Mila Kunis covers Nylon magazine January 2011. I’d forgotten about the future bomb that is Friends With Benefits, co-starring Justin Timberlake’s horrific attempts at acting. I guess she’s the one doing the heavy-lifting in the film itself and promotion-wise. Either that, or at this point I’m so scarred by Timberlake’s wooden efforts that I’ve placed some kind of mental block on everything he does and I’ve missed all the promotional appearances/ magazine covers he’s done for the film to date. Thinking about it, it’s the latter. How does he keep getting work? Below are images from Kunis’ photo shoot, as well as interview excerpts. Her hair is three-tone and her face looks off-side, I’m not sure what’s making it like that. I’m thinking the angle, rather than lazy Photoshop. Kunis is being screwed out of 50% of her obvious cuteness with a shoddy camera angle.
- On spending three weeks contemplating a career change, as she felt overwhelmed by having been working in TV since she was 9 years old: ‘I was like, ‘Alright, this has been a god run, but I’m done’. I wanted to rethink my life for a minute because I didn’t think acting could be a career. This is the worst industry you can put yourself in because there’s no security whatsoever. I mean, none… The whole thing is based so much on opinion and nobody is wrong. That person can think I’m great, that person can think I suck, and they’re both right. I was like, ‘Can I really do this for the rest of my life?”
- On finding job security in television: ‘What a lot of people don’t realise is that you make more money in TV than you will in film; it’s a very steady salary. An obscene amount of money gets given to you for, like… what? So I was 20, and I looked at my bank account and realised that I was secure for the rest of my life. I was like, ‘I’m okay. I can go do other things now.’
- On becoming financially-secure: ‘I had been happy being poor, so having money made no difference to me. I know people with money say that, but it’s the truth. Of course, it’s a blessing to feel like you have a roof over your head and not having to worry about where your next meal is coming from. But that blessing, I realised, comes at a price.’
- On realising that continuing as an actress was the only way she could be happy: ‘I was contemplating whether I wanted to keep doing this or if I wanted to go and explore life. And I realised that acting is the one thing I love to do… I asked myself, ‘What else could I do that would make me happy? What else could I do where I wake up in the morning and think, ‘I get to work and do something great and have fun’? I couldn’t think of anything else. So I was like, ‘I’m stuck doing this because I actually, truly love it.”
