Milla Jovovich
Jovovich at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Milica Jovović (1975-12-17) December 17, 1975 (age 36) Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress, model, singer-songwriter
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Shawn Andrews (1992–1992) Luc Besson (1997–1999) Paul W. S. Anderson (2009–present)
Children	1
Website
http://www.millaj.com/

Milla Jovovich ( /ˈjoʊvəvɪtʃ/ YOH-və-vich; born Milica Jovović,^[1] Serbian Cyrillic: Милица Јововић, Russian: Милица Йовович; December 17, 1975)^[2] is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".

Milla Jovovich began modeling when Gene Lemuel convinced Herb Ritts to shoot her for the cover of Lei magazine.^[3] Richard Avedon featured her in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements, and she continued her career with other campaigns for L'Oréal cosmetics, Banana Republic, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, and Versace. In 1988, she had her first professional acting role in the television film The Night Train to Kathmandu, and later that year, she appeared in her first feature film, Two Moon Junction. Following more small television appearances such as the "Fair Exchange" (1989) and a 1989 role as a French girl (she was 14 at the time) on a Married... with Children^[4] episode and film roles, she gained notoriety with the romance film Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). She appeared in 1993's Dazed and Confused, before a short hiatus. Jovovich then acted alongside Bruce Willis in the science fiction film The Fifth Element (1997), and later played the title role in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). In 2002, she starred in the video game adaptation Resident Evil, which spawned four sequels: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) and Resident Evil: Retribution (2012).^[5]

In addition to her modeling and acting career, 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; Jovovich has yet to release another album. In 2003, she and model Carmen Hawk created the clothing line Jovovich-Hawk, which ceased operations in early 2008.^[6] In its third season prior to its demise, the pieces could be found at Fred Segal in Los Angeles, Harvey Nichols, and over 50 stores around the world. Jovovich also has her own production company, Creature Entertainment.^[7]

Early life and family[link]

Milla Jovovich (Ukrainian: Мілла Йовович) was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, former Soviet Union, the daughter of Bogdan Bogdanović Jovović, a Serbian^[8][9] pediatrician, and Halina Mikhaylovna Loginova (also known as Galina Jovovich), a Russian^[10][11] stage actress. She was raised in the Russian Orthodox religion.^[12]

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's name was Milica, after whom Milla was named. Her paternal grandfather, Bogdan Jovović, was a commander in the Pristina military area, and later investigated finances in the military areas of Skopje and Sarajevo, where he uncovered massive gold embezzlement. He was punished for refusing to convict a friend of the crime. Later, the government briefly imprisoned him in Goli otok for refusing to testify. When he feared that he could be arrested 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, Bogich, later joined Bogdan in Kiev, where he and his sister graduated in medicine.^[13] In 2000, her grandfather, Bogdan Jovović, died in Kiev.^[14] Her mother was born in Tuapse (now in Russia) but moved in her childhood to Dnipropetrovsk (now in Ukraine).^[15] Her mother played a part in several films, including Vykrutasy, and the upcoming American silent movie Silent Life (2012).

In 1980, when Milla was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union for political reasons^[16] and moved to London. They subsequently lived in Sacramento, California before settling in Los Angeles seven months later; Milla's parents divorced soon after.

In 1988, as a result of her father's relationship with a woman from Argentina,^[17] Milla's half-brother^[18] Marco Jovovich, was born.^[19] Milla's mother attempted to support the family with acting jobs, but found little success, and eventually resorted to cleaning houses to earn money. Both her father and mother provided house cleaning services for director Brian De Palma.^[20] Milla's father was incarcerated for participating in an illegal operation concerning medical insurance; he was given a 20-year sentence in 1994,^[21] but was released in 1999 after serving five years in an American prison.^[14][22] According to Milla, "Prison was good for him. He's become a much better person. It gave him a chance to stop and think."^[23]

Milla attended public schools shortly after arriving in the United States, and became fluent in English in three months.^[24] During school, many of the students had teased her because she had immigrated from the Soviet Union during the Cold War: "I was called a commie and a Russian spy. I was never, ever, ever accepted into the crowd."^[25] At age 12 in seventh grade, Milla left school to focus on modeling.^[26] She has stated that she was rebellious during her early teens, engaging in drug use, shopping mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud.^[23] In 1994, she became a U.S. citizen.^[27]

Modeling career[link]

At the age of nine, she began going to modeling auditions.^[20] Jovovich was discovered by Gene Lemuel when he shot test photos of her and later showed them to Herb Ritts in LA..^[3] The next day Ritts booked her for the cover of Lei, an Italian magazine.^[3] After Jovovich booked Lei she was signed by Prima Modeling Agency^[28] then Richard Avedon hired her for Mademoiselle.^[3] Avedon was head of marketing at Revlon at the time, and chose Jovovich to appear with models Alexa Singer and Sandra Zatezalo in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements.^[29] In 1988, she made her first professional model contract.^[16] Jovovich was among other models who gained controversy for becoming involved in the industry at a young age.^[30]

Later, Jovovich made it to the cover of The Face, which led to new contracts and covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan.^[16] Since then, she has graced over one hundred magazine covers, including Seventeen, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, and InStyle.^[31] Her modeling career has included various 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 also had a minor cameo in Bret Easton Ellis' novel Glamorama, a satire of society's obsession with celebrities and beauty.^[32]

In an article published in 2002, she was said to be Miuccia Prada's muse^[30] and in an article published in 2003, Harpers & Queen magazine claimed Jovovich was Gianni Versace's "favourite supermodel".^[7] In 2004, Jovovich topped Forbes magazine's "Richest Supermodels of the World" list, earning a reported $10.5 million.^[10] In 2006, Jovovich was picked up by Spanish clothing line Mango as their new spokesmodel and is currently featured in their ad campaigns;^[33] she can also be seen in advertisements for Etro. She has noted that "Modeling was never a priority"^[34] and it instead enables her "to be selective about the creative decisions [she] make[s]".^[7]

Acting career[link]

Early work (1985–1993)[link]

Jovovich's mother had "raised [her] to be a movie star"^[23] and in 1985, enrolled Jovovich in the Professional Actors school in California.^[16][35][36]

In 1988, she appeared in her first professional role in the made-for-television film The Night Train to Kathmandu as Lily McLeod. Later that year, she made her debut in a theatrically released picture with a small role, as Samantha Delongpre, in the romantic thriller Two Moon Junction. Following roles on the television series Paradise (1988), Married... with Children (1989) and Parker Lewis Can't Lose (1990), Jovovich was cast as the lead as Lilli Hargrave in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). This sequel to The Blue Lagoon (1980) placed her opposite Brian Krause. Return to the Blue Lagoon led to comparisons between her and child model-turned-actress, Brooke Shields (who had starred in the original)—Jovovich was often called by press the "Slavic Brooke Shields".^[37] The role also gained her controversy, much like Shields gained in The Blue Lagoon, for appearing nude at a young age.^[25] For her portrayal of Lilli Hargrave, Jovovich was nominated for both "Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture" at the 1991 Young Artist Awards, and "Worst New Star" at the 1991 Golden Raspberry Awards.^[38]

In 1992, Jovovich co-starred with Christian Slater in the comedy Kuffs. Later that year, she portrayed Mildred Harris in the Charlie Chaplin biographical film Chaplin. 1993 saw Jovovich in the Richard Linklater cult film Dazed and Confused, in which she played Michelle Burroughs, on screen girlfriend to Pickford (played by her then real life boyfriend Shawn Andrews). Jovovich was heavily featured in the promotional material for the film, however, upon the film's release, she was upset to find her role was considerably trimmed from the original script.^[37] The bulk of Jovovich's role was to be shot on the last day of filming, however, she was misinformed of the date, and ultimately had one line in the film, "No", in addition to singing a line from "The Alien Song" from her album, The Divine Comedy.^[39] Discouraged, she took a hiatus from acting roles,^[40] during which time she moved to Europe and began focusing on a music career.

Breakthrough (1997–2001)[link]

Jovovich at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival

Jovovich returned to acting in 1997 with a lead in the Luc Besson directed science fiction action film The Fifth Element, alongside Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. She portrayed Leeloo, an alien who was the "supreme being". Jovovich said she "worked like hell: no band practice, no clubs, no pot, nothing"^[41] to acquire the role and impress Besson, whom she later married on December 14, 1997, but later divorced. Jovovich also co-created and mastered an over 400-word alien language for her role.^[37] She wore a costume that came to be known as the "ACE-bandage" costume, a revealing body suit made of medical bandages designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier.^[37][42] 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.^[43] The Fifth Element was often praised for its visual style and unique costumes, and film reviewer James Berardinelli, explained "Jovovich makes an impression, although her effectiveness has little to do with acting and less to do with dialogue".^[44] Jovovich was nominated for "Favorite Female Newcomer" at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and "Best Fight" at the MTV Movie Awards.^[38] Jovovich's portrayal of Leeloo garnered a video game and a planned action figure, but the figure was never released due to licensing problems.^[45] In a 2003 interview, Jovovich said Leeloo was her favorite role to portray.^[46]