Justin and Mila: A Sexy, Comfortable Twosome

TeenHollywood is at a posh beachside hotel in Santa Monica, Ca. to chat with Friends with Benefits stars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. The hotel room window is framing a glorious sunny day with swaying palm trees, blue-green water, white sand..you know the cliché, and we’re stuck inside.

Mila and Justin walk in and settle into chairs to talk relationships, on-screen hook ups and not repeating their parents’ love mistakes. (Warning: This film is rated “R” for sexual content, language and some drug material).

Mila: (looking out the window) Oh, there’s a dog running around free out there. Are you stuck in here all day?

TeenHollywood: Well, part of it anyway but I get to talk to you guys! You both seem so comfortable with your bodies in this movie. Do you each run around in the buff at home or what?

Mila: (laughing and teasing) Yeah. I like to run around naked on the streets all the time.

TeenHollywood: Okaaaay. Re-wording. Are you comfortable enough with your bodies that the hot, near-in-the-buff scenes don’t bother you?

Mila: No. I'm pretty self-conscious, I think, in general. It doesn't help that I'm a female. I'm not the most [comfortable], relatively speaking.

Justin: As a juxtaposition to that, I'm extremely comfortable with Mila's body.

Mila: Thank you.

TeenHollywood: How does it compare having fake hook ups with Justin to making out with Natalie Portman (in Black Swan)?

Mila: Well, the only thing I can say is that one was funny and one was scary.

Justin: I was more intrusive. You do the math.

TeenHollywood: Are those intimate scenes comparable to a choreographed dance number?

Justin: Well, it's funny you should say that. Yeah. It's physical  humor. It has a level of theatrics to it.

Mila: I agree, like, versus whether it's comfortable. That's the honest answer, that it's very choreographed and very specific.

Justin: It's definitely less awkward when you're required to make (the hook up scenes) awkward. We wanted to use these scenes to break a little ground and actually put the banter in them. In real life, when awkward things happen when you're first getting intimate with a new counterpart, it's like ‘If I didn't say that it happened then it didn't happen’. But later on you talk about it, like, 'You remember the time when it was really awkward?' 'Oh, my God, thank you for saying that’.

I think we wanted to use a lot of this movie to break a lot of ground. There's a lot in it that just feels more like how we see our generation, and a good way to empower that is to comment on how ridiculous some of it might be.

TeenHollywood: Your director Will Gluck talked about these characters being kindred spirits. He said he saw that when you two got into a room together for the first time. Did you feel that way? Was there a kindred quality between the two of you?

Mila: We have the same sense of humor we realized early on. I think the chemistry had a lot to do with the writing and I think that once we got comfortable with the characters it was easy to put that across onscreen. We became friends because we had two, three months of rehearsal, writing and rewriting and you don't always get that. So, you hope that somehow that translates to the screen.

When you have a great time doing a film you hope the audience has a great time watching it. But as far as feeling like kindred spirits, I mean I think we had a lot of things in common.

Justin: We actually do have a lot in common, and we actually bonded, like she said, over a lowbrow sense of humor that we share. But also we kind of grew up in the business, both of us. So, we share that and we're both pretty normal people when we're not working. Like Mila said, we had an unusual amount of time to rehearse. So, we were able to discuss the scenes when we workshopped them and find what we thought was like-minded from a male perspective and a female perspective about them.

TeenHollywood: Justin, your character mentions 'Harry Potter' a couple of times. The last movie is outselling every movie in history. Are you a fan?

Justin: I'm sorry. That's, like, a thing about wizards or something, right? 'Harry Potter', hummm. No, I'm aware of it. 'Harry Potter' is pretty amazing. We're all fans.

TeenHollywood: Do you both think a lot of young people are reluctant to get into relationships because they don't want to repeat their parents’ mistakes? In the film, both or your characters seem to feel that way.

Justin: I think that happens with every person, not just in relationships. I think that you get to a certain point in your life where you feel like you've taken all the cards you've been dealt and made a great situation of them, and then you realize that things are in your DNA that you have no control over and you have to kind of accept those. I think that you go through all facets of life feeling like you want to gain your independence. So, sometimes there's a misunderstanding of feeling like you have to break away from your parents to do that.

Mila: I couldn't agree more.

TeenHollywood: So, most people can't divorce themselves from the way that their parents screwed up?

Justin: I'm not going to say what everybody does. I think, for me, the more I realized how much I was like my parents the more that I was able to gain my independence.

TeenHollywood: Do you both have a favorite romantic comedy movie?

Mila: Yeah, other than When Harry Met Sally for sure. So, discredit that one. Mine is truly one of my favorite movies, and it's a bit of a cheesy answer but it's honest.

Justin: No, it's not cheesy. It's a great movie.

Mila: All right. Pretty Woman. That's one of my favorite movies in general.

Justin: That's an adult romantic comedy and it's a really good movie. (To Mila) I think it's great because it's the movie that your character loves in the movie.

Mila: I wonder why? Will (Gluck) was like, 'What's your favorite movie?' I was like, Pretty Woman.

Justin: I don't think you should feel bad about that. I think that's a great movie. It makes me laugh.

Mila: I can put that movie on mute and tell you word for word each piece of dialogue. I love that movie. It truly makes me happy.

Justin: I remember the part with the escargot flying. (Richard Gere) grabs it like [Robert] De Niro in Awakening..

TeenHollywood: And Justin, your favorite romantic comedy?

Justin: I got in trouble for saying Terms of Endearment. Mila was like, 'That's not a romantic comedy,' but it made me laugh and so I thought that it was funny. I guess Terms of Endearment would be more like a slice-of-life dramady. I lean towards movies like that. But I will say that When Harry Met Sally is a great one. What I love about that movie is what I love about what we aspired to do with this movie; stop, look around at your generation and say what's funny and ridiculous about it. For me that empowers people who will go see this movie that want to be spoken to in a smart way about love and sex and relationships and connections between people.

TeenHollywood: You have a very funny dynamic with Woody Harrelson in the movie. Do either of you have friends like that in real life, like frat boy gay friends?

Justin: I'm glad that you brought that up. I have a lot of male friends, straight and gay and nobody gets treated differently. Your friends are your friends no matter the sexual preference. We had a lot of discussions about that, and we said, 'Man, what a great opportunity to break some ridiculous stereotype about a gay male and show a great, honest relationship between a straight man and a gay man that's just a friendship between two guys’.

TeenHollywood: Mila, do you have bro-type gay men friends?

Mila: Yes.  I have had an assortment of young, gay gentlemen in my life since I was like ten years old.

Justin: I think it's an important time to say that people are people. This was a good movie for that. That relationship in the movie was just a good opportunity to do that.

TeenHollywood: We hear a lot in the media about this generation being a hook up generation instead of following the traditional dating rules. As you got involved in this project, did you start listening to stories from your friends who had similar FWB relationships?

Mila: I was interviewed by a reporter when I was doing press for Black Swan and she told me that her current husband started off as a friend with benefits. So, it wasn't until then that I actually started paying attention to that idea, like, 'Oh, okay.' I feel like the concept has been around forever, but just that people are more willing to talk about it now. It's not as taboo. I think that our generation is a little more forthcoming, a little more honest and I think females are embracing their sexuality, more so now than they were thirty, forty, fifty years ago.

TeenHollywood: What about men?

Mila: Men have always embraced their sexuality. I don’t think men have had a problem with that (we laugh).  

Justin: I disagree with that. Seriously. I think that men have always been uncomfortably external about their sexuality, but it's obviously to hide some weird problem.

Mila: Well, yes, of course for certain things that are “taboo” in society, sure.

TeenHollywood: Justin, your character’s dad has Alzheimer’s and, in a comedy, that could be a touchy subject but it’s handled well here. Can you talk about that?

Justin: There was always some situation where Dylan's father had some dementia or early onset Alzheimer’s. I have some of that in my family and I think that everybody knows someone in their family who has a level of that and is dealing with it. I think it's actually the most redeeming thing about Dylan's character; how familial he is.

TeenHollywood: Yeah, he seems to go back to them for escape or solace when he’s troubled.

Justin: There are a lot of great family values in this movie through Dylan's family. He has a sister (Jenna Elfman) who has a son and her relationship didn't work out. So, you have (my character) who instinctively wants to help take care of his sister's son, but he's also dealing with (the dad issue). You have that thing about your parents being your heroes and having to deal with the fact that he's just a man. Your father's just a man and your mother's just a woman at the end of the day. They're people. Richard (Jenkins who played the dad) has such an amazing way that he portrayed that disease in this movie, how he still uses it to relate to his son. It's heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

TeenHollywood: As long as we’re talking film parents, Mila, can you talk about working with Patty Clarkson as your wild, raunchy mom?  Was it a great girl bonding experience when you met or were you in awe of her?

Mila: Completely and utterly in awe of her. I love her, everything about her. He is in love with her.

Justin: I am in love with Patty.

TeenHollywood: She said some great things about you.

Mila: Those two, my goodness.

Justin: We're having a love affair on this press tour.

Mila: They love each other. I love Patty. I love everything about her. I love the person that she is. I love her work. I mean, I truly admire her. She's amazing.

Justin: Patty is warm and fuzzy to me because she embodies southern class like a graceful southern goddess (Patricia is from New Orleans). And she's a broad too, and that comes with being southern.

TeenHollywood: (In my Southwestern, bordering on Southern accent) Well, thank yew! (Mila busts out laughing).

Justin: See. It's true. There's something about growing up, being raised by a southern woman and being in love with the south. For me that's warm and fuzzy. Oh, don’t tell (Patricia) I called her warm and fuzzy. Say that I'm in love with her.

TeenHollywood: Okay, will do (and we did).