does it matter to me is the same of asking what the posts of this site matters to anyone. Celebrities here are usually actors or singers, hardly any brain surgeon.
She’s at the point in her life where acting is an option now. I don’t see anything wrong or ungrateful about her statement.
I thoroughly agree and find that actors who have plainly stated that acting is their way of making a living first and foremost are some of the better and more stable people in the business. I also don’t think that feeling that way means it is mutually exclusive to caring about and putting effort into the jobs you do have. You can prioritize your personal and family life over the job that earns your living without doing a crappy job when you are doing it. That was kind of convuluted, but I know that I love my career, but it is secondary to my family and I keep it in perspective that it is a way to earn a living rather than my life. My family and friends are how I “live” so I get her.
It’s smart for high profile celebrities to say this, as they get all kinds of kooks and criminals probably trying to get at them in their homes, not to mention as Mila said, stalkers and threats.
I remember when Brad Pitt said the same stuff about having guns in the house to protect his family, and how somebody would get lit if they tried breaking in. Plus everyone recalls Angie working her weapons guns, knives, etc – and all the ink on how she was a better shot than Brad on the MAMS set. Lol
They do it for a reason, its code for, ‘Don’t TRY Me Fool.’
Ashton might have changed,grown up a bit, right? Listen, I worked at a company where I gained a bad reputation from the get go. I think it was actually a cultural thing,but neverthrless, everything I did was perceived as bad. I tried to outro this, to no avail. I think the same happebs with Ashton. Was he a douche? Yeah! But he seems serious with Mila and parenting. He complained about público male bathrooms not having diaper changers , which is a fair complain,and people reacted like ” Ashton is being asshole again”
My husband told me most (not all) of the men’s rooms he’s seen do have changing tables, but we probably don’t go to the same sorts of establishments as the Kutchers.
Yeah, I’ve talked to guys about that too, they all say there are changing tables in the men’s rooms.
I have had to take some diapers in public when my husband was going to, because there were no places for baby changing in the men”s room. Very archaic.
Mila is a smart woman playing the Hollywood game. This no shrinking violet who will fold up and die if her marriage goes up in smoke.
When she started dating Ashton everything was all hush,hush. But now that she realized people think she married a douche she now wants to talk.
She really likes saying my husband, doesn’t she? She won’t even say Ashton.
When you’re newly married it’s kind of novel thing to say. It’ll wear off.
My biggest pet peeve is people who buy guns “for protection” and then don’t learn about them or train with them. There’s no muscle memory, nothing. They’re just going to pull it out of the box and shoot someone! Or even worse, just drop it in your purse. Cuz that’ll totally work. Makes me crazy. Hope those people read her gun quote and think “hmmm maybe I should actually learn how to use it” and train. Consistently. Wish it was mandatory.
Maybe she hopes people will forget it’s Ashton this way.
Ok, but I think changing a pee-pee diaper at the table in a restaurant is also pretty gross. I’m all for public breastfeeding, but changing diapers shouldn’t be in a place where people are eating.
Right? I re-read that comment four times to make sure I really understood what she was saying. Surely, she doesn’t mean that it’s ok to change a diaper around a table, where people are eating. Because that would be incredibly gross.
I’ve had no choice before. I was in a subshop that had no changing tables in their restroom. I just went over to a booth to change my daughter. I’ve also changed her on benches in the middle of the mall because most mall bathrooms are gross. My daughter has always freaked out on those hanging changing tables. For some reason she freaks everytime I’ve tried.
That’s disgusting
Sometimes you don’t have much of an option. I always used to take the kids out to the car when we didn’t have a changing table available, and I would change them on the backseat. I was always super paranoid that a carjacker would come up behind me while I was bent over half in and half out of the car. I would also usually crack my head on the roof. You gotta do what you gotta do.
I changed my kids in the open trunk of my hatchback so many times.
Dear Lord, that is revolting. Do NOT change your child in a restaurant booth, or on a bench in the mall! Before changing tables came into being, you know what most people did (excluding those happy few who did what you do)? They changed their kid in a bathroom stall, with Mom sitting & kid balanced on her lap. They changed their kid in the car. They did NOT decide that public spaces where people eat are their personal restroom.
This really pisses me off, actually. When people go out to eat, they do NOT – repeat, NOT, as in NOT EVER IN A MILLION YEARS – want to be exposed to a child’s used diaper. No, really. Your child’s used diaper is YOUR responsibility. You may have become desensitized to its nastiness, but A) that doesn’t diminish the amount of bacteria in that diaper, and B) the other patrons in the vicinity are by and large NOT desensitized to it, and find it beyond disgusting.
Oh, you had a choice. You could have left the restaurant or the mall and found an APPROPRIATE place to change the diaper, and that doesn’t include places where people might eat or are eating. Many moms make a HUGE deal about not breast-feeding in bathrooms, because their babies shouldn’t eat where people use the toilet. Well, that goes the other way too. The rest of us don’t want your baby’s diapers being changed where we are eating!
I don’t get the outrage, pee pee does not seem like a problem. Maybe I spend too much time with mothers and their babies, but when you change 100 diapers a day, a pee pee diaper takes you like 2 minutes top. People won’t even notice since it does not smell. And bacteria…? If you don’t rub it on my plate or dump it on the table, I don’t care. Now spitting babies, those I have a little issues with.
You spend too much time with mothers and their babies.
it’s vile and entitled
This. Seriously. Disgusting to even imagine and now I don’t want to even go out to eat anymore just thinking about it. But entitled people are everywhere, never considering how their actions can harm others.
Good for her. If a stalker busted into her house, there might not be time to call the police and business needs to be handled.
Yeah no question! Famous people have crazy stalkers and restraining orders mean nothing to someone who is delusional.
Yeah totes, she’s just got to get it out of its locked safe in time before the person gets to her… Erm… Sounds totally doable? When Sandra Bullock’s stalker busted in, all she had time to do was slam her bedroom door and lock herself in. Unless that room happens to be the one with gun safe in it, that is ridiculous. And if it’s not in a gun safe then it’s a danger to her child. You Americans are so weird about guns. I highly suggest watching Jim Jeffries’ material on this. It’s funny and it pokes holes in all of this sage home security stuff.
I’m very anti-gun (coming from a county where guns are illegal) but she has a very sensible and healthy attitude towards guns. I don’t blame her for feeling she needs a weapon.
I’m not a fan of guns and I too thought what she said here was reasonable. It seems like she doesn’t like guns but feels they’re necessary for her protection. Can’t fault her for that.
Me too. I don’t have or want one, but if I were in her position, with crazy stalkers out there? I’d probably do the same thing. At least she’s trained and responsible about it.
I agree completely. She has to deal with stalkers, and Ashton’s ex-girlfriend was murdered…so I think the two of them have good reason to want protection nearby just in case. I would be hiring security if I were them; it is hard to imagine living with that type of threat hanging over your head.
Me too! I think some people in the US have some very strange ideas about guns, but her comments seem very reasonable. Despite being 100% happy with UK gun laws, I have gradually come to realize that if I moved to then US I would probably learn to use a gun and keep it at home, our societies are very different.
“I’m a Democrat. My husband is a Democrat. I’m not one of those who voted for Obama and then said, ‘He didn’t do me right so now I’m off the Obama ship’. I stand by him to this day.”
And that is exactly the problem. How about caring about issues and not about people or parties when it comes to voting?
If you are a left winger you are ashamed of what Obama did, especially in the rest of the world.
I really don’t understand it when people try to apply the “stand by your man” concept to politics. You’re not married to the guy! You’re not being unfaithful if you’re a swinging voter. I just don’t get it.
I agree with you both and think this has led our country into the great divisiveness and ineffectiveness in our country at this time, and this is the case on both “sides” of politics. I liked this interview as a whole, and her political comments were actually really measured and not obnoxious or condescending as so many other celebrities sometimes come across; however, I’m not with the standing by your man (or woman) just because you voted for them, especially if they are no longer holding your principles.
Boom. This exactly.
I think she’s “standing by him” because she’s not unsatisfied by how/what he’s done while in office. I didn’t get any sense that she’s just blindly supporting him for partisan reasons only.
I think, honestly, that her view of gun ownership is pretty decent. It’s pretty much how I feel – though I can’t do anything with it blindfolded or whatever – and she might have been exaggerating about her skill – she might just be saying that she’s familiar enough with them that she could do it blindfolded. But at the end of the day – knowing she has firearms in the house, it’s good that she actually knows how to use it and how to work with it. Much safer than the people who get firearms and not ever touch them or learn proper handling.
Both my husband and I have grown up with firearms, and have a healthy respect for them – and know how dangerous they are. The only time my children (when they’re teens) would be touching any would be once they’ve had their firearms safety courses/are on a range/hunting. I personally won’t hunt, but it’s something the husbands family has done their whole lives. His dads family came from nothing, and hunted to get more meat growing up, and he eventually just went with his dad. They’re responsible and make sure not to over hunt, and they use everything. But I just about threw up the other day because a bird hit my windshield while I was driving. I can’t even kill bugs.
The problem is, that most of the people speaking pro-gun are not like Mila. They’re kind of nutjobs for the most part.
Exactly. Most people who own guns are not speaking publicly about it. I very, very rarely discuss gun ownership or my opinions about gun control laws.
Most of us who actually own and use firearms in America are well-educated and comfortable with their safe use and raise our children accordingly, as we were raised. The crazies and the irresponsible negligents are the only ones who ever get recorded in the media.
I disagree with how Mila feels children should be kept in the dark about guns in the home, but I was glad to hear a sane mention of it in the media.
Wow! If the Kardashians had her work ethic they wouldn’t exist.
So, she does realize that the 70’s show had all of those baked scenes? Obv they weren’t high and were acting, but I think she means hard drugs in her interview answer? Right?
Yeah I think she means hard stuff. Usually if I mention drugs I’m not not thinking about mj
Considering that Masterson and Prepon are Scientologists, I believe her about the drugs.
“nor should she know there is a weapon in the house – ever”
Mila, honey, you just went on public record with that info. It will still be there when your child and her friends are old enough to read and obtain information from the internet.
Let’s hope it’s locked up and has a trigger guard. The big problem with guns in the house is younger kids accidentally using them or older kids using them on purpose – for the wrong things.
That’s the law in California.
Saying that having a lying, cheating scumbag of a woman in the White House would make her feel like she can do anything is absolutely ridiculous. Is she that insecure to think that woman need high powered positions for validation?
They’re politicians, they’re all lying, cheating scumbags, so no matter who ends up in the White House will be that.
I like her and I like her honesty. I don’t know if Ashton is really a douche or not. But I do think That 70’s show was well versed in what can happen when you do drugs by simply following what happened to the older sister in that show. Oh and I do think if you have a gun in your house you better be well trained or forget it.
Mila is smart – respect on how she holds herself
Mila tried hard to take her career seriously, it’s just that soon enough it became clear that she’s a mediocre actress at best, unfit for a serious acting career. Her saying that she doesn’t take her career seriously when it’s the producers and directors who refuse to take her bland, expressionless “acting” seriously is like that guy who got fired and shouted “No, you don’t fire me! *I* quit!”
It’s not the Ukraine, it’s Ukraine. It’s not the Ukrainian, it’s Ukrainian.
“The Ukraine is the way the Russians referred to that part of the country during Soviet times … Now that it is a country, a nation, and a recognized state, it is just Ukraine. And it is incorrect to refer to the Ukraine, even though a lot of people do it.”
Thank you, that actually makes a lot of sense.
But, just out of curiosity, does it apply here? The full quote is “the Ukrainian people”. Isn’t the grammar fairly flexible in that instance? I just tried it with other countries and it sounds better different ways, depending on the country.
I don’t identify with English. I don’t identify with the English people. I don’t identify with the English. (I like version 3.)
I don’t identify with Americans. I don’t identify with the American people. I don’t identify with the Americans. (I like version 1.)
I don’t identify with Australians. I don’t identify with the Australian people. I don’t identify with the Australians. (I like version 2.)
(FYI … I’ve now I’ve muttered “I don’t identify with” so many times that it no longer has any real meaning, and I can’t tell WHAT I like any more.)
I thought about it too, and I wasn’t just trying to be a pain in the ass – correcting monster. It’s a sensitive issue, so it could be that I just ALWAYS find it unnecessary. I would never say “I identity with the Canadians” but I might say “I identify with Canadians”. English seems like a whole other problem.
I think her career is basically over or definitely side tracked. Possibly her comments re not caring so much about it are because she knows this. However as a fan I would have to say that’s a bad attitude she seems to have about her career. One can be a mom and take your career seriously. Look at Hillary Clinton, who MK says she admires.
I wouldnt say her career is “over”, its just she never had a big one to begin with. She’s mostly known for her TV work. Sure Jupiter Ascending kind of bombed (I didn’t think that movie was THAT bad honestly) but I’m sure she easily go back to playing “girlfriend” roles in rom-coms and maybe do more TV work.
Yeah. I agree with those who found the not telling their daughter about the gun policy a bit irresponsible. Gun owners have a duty to both train the children AND keep the guns securely locked up where the kids can’t ever touch them without supervision.
My daughter is 11, and she has received gun safety and marksmanship training. It’s an ongoing process. Kids with appropriate training and exposure don’t have accidents or get dead. That’s all on the parents who own the guns. Educate your children about guns and keep them locked away where the kids can’t get to them.
When she says she doesn’t take her career too seriously, I think of the actresses who take their careers waaaaayyy too seriously. You know the ones who go to the opening of an envelope in order to get photographed and who make up false rumors about other women who are competing for the same roles. If she means that she doesn’t do that kind of stuff to get work, then I believe her and I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
Why not just hire round the clock security if stalkers are actually a problem? Ashton has that Two & A Half Men money, it’s not like they can’t afford it.
I’ve never seen the point of keeping a gun for protection. My American in-laws do, and their house has been broken in to twice at night while they were sleeping. They didn’t realise til morning. If someone had of been trying to do them harm they wouldn’t have woken in time to get the gun anyway, and if they’d woken up and tried to shoot the people stealing their stuff, they’d have just escalated the situation. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to kill another human being over an insured TV and laptop, and there’s always the chance that person has a weapon too, and instead of just stealing your stuff and leaving they hurt you before you can hurt them.
I grew up in South Africa, where robberies and people breaking in to beat and rape you, possibly kill you, were extremely common. Most people had guns. Almost everyone I knew had been broken in to at least once. Not one person I knew had ever managed to protect themselves from anything more than a dumb kid who was already halfway out the door with their stereo. The people who had the latter happen to them, they were restrained before they could even process what was happening, let alone get to their guns (which were usually unsecured and within easy reach). In a lot of cases people were killed with their own guns.
Unless you know you’re in imminent danger are are literally sitting and waiting with gun in hand, or you ignore all gun safety rules and sleep with a loaded gun, realistically if someone’s broken in to hurt you, you aren’t going to get to your gun in time anyway. If you have time to wake up, ascertain that what you’re hearing is someone in your house, open the safe, load the gun and go seek that person out, you’re going to be shooting at a thief, a family member, or sure, maybe a perpetrator who decided to make himself a cup of coffee before getting on with murdering you.
I also agree that it is a good thing that she knows how to take the gun apart, and deal with it. People are safer when they actually know how to use the weapon they have, whether that is shooting it, cleaning it, loading it, whatever.
Full discloser, I grew up in a gun household. My Dad is a gun collector, and even builds them as a hobby. I got my first BB Gun when I was five, but I never saw that thing unless my Dad had it out with me to shoot it. As I grew up, I got to shoot bigger guns, but not until I’d demonstrated proper care and respect for them. All the guns were kept in gun safes in the basement and to this day, as a grown adult, I don’t know a single combination to any of them. Mr. Abby_J and I have guns in our house, and they too are kept in a safe away from our children.
That said, it is irresponsible not to expose her children (when they are old enough, of course) to the fact that there is a gun in the house for a multitude of reasons. The most important being that should you do something completely stupid, and leave it out, they need to know that guns are NOT a toy. I don’t necessarily think the kids need to be at the gun range when they are four or anything like that, but education is the key to safety.
This is a great interview. I can’t find fault with her. She’s beautiful, she’s a descent actress. Her parents sound amazing. Some people wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of taking some of their kid’s money.