88 Facts About Milla Jovovich

Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich, known professionally as Milla Jovovich, is an American actress and model.

Milla Jovovich's starring roles in numerous science-fiction and action films led the music channel VH1 to deem her the "reigning queen of kick-butt" in 2006.

In 1988, Milla Jovovich made her screen debut in the television film The Night Train to Kathmandu and appeared in her first feature film, Two Moon Junction.

Milla Jovovich gained attention for her role in the 1991 romance film Return to the Blue Lagoon, as she was 15 years old at the time.

Milla Jovovich was considered to have a breakthrough with her role in the 1997 French science-fiction action film The Fifth Element, written and directed by Luc Besson.

Milla Jovovich starred as the heroine and martyr in Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.

From 2002 to 2016, Milla Jovovich portrayed Alice in the action horror film franchise Resident Evil, which became the highest-grossing film series to be based on video games.

Milla Jovovich released a debut album, The Divine Comedy, in 1994, and a follow-up, The People Tree Sessions, in 1998.

Milla Jovovich continues to release demos for other songs on her official website and frequently contributes to film soundtracks.

Milla Jovovich was born on December 17,1975, in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, the daughter of Galina, a Russian actress, and Bogdan Jovovic, a Serbian doctor.

Milla Jovovich spent most of her early childhood in Moscow, Russian SFSR, her mother's native city, and says she was born in Ukraine "pretty much by accident".

In 1980, when Milla Jovovich was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union and emigrated to London.

Milla Jovovich's parents divorced soon after their arrival in Los Angeles.

Milla Jovovich's father was convicted and imprisoned for participating in the largest health-insurance fraud ever investigated; he was given a 20-year sentence in 1994, but was released in 1999 after serving five years.

Milla Jovovich attended public schools in Los Angeles, becoming fluent in English in three months.

Milla Jovovich has said she was rebellious during her early teens, engaging in drug use, shopping-mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud.

In 1988, Milla Jovovich appeared in her debut professional film role as Samantha Delongpre in the romantic thriller Two Moon Junction.

Milla Jovovich had several roles in television series, including Paradise, Married.

The role was controversial as, like Shields, Milla Jovovich appeared nude in the film.

Milla Jovovich was nominated for "Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture" at the 1991 Young Artist Awards, and "Worst New Star" at the 1991 Golden Raspberry Awards.

In 1992, Milla Jovovich co-starred with Christian Slater in the comedy Kuffs.

Milla Jovovich played Michelle Burroughs, the on-screen girlfriend to Pickford.

Strongly featured in promotions for the film, Milla Jovovich was upset to find her role much reduced in the released film.

Milla Jovovich returned to acting in 1997 with a lead role in the French science-fiction action film The Fifth Element, alongside Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman.

Milla Jovovich portrayed Leeloo, an alien who helps to save the planet.

Milla Jovovich said she "worked like hell: no band practice, no clubs, no pot, nothing" to acquire the role and impress Besson.

Milla Jovovich co-created and mastered an alien fictional language of over 400 words for her role.

Milla Jovovich wore a costume that came to be known as the "ACE-bandage" costume; the body suit designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier was made of medical bandages.

The Fifth Element was often praised for its visual style; critic James Berardinelli wrote, "Milla Jovovich makes an impression, although her effectiveness has little to do with acting and less to do with dialogue".

Milla Jovovich was nominated for "Favorite Female Newcomer" at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and "Best Fight" at the MTV Movie Awards.

In 1998, Milla Jovovich appeared in Spike Lee's drama He Got Game, as abused prostitute Dakota Burns; she acted with Denzel Washington and Ray Allen.

Milla Jovovich cut her hair short and wore armour in several extensive battle scenes.

In 2000, Milla Jovovich appeared as the troubled Eloise in The Million Dollar Hotel, a film based on a concept story by Bono of the band U2 and Nicholas Klein.

In 2002, Milla Jovovich starred in the horror-action film Resident Evil, released in the United States on March 15,2002, and based on the Capcom video game series of the same name.

Milla Jovovich portrayed Alice, the film's heroine, who fights a legion of zombies created by the Umbrella Corporation.

Milla Jovovich had accepted the role because she and her brother Marco had been fans of the video game franchise.

Milla Jovovich had performed all the stunts required in the film, except for a scene that would involve her jumping to a cement platform, which her management deemed too dangerous, and had trained in karate, kickboxing, and combat-training.

The role of Fangora in Dummy allowed Milla Jovovich to act in film with Oscar-winning Adrien Brody, who was a friend prior to filming.

Milla Jovovich found it easy to identify with this role because she felt Fangora possessed similar qualities to the actress' own life.

In 2004, Milla Jovovich reprised the role of Alice in the sequel to Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Milla Jovovich noted during an interview that year that her large action films take care of the commercial part of her career, while she acts in "independent little films that never come out" to appease her artistic side, and "It's a good balance".

Milla Jovovich played the title role of Violet Song jat Shariff, a role that involved heavily choreographed fight sequences.

In 2007, Milla Jovovich reprised her role as Alice in Resident Evil: Extinction, the third of the Resident Evil series.

In 2009, Milla Jovovich starred in David Twohy's A Perfect Getaway with Kiele Sanchez, Timothy Olyphant, and Steve Zahn.

Milla Jovovich starred in the science-fiction thriller The Fourth Kind, as a psychologist in Alaska who uses hypnosis to uncover memories from her patients of alien abduction.

In 2010, Jovovich returned as Alice in the fourth movie of the Resident Evil series, Afterlife, which was directed by her husband, Paul W S Anderson, and portrayed the mother of a promiscuous and troubled high school student in the independent coming-of-age dramedy Dirty Girl, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, opposite Juno Temple, William H Macy, Mary Steenburgen, and Tim McGraw.

Milla Jovovich played the wife of a jailed arsonist in Stone, a psychological thriller co-starring Robert De Niro and Edward Norton.

Club noted that Milla Jovovich was "particularly good as a breathy femme fatale who seduces De Niro with a mere change in inflection".

Also in 2011, Milla Jovovich appeared as a Ukrainian con artist in Famke Janssen's directorial debut film Bringing Up Bobby, alongside Marcia Cross, and starred in the romantic comedy Lucky Trouble, which was her Russian-language film debut.

Milla Jovovich returned to her role as Alice in the fifth installment of Resident Evil for Resident Evil: Retribution, which was released on September 14,2012.

Milla Jovovich made a cameo appearance reprising the role of villain Katinka in 2016's Zoolander 2.

Time Out in its review for the film noted: "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".

In Shock and Awe, Milla Jovovich played the wife of an investigator working on the reasons behind the Bush Administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq, starring opposite Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones.

Milla Jovovich starred as the administrator of an island-bound reform school in the fantasy film Paradise Hills, the directorial debut of Alice Waddington.

Milla Jovovich played the evil Vivienne Nimue, the Blood Queen in the Hellboy reboot movie, released in 2019.

Milla 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.

Milla Jovovich had written the lyrics and composed the music of the songs when she was fifteen, with the exception of a Ukrainian folk song, "In a Glade," that she covered.

Milla Jovovich had chosen the title after seeing Russian artist Alexis Steele's proposed cover artwork sketch for the then untitled album.

Milla Jovovich released the track "The Gentleman Who Fell," with an accompanying music video, as the sole single from the album.

Milla Jovovich toured the United States and Canada during most of 1994 to promote the album, opening for Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Philosopher Kings, and Crash Test Dummies, as well as playing smaller acoustic sets.

Milla Jovovich had opted to perform in smaller and more intimate settings, turning down a musical appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Milla Jovovich has been collaborating musically with longtime friend and musician Chris Brenner, who co-wrote with her on the Divine Comedy Album and who was the musical coordinator for the supporting tour.

Milla Jovovich has contributed tracks to several of her film soundtracks, including The Million Dollar Hotel and Dummy, and has provided songs for the soundtracks of films in which she has not acted such as Underworld produced by musician Danny Lohner, who was the bass player in Nine Inch Nails for many years.

In 2001, Milla Jovovich was one of many celebrities whose vocals were featured in a cover of "We are Family" to raise money for the American Red Cross.

Milla Jovovich has appeared as guest vocalist on the song "Former Lover" on Deepak Chopra's album, A Gift of Love II: Oceans of Ecstasy and Legion of Boom by The Crystal Method.

Danny Lohner, and longtime music collaborator Chris Brenner currently continue to record and perform with Milla Jovovich, who has made several highly praised appearances in recent years.

Milla Jovovich provides license to freely download and remix the tracks, but reserves the right to sell and issue them.

Milla Jovovich has walked for Balmain, Versace, Fendi, Trussardi, Alessandro Dell'Acqua, Costume National, Iceberg, Anna Sui, Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, Salvatore Ferragamo, Missoni, Blumarine, Jil Sander, and Jean Paul Gautier.

Since 1998, Milla Jovovich has been an "international spokesmodel" for L'Oreal cosmetics.

Milla Jovovich was referred to in a minor cameo in Bret Easton Ellis' novel Glamorama, a satire of society's obsession with celebrities and beauty.

Milla Jovovich was said to be designer Miuccia Prada's muse in 2002; a 2003 article claimed she was Gianni Versace's "favourite supermodel".

In 2004, Milla Jovovich topped Forbes magazine's "Richest Supermodels of the World" list, earning a reported $10.5 million, and in 2006, Milla Jovovich was picked up by Mango, a Spanish clothing line, as their new spokesmodel and is featured in their advertising campaigns; she can be seen in adverts for Etro.

Milla Jovovich has said that "Modeling was never a priority" and that the money she earns enables her "to be selective about the creative decisions [she] make[s]".

In 2018, Milla Jovovich became the "face" of a global advertising campaign for Balmain.

Milla Jovovich-Hawk was nominated as a finalist, although Doo-Ri Chung took the top prize.

Milla Jovovich has been noted for her careers as a model, singer and actress.

In 2004, Milla Jovovich was ranked No 69 on Maxim magazine's "Top 100 Hot List", ranked No 82 in 2005 and ranked No 21 in 2010.

In 2011, Milla Jovovich attended and sang at the birthday celebration of Mikhail Gorbachev.

Milla Jovovich married on-screen boyfriend Shawn Andrews in 1992 while filming Dazed and Confused together.

Andrews was 21, while Milla Jovovich was 16; the marriage was annulled by her mother two months later.

Shortly after the annulment, Milla Jovovich moved to Europe with her friend and musician Chris Brenner where she met and then lived with her new boyfriend, ex-Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender, in London from May 1994 to October 1995.

Milla Jovovich married The Fifth Element director Luc Besson in 1997 in Las Vegas where they went skydiving directly after the ceremony.

Milla Jovovich became involved with Birkin romantically just before his death in a car accident on November 8,2001.

On November 3,2007, Milla Jovovich gave birth to their first child, daughter Ever Anderson, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

In 2019, Milla Jovovich revealed she was pregnant with her third daughter after miscarrying two years prior.

Milla Jovovich was brought up in a Russian household and referred to the role the Russian culture played in her life when she stated in 2005:.

Milla Jovovich has advocated the legalization of cannabis, and appeared in a spread and on the cover for High Times.

Milla Jovovich enjoys playing the guitar, and writing poems and lyrics for songs.