Question's & Answers with actress Milla Jovovich from the “Summer of Sony” International Press Junket - Cancun, Mexico

MILLA JOVOVICH (“Alice”)  

Q. What were some of the unique challenges of playing “Alice” this time?

A. The training process was a lot harder than ever because I really wanted to lose the mommy baby weight completely. It’s not like I didn’t lose it for the last movie but I was still hormonal and when you’re hormonal, you can exercise all day long but your body retains fat and water because it’s thinking it has to protect a child and nurse a child. My friend was hormonal for, I think, two years after a baby. I was for three years. We went to Hawaii last January and I had this horrible massage and I couldn’t relax and all I could think of was, when is this going to end? [My husband’s] all like passed out. I started thinking, God, you’re just a failure. Look at yourself. You don’t even go outside in a bikini; you’re wearing a tee-shirt because you’re embarrassed. The paparazzi might take a picture of you picking something up. What have you turned into? You used to be Maxim’s sexiest body! What happened to you, Milla? I said, okay. That’s it. After this massage, you’re going on a diet. You’re going to the gym. And you’re going to cut your hair. And I left that spa all like [clenches fists] and Paul’s like, “Honey, what’s wrong? You look so focused.” I said, “Look, I’m going to lose weight and I’m going to go on a diet and I’m going to go to the gym and I’m going to cut my hair. But this weekend, I’m going to eat hotdogs and pizza. Then I’m going to have a Korean BBQ. But on Monday, that’s it.” And I did it. Literally like that.  

Q. Then did you go looking for photographers?

A. No. No. No. When I look at the pictures of myself back then, it’s not even like I was…it’s more the way you feel when you work on yourself. There’s a confidence that you have. It doesn’t matter whether you look different or not. You feel different. Even though my body didn’t look bad, I felt like I wasn’t doing anything for myself. So I just felt like a loser because I wasn’t putting anything into this great thing that’s given me so much and that I used to be really proud of. I think that discipline’s really important for your confidence. The only way to gain confidence is to work hard, whether it’s on yourself or your writing or your acting or your music. Whatever it is, but exercise is for everybody, I don’t care if you’re a writer or a doctor. You’re never going to feel good about yourself if you don’t put that work in. 

Q. Is this the first time that you’ve felt this way? Or are you usually comfortable with your appearance?

A. At sixteen, I was so horrible. You would have hated me. I was the worst sixteen-year-old you can imagine. So snooty. So, like, “I’m so cool.” I would literally look at girls who were twenty-two and be like, “Why are you even going out? You should be home having babies.” I mean, I was horrible. When I look at interviews with myself between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, I just want to hide in shame because it’s just so embarrassing how I think I’m so cool. It took a long time for me to, you know, get over that. 

Q. I hear you daughter is taking Taekwondo. Is she preparing to be an action star, too?

A. I don’t know if it’s about the action star thing but I have been stretching her since the day she was born so she can do the splits in every direction and the Taekwondo is more for discipline. I don’t want her to be a professional Taekwondo-anything because you ruin your body through ballet or being a professional gymnast or professional martial artist. I don’t want her to hyperextend and do crazy stuff to her bones and her muscles. Discipline she can use for every area of her life. To know that, when you started, you sucked. Then you worked and you worked and then you did it and now you’re great. That, for me, is a very simple formula that works. To be able to instill that in her – that you can do anything, all you need to do is work to achieve it. You want to play guitar? Pick it up. You’re going to suck and you’re going to have to practice and then, hey, a week later, you’ll know how to play a G cord.” It really is that simple. She wants to do ballet and she was in a ballet class but it was like a baby class. It was silly. I want her to have a real Russian class. I want the big Russian with the cane. When I did ballet, I had the crazy Russian woman. Trust me, I did not talk back. To have that follow through from an early age will make her somebody who doesn’t just have an idea but someone who actually makes that idea reality.  

Q. When do you think as an actor you stopped “sucking,” as you say, and got better?

A. I still suck. I’m not being self-deprecating because I have great moments, too. But I have to work. I was never a natural talent. My mom was a natural talent. She just knew herself. She was just comfortable with her self and expressing herself. Having such a strong mom who was so talented made me very insecure. It’s funny because my daughter will do things in front of my friends or in front of her grandparents but as soon as I walk in she stops. She’ll be singing songs she hears [me] recording downstairs but as soon as I walk in, she’ll stop singing. I’m like, “Ever, your voice sounds so beautiful.” But it’s hard because she’s imitating me and if I catch her doing it she gets embarrassed. We have to find something that’s her thing. If I could help her find her passion, she would never have to work because when you love something, it’s not work, is it? 

Q. Does she speak Russian?

A. She speaks better than I do because she has the most amazing Russian nanny. When we were in Toronto last year, she went to this incredible Russian school. She was on my level when she was one or two. By three, she was already correcting me. Now when I try and speak Russian to her, she’s like, “Mom, speak English. I don’t have time for you to sit and be like, ‘What are you saying’?” She’s a smart cookie. 

Q. When you go to Russia do you feel like you’re home?

A. In some sense, yes, because of the people and hearing the language and feeling…there’s a certain quality. I don’t want to generalize and say, “This race of people is like this and this race of people is like that.” But, when you go to a Russian party, it’s a Russian party. You go to a French party, it’s a French party. There’s a certain type of food and a certain type of joke. I have a group of people that I adore in Russia. So yeah, in some sense I feel like I’m coming to a certain home. Then again, Russian’s not my first language any more so I can communicate up to a point but usually it ends with me speaking English and people going, “Aw, you’re so cute when you speak Russian.”  

Q. Apart from keeping fit, what are your best beauty tips?

A. Obviously it starts with what you put in your body, right? I try to eat as clean as I can during the week, which is pretty easy because I cook at home for my daughter. We cook really well and then we have our cheats on the weekend. But it’s a regime, like anything. You’ve got to wash your face. Tone. Moisturize. Do that every day and every night and you’ll have better skin than the person who didn’t. I’ve been toning and moisturizing since I was twelve. Seriously.      

Q. Is cooking something you like to do?

A. I love to cook. That was just another reason, too, why I didn’t want to go traveling and make movies this year; not just to chauffer my daughter around but to be there like my mom was for me. Cooking for me, cooking for the family, being at home. When my daughter says, “Mom?” I’m like, “Yeah. I’m right here in the other room.” She’s got that feeling that she’s number one because her whole life I’ve been number one or her dad and she’s following us. Now I’ve turned it around. “No, I have to follow you and make sure you get to your classes and I’m focused on you.” Sometimes she loves it. Sometimes I’m sure she hates it, like we all do. But at least she knows her mom loves her more than anything and that she was my priority. 

Q. This movie deals with future technology. Are you a fan of the latest gadgets, like the 3-D Blu-ray players and the iPad?

A. Oh, yeah. I’m the Apple genius at home. I’m definitely a tech head. Also because I love to record music so I was all into Reason when it first came out and then Logic and now Pro Tools. I love computers. Of course, I can’t get my head around a PS3 or a VCR to save my life. But pretty much any problem you have on an Apple, I could potentially solve. Give me a remote control and I’m like, “What happens?”