Milla Jovovich (born on December 17, 1975) is a Serbian-Russian-Ukrainian model, actress, musician, and fashion designer.
Jovovich was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, (now Ukraine), the daughter of Bogdan Bogdanović Jovović, a Yugoslav pediatrician of Serbian extraction and Galina Loginova, a Soviet stage actress of ethnic Ukrainian-Russian descent.
Jovovich's paternal family's estate was at Metohija in Zlopek near Peć. Her paternal great-grandfather, Bogić Camić Jovović, was a flag-bearer of the Serbian Vasojevići clan and an officer in the guard of the King Nicholas I of Montenegro; his wife's name was Milena. Her paternal grandfather, Bogdan Jovović, was a commander in the Priština 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. Bogich later joined Bodgan in Kiev, where he and his sister graduated in medicine. In 2000, her grandfather, Bogdan Jovović, died in Kiev.
In 1981, when Jovovich was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union for political reasons and moved to London. They subsequently lived in Sacramento, California before settling in Los Angeles, California seven months later; Jovovich's parents divorced soon after.
In 1988, as a result of her father's relationship with an Argentinan woman, Jovovich's half-brother Marco Jovovich, was born. Jovovich'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. Jovovich's father was incarcerated for most of her childhood for partaking in an illegal operation with medical insurance; he was given a twenty year sentence in 1994, but was released in 1999 after serving five years in an American prison. Jovovich has stated that "Prison was good for him. He's become a much better person. It gave him a chance to stop and think."
Jovovich attended public schools shortly after arriving in the United States, and learned fluent English in three months. During school, many of the students had teased her because she had immigrated from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Jovovich said, "I was called a Commie and a Russian spy. I was never, ever, ever accepted into the crowd". At age twelve in seventh grade, Jovovich left school to focus on her growing career. As a young teenager, she claimed to be rebellious, engaging in drug use, shopping mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud.
At the age of nine, Jovovich began going to modeling auditions, and was signed by Prima modeling agency. At eleven, Jovovich was noticed by the photographer Richard Avedon. 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. In 1987, photographers Gene Lemuel and Peter Duke took polaroids of the twelve year old Jovovich, and Lemuel later showed the photographs to Herb Ritts. Impressed, Ritts re-shot the polaroids for the October 1987 cover of the Italian fashion magazine Lei; this was the first of her many cover shoots. In 1988, she made her first professional model contract. Jovovich was among other models who gained controversy for becoming involved in the industry at a young age. Later Jovovich made it to the cover of The Face, which led to new contracts and covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan.
Jovovich's mother had "raised Mila to be a movie star" and in 1985, enrolled Jovovich to the Professional Actors school in California. 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. 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. 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. Discouraged, she took a hiatus from acting roles, during which time she moved to Europe and began focusing on a music career.
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 "perfect being". Jovovich said she "worked like hell: no band practice, no clubs, no pot, nothing" to acquire the role and impress Besson, whom she later married on December 14, 1997, but divorced in 1999. She took part in eight months of acting classes and karate practice prior to filming. Jovovich also co-created and mastered an over 800-word alien language for her role. 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. 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.
Jovovich had begun working on a music album as early as 1988, when she was signed by SBK Records after the company heard a demo she recorded. In August 1990, she asserted in an interview that the then-forthcoming album would be "a mix between Kate Bush, Sinéad O'Connor, This Mortal Coil and the Cocteau Twins." After it was initially presented by SBK strictly as a pop album, Jovovich protested, insisting on using her personal poetry for lyrics and recording her own instrumental material.
Jovovich currently resides in homes in Los Angeles and New York with her fiancé, film writer and director Paul W. S. Anderson. The two met while working on Resident Evil in which Anderson wrote and directed, and Jovovich starred. Anderson proposed to Jovovich in 2003, but the two separated for a period of time before becoming a couple again. The couple has stated that they "would love to [get married], but maybe after the baby." On November 3, 2007, Jovovich gave birth to her and Anderson's first child, a daughter, Ever Gabo Anderson. The child was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, one day before Jovovich's due date of November 4th. Ever, a male Scottish name, was given to reflect Anderson's Scottish heritage, while the middle name of Gabo (pronounced "Gabeau") was a combination of Jovovich's parent's names — the first two letters of mother Galina and the first two letters of father Bogie's. Wim Wenders, who directed Jovovich's film The Million Dollar Hotel, is the baby's godfather. Jovovich has stated that she would like to have three children, saying through means of adoption as well. She has two miniature Maltese dogs, Bubbles and Madness.
Prior to her relationship with Anderson, Jovovich married on-screen boyfriend Shawn Andrews in 1992 while filming Dazed and Confused together. Andrews was 21, while Jovovich was 16; the marriage was annulled by her mother two months later. Shortly after the annulment, Jovovich moved to Europe and lived with her then boyfriend, Jamiroquai ex-bassist Stuart Zender, in London from 1994 to 1996. From 1996 to 1997, she dated photographer Mario Sorrenti. In a ceremony in Las Vegas, she married The Fifth Element director Luc Besson in 1997; they divorced in 1999. Later in 1999, during the filming of The Million Dollar Hotel, Jovovich dated co-star Jeremy Davies from May until the end of the year. Jovovich also dated her "idol", Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, for seven months in 2000.
In 2006, Jovovich mentioned her interest in publishing her private diaries as an autobiography. She had kept a diary since childhood, writing about the locations she has traveled and "all the mad things that done". Jovovich has stated that she views publication as a way to "get it all into a book—like an autobiography", and it would have a "diary feel to it". However, she also commented that she was "…not sure how interested anyone would be in publishing it, or reading it, for that matter."
In addition to being a smoker, Jovovich has advocated the legalization of cannabis and appeared in a spread and on the cover for High Times. In an article published in 1994, she admitted that her only vices were cigarettes and cannabis. She practices yoga and meditates often in attempts to live a healthy lifestyle; although not affiliating with a certain religion, she prays and considers herself a "spiritual person". She avoids junk foods and prefers to cook for herself. She practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in addition to other varieties of martial arts. Jovovich also enjoys playing the guitar, writing in a diary, and writing poems and lyrics for songs.