The Tragedy Of Mila Kunis Is So Sad
How could Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive possibly have any problems? From political unrest in her homeland, to a lifetime spent facing the odds, Mila Kunis proves she's a warrior — who just happens to be easy on the eyes.
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00:00How could Esquire's sexiest woman alive possibly have any problems?
00:05From political unrest in her homeland to a lifetime spent facing the odds, Mila Kunis
00:10proves she's a warrior, who just happens to be easy on the eyes.
00:16Mila Kunis was born in Ukraine in 1983.
00:20She's a descendant of Jewish family lineage with relatives who survived the Holocaust.
00:25But even after the war was long over, pervasive anti-Semitism remained.
00:31She told The Sun,
00:32"'After the Holocaust, in Russia, you were not allowed to be religious.
00:36So my parents raised me to know I was Jewish.
00:39You know who you are inside.'"
00:40"'I literally had no clue of a different continent, let alone a different language.'"
00:47Her great-uncle emigrated to the United States before she was born, which led to her grandfather
00:52moving as well.
00:54She told People magazine of her grandfather's experience,
00:57"'Disneyland,' of all places, transformed his perspective on the possibilities of the
01:01West.
01:02He came back to Russia and said, "'We're leaving.'"
01:06Having relocated to the U.S. at the tender age of seven, along with her parents and her
01:10brother, Mila's new chapter didn't start out like anything close to a fairy tale.
01:16Assimilating to her new surroundings proved to be so challenging that she says she barely
01:20remembers that time.
01:22She told the Los Angeles Times,
01:24"'I blocked out second grade completely.
01:26I have no recollection of it.
01:28I cried every day.
01:29I didn't understand the culture.
01:31I didn't understand the people.
01:33I didn't understand the language.'"
01:35"'I grew up in California, so it's first and foremost my home.'"
01:40One of the activities that helped Kunis find her footing was learning the craft of acting,
01:45as she shared with GQ,
01:46"'My English was a little janky, I didn't have very many friends, and there was this
01:51place advertised on the radio as a place for kids to meet other kids, an acting class.'"
01:56Her new hobby turned out to be a positive thing for her mom and dad, too.
02:00As Kunis explained it,
02:01"'My parents couldn't afford a babysitter.
02:03They said, great, that takes up our Saturday.'"
02:06Kunis began landing roles in commercials at the age of nine, which led to film roles like
02:11Piranha in 1995 and Make-A-Wish Molly that same year.
02:15"'But you don't understand.
02:18There's nothing to understand.'"
02:21It might be hard to believe that the strikingly beautiful Mila Kunis was ever teased for her
02:25looks.
02:26But, even though she was voted Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire and Sexiest Woman in the
02:31World by FHM, the actor claims she was bullied as a child for her unique features.
02:37She told OK!
02:38Magazine,
02:39"'I had a very funny-looking face when I was little.
02:42I had, like, big eyes, big lips, big ears.
02:45I was constantly being made fun of for having big eyes, and that was awful.
02:49I used to come home crying, why do I have big eyes?
02:52And my parents were like, you're crazy.'"
02:54"'I don't think I'm the sexiest woman alive, but I think the Starbucks guy has a hoot riding
03:01in my Starbucks cup every morning.'"
03:03Kunis seemed to acknowledge that the features her classmates once teased her for were the
03:07same features that eventually became one of her greatest assets.
03:10She said,
03:11"'I grew into my face.
03:12I've learned it wasn't a bad thing to be picked on because when you're little, it seems awful,
03:17like it's the end of the world.'"
03:19Few milestones compare to a first kiss, but Mila Kunis may never forget her first, for
03:25all the wrong reasons.
03:26"'This is our secret make-out place!'
03:29It was a scene for That 70s Show, which was filmed when Kunis was just 14 and her on-screen
03:35boyfriend, Ashton Kutcher, was 19.
03:38She recalled with Entertainment Weekly,
03:39"'I've never kissed a guy.
03:41Ashton's attractive, and I was a 14-year-old little girl, and I was extremely scared for
03:46my life.'"
03:47For his part, Kutcher admitted to feeling weird about it as well.
03:51He remembered,
03:52"'They were like, you guys are going to be making out in this scene.
03:55And I'm thinking, wait, this is slightly illegal.'"
03:58"'I'm telling you, Jackie, this body is a curse!''
04:01To make matters worse, co-star Danny Masterson bet Kutcher $20 to make the kiss a little
04:07more intimate.
04:09Kutcher added,
04:10"'You're kissing on the show, we're boyfriend and girlfriend.
04:12You would use tongue.
04:14Danny bet me like 20 bucks I wouldn't do it.'"
04:17Ultimately, there was no tongue involved in Mila's first-ever kiss, even if it was for
04:22the cameras.
04:24In 2010, Mila Kunis starred in the acclaimed film Black Swan as Lily, a ballerina with
04:30a wild side, opposite Natalie Portman's prim and innocent Nina.
04:35Kunis was nominated for several awards for her performance, including a Golden Globe
04:40and a Critics' Choice Award, and she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
04:45She and Portman were even nominated for Best Kiss at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, as well
04:51as the Teen Choice Awards.
04:53The accolades she received were numerous, but the actor's intense training regimen took
04:58a serious toll on her health.
05:00In a 2011 interview with W, Kunis admitted that she had never danced before Black Swan
05:05and found the practice to be grueling.
05:08She recalled,
05:09"...I trained for four months, seven days a week, five hours a day.
05:12I had one day off on my birthday."
05:15That type of intensive training led to a host of physical issues for the star.
05:20She explained,
05:21"...I lost 20 pounds, I tore a ligament, I dislocated my shoulder, I have two scars on
05:26my back."
05:27Although the actor stands by her feeling that playing Lily was ultimately worth it, she
05:36also said that she would never dance ballet again.
05:39She confessed,
05:40"...I'm a strong believer in mind over matter, but I didn't fully understand what that meant
05:45until this production.
05:46I was like, well, I wear heels, I can do this.
05:49I was wrong.
05:50I screamed the first time I put on a pointe shoe."
05:54Among Mila's standout physical attributes are her eyes, but they're even more unique
05:59in that her left eye and right eye aren't quite the same color.
06:03However, the reason for the unusual eye color is not so glamorous.
06:07While having two different colored eyes, called heterochromia, can be harmless, Mila's condition
06:13is caused by iritis.
06:15According to Cedars-Sinai, chronic iritis is an autoimmune disorder that can cause eye
06:20pain, light sensitivity, headaches, and loss of vision.
06:24It was that last symptom that affected Kunis in a serious capacity.
06:28She explained to Cosmo in 2011,
06:31"...I was blind in one eye for many years.
06:33I'm not blind anymore.
06:34I had surgery a couple of months ago.
06:37They cut it open and dropped a new lens in there."
06:40The actor revealed that she had kept her partial blindness a secret until she was able to have
06:44the procedure to correct the condition.
06:47In 2011, Mila Kunis fell victim to a notorious celebrity hacking scandal known as Operation
06:54Hackerazzi.
06:56The hacker accessed the personal accounts of Kunis as well as other A-list stars, including
07:01Christina Aguilera and Scarlett Johansson.
07:05According to TMZ, no nude photographs of Kunis were leaked, but a photo of her sitting in
07:09a bathtub, in which just her head was visible, was released in the hack.
07:14The outlet also reported that the hacker had uncovered photos of Justin Timberlake on Mila's
07:21phone, as well as text messages between the two, sparking rumors of an affair.
07:27Both Kunis and Timberlake denied any salacious exchanges between them.
07:31In a statement shared with People, reps for both actors were adamant that nothing nefarious
07:35had occurred.
07:36The statement read, in part,
07:37"...at no time did Mr. Timberlake and Ms. Kunis exchange inappropriate texts or emails.
07:43The insistence that there is any inappropriate correspondence between the two parties is
07:47entirely false."
07:49The statement also denied that the hacker had accessed Kunis' phone, claiming that the
07:53photos were instead obtained from an inactive email account.
07:57In 2012, the hacker, Christopher Chaney, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
08:03The judge in the case made it clear that the invasion of privacy was no joke, telling the
08:08media,
08:09"...these types of crimes are as pernicious and serious as physical stalking."
08:14In 2022, Mila Kunis opened up about the health scare that afflicted her husband, just a few
08:20years earlier.
08:21Kunis explained to ET that Kutcher had suffered a flare-up of a rare autoimmune disorder that
08:26causes inflammation of the blood vessels.
08:29During Ashton's year-long recovery to regain full mobility and sensory function, Kunis
08:34held down the fort, standing by her husband's side.
08:38She told Entertainment Tonight,
08:39"...you deal with whatever health issue comes your way, but you still got kids, you still
08:45got a family, you still got, you gotta live life."
08:48In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine after years of escalating conflict between the two
08:54countries.
08:55The event hit Mila Kunis hard, since she was born in Ukraine and lived there with her family
09:00until emigrating to the U.S.
09:03During an interview with Maria Shriver on Conversations Above the Noise, Kunis shared
09:07her devastation over the conflict, revealing,
09:10"...I was like, oh my God, I feel like a part of my heart just got ripped out.
09:15It was the weirdest feeling."
09:18Those instincts moved Kunis to take action.
09:21She and Ashton Kutcher started a GoFundMe to raise money in order to house Ukrainian
09:26refugees and send supplies to refugee sites.
09:29As of January 2024, the couple had raised over $37 million.
09:34As Kunis shared on the fundraiser's page,
09:37"...Ukrainians are proud and brave people who deserve our help in their time of need."