Mila Kunis: Moving McAllister
In the quirky romantic road comedy Moving McAllister, "That '70's Show's" Mila Kunis plays free-spirited Michelle McAllister, niece of a rich mogul and she's moving across country in a run-down van escorted by an up-tight law student who had rather be studying for his bar exam. Of course, the two fall in love.
We chatted with Mila about everything from sleeping with a pig (a real one.
We aren't dishing about boyfriends here) to dealing with crying fans. Mila admits she's never taken a road trip or moved across country in a van unless you count driving to a World Series game in Arizona. "It's like seven hours, not bad". She came to the U.S. from Russia originally, "there you go! That's my road trip!" While chatting, we both realized that moving to different locations, filming the movie was actually very much a bizarre road trip for her and she tells us all about it.
TeenHollywood: Did you build a backstory in your head for Michelle? She seems to be living a pretty Bohemian lifestyle when we first meet her.
Mila: I think I related to her a lot. She's very much a free spirit, into the moment and there wasn't much to build up other than that. She was a really fun character to explore while playing her.
TeenHollywood: So you are definitely the free spirit, not the super organized person?
Mila: I am the farthest thing from organized. My best friend since of age of nine, Julie, she has a Masters in counseling. She works at a high school. She's my organizer. She's the polar opposite of me. Everything in her life is organized; what she wants in life, how she's going to get it. Whereas I wake up and I'm like 'let's go to Palm Springs for the day!' I'm very happy in life but very disorganized. I don't have a bone in me to organize. I live in a mess. My mom is so organized and clean and everything is in its place. She always tells me, 'what happened?'
TeenHollywood: I'm sure a lot of teens can relate! So, how did you find out about this film and take the part?
Mila: They sent me the script. I read it on a plane going to New York and I said, 'absolutely. I'll do it in a heartbeat'. It seemed like fun, exciting and different.
TeenHollywood: What was the ad-lib factor in McAllister? You are acting with the writer and crazy Jon Heder so did they just throw stuff at you? Can you remember anything that you threw in that stayed in the final cut?
Mila: There was a lot of banter back and forth but we kind of went over stuff at the beginning of the day before we started shooting, key points. But, Jon Heder is a brilliant improver. Working off of him was always really fun. The peeing stuff, I'll tell you was me really having to go pee! I was always dehydrated and drinking more water. 'We've got to stop! I have to pee'. I never peed more in my life.
TeenHollywood: There is a scene with you, Ben (who plays law student Rick in the film) and Jon Heder in a really gross-looking hot tub way out in the boonies. Was that scene as gross as it looked to shoot?
Mila: Oh my God! He [Ben] really threw up! You drink this stuff [Ipecac] and it makes you throw up. I don't know why anyone would do that to themselves but he did it. This was very realistic. We were in a place called Molasses Junction, Florida in the middle of nowhere. We were in this Jacuzzi and beforehand he ate lots of stuff. It was one shot, I'll tell you that. We were in there waiting for 20 minutes for this stuff to kick in. He's like 'okay, it's coming'. Then he just projectiled! You jump out! 'Okay, we're done for the day'!
TeenHollywood: Now that we're on a gross food theme, Ben said in press notes that he loved seeing you devour a Taco Bell bean burrito in under a minute. Do you remember doing that?
Mila: I love Taco Bell! We would have to drive from location to location. We had mini-road trips and we carpooled. And, you get hungry in the middle of nowhere. I was so happy. I could eat all day long. I love food and I eat like a pig. I love going to different restaurants. My friends are like 'oh, no. I can't have a carb'. I'm like 'bring it on. I love bread!' It'll catch up with me some day. I started doing Pilates a year ago before shooting Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I was like 'okay, I need to get in somewhat decent shape for this. Pilates completely changed my figure. I became obsessed with it. But, up until then, nothing.
TeenHollywood: Do you think a couple with really mismatched interests and personalities (like Michelle and Rick in the film) can make it together?
Mila: I think absolutely because one keeps the other one on their toes in different ways. I think people have to balance each other. If you're too similar, there's nothing to talk about. You might as well be talking to a mirror. You want to have your significant other to be a little bit different, not where you fight but you want to disagree on some stuff and have different opinions because that's what life is. Ultimately, one completes the other. You have the organizer who completes the spaz and the spaz makes the organizer's life a little more interesting.
TeenHollywood: Any other memories of shooting Moving McAllister?
Mila: I'll tell you, that truck is going to be the end of me! That truck was the truck in the movie. Whenever we had to move it broke down. You would see it on the side of the freeway. It was loud and noisy and must have been infested. The shoot mirrored the movie a lot.
TeenHollywood: Was that pig your character is carrying as cute as it looked or was it really hard to work with?
Mila: That pig was sooo cute. I stole it for the night. I'm like 'I'm taking the pig with me to the hotel room'. We stayed somewhere in Utah. Have you ever seen The Shining? Okay, this was The Shining. We took over the hotel and woke up at 5 in the morning and walked into the hallway. The hotel owner was living at the hotel and had two little kids. At 5 in the morning they were on their tricycles, all dirty and disheveled bicycling through the hallways! It was the creepiest thing. I was like 'oh my God, get me out of here. Where's Jack Nicholson'? This was a hotel where the remote control for the TV was screwed down to the night table with no phone. It was the weirdest location ever.
TeenHollywood: What an experience! You have a cute, quirky, off-beat wardrobe in the film. Did you like it and would you wear it?
Mila: I loved it. I thought it was so fun and creative and odd. The designer did a great job of putting everything together. I'm wearing it by all means.
TeenHollywood: When you go on a trip are you always taking pictures? (Her character Michelle takes Polaroid pictures constantly).
Mila: I love taking pictures of everything but I have a friend David and he became the photographer of our group of friends. He has his camera glued to his hip. If I go on a trip I have thousands of pictures when I come back.
TeenHollywood: Can you talk about any strange or touching fan encounters you have had?
Mila: Every time you get a crying fan, it borders on awkward. You really don't know how to react. The second you tell them 'don't cry', they start crying more. I think the first time it happened was five or six years ago. I was still on "70's" at the time. I was at 3rd Street Promenade (in Santa Monica) with Julie and a bunch of my girlfriends hanging out and this guy comes up to me like "this friend of mine really wants to meet you. He's a huge fan" and I turned around and there was this 17-year-old boy bawling! I was like "Oh hon, don't cry" and I leaned in and he started hyperventilating! You just don't know what to do. He's so nervous. It was awkward but so sweet at the same time. Those are very rare.
TeenHollywood: Do you enjoy doing voices, like on 'Family Guy and do you want to keep that up?
Mila: I love doing 'Family Guy'. I'd do that for as long as they want me to. In the morning you can go in completely disheveled. You can wear your P.J.'s for all anybody cares.
TeenHollywood: What genre of entertainment have you not done yet that you would like to (music, hosting a show.. Broadway??)
Mila: If I had any singing talent in me, I'd be a rock star. But, unfortunately, I'm a hundred percent tone deaf. But, people are stretching themselves really thin now. They do the clothing line. They do the drinks. They do perfume. I just love to do what I do and that's acting. I'm not particularly into making a zillion dollars. That's not what's important to me in my life. I want to enjoy my life so there's no need for me to stress out over a t-shirt clothing line that's not doing well. It doesn't seem like that much fun for me. People just want to do a little bit of everything and take over the world and that's a completely different mentality than I have.
TeenHollywood: We know wrapped on Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Who do you play in that?
Mila: It's Judd Apatow [producing]. Sarah Marshall is Kristen Bell who is great in it. She plays Peter's [Jason Segel's] girlfriend of five years and they break up and he goes to Hawaii to try to forget about her and meets this new girl played by me who is kind of free-spirited, moves to Hawaii with another guy and they create this bond and then the ex-girlfriend comes to the same resort with her new boyfriend. It becomes a story of these four characters trying to find themselves and discover what they want. It's really funny but has so much heart in it. it's coming out in May next year.
TeenHollywood: Next coming out is Boot Camp.. can you talk about that?
Mila: Parents sent their kids there when they can't handle them. These are messed up places. They are harsh. It is overboard. At these places, it's like "Lord of the Flies". It's depressing. Parents think they are doing the best for their kid but they don't do the research. I hope, when the movie comes out, I hope parents go see it because you'll realize that your kid was never that bad to go to that extreme. It very extreme. Kids do die.
TeenHollywood: What is a question that you wish someone would ask you that you haven't been asked yet?
Mila: Pretty much everything has been covered. But, ask me how my dogs are doing; Shorty and Audrey. Audrey is a bulldog and Shorty is a beagle/corgi/dashund. They're doing great. They're about to go for a walk when I get off the phone.
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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.