Milla Jovovich
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

For the internet crowd Ultraviolet is one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year. Writer/director Kurt Wimmer’s last film was Equilibrium which even though it did not do well at the box office, the film became a major hit on DVD. Equilibrium’s unique blend of martial arts and guns, called gunkata, has spawned a cult of its own.

In Ultraviolet Milla Jovovich plays Violet who is part of a subculture of humans who have been genetically modified by a vampire-like disease giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence. They are at war with the humans and now Violet must protect a nine year old boy who has been marked for death by the human government.

I got a chance to talk with Jovovich at the first New York Comicon.

Check out the official website for Ultraviolet

Daniel Robert Epstein: How do you like the New York Comicon so far?

Milla Jovovich: It’s awesome to see a bunch of people that love action movies and comics. I was a huge comic fan when I was younger so I can relate. This is the audience for Ultraviolet.

DRE: Had you seen Equilibrium before this?

MJ: Yeah, I had seen Equilibrium with my little brother a couple of years ago and then the director [Kurt Wimmer] wrote Ultraviolet for me. I was really touched by that in a lot of different ways. The story is about this woman trying to protect this little boy and then she is also the craziest action hero ever.

DRE: How was it working with Kurt?

MJ: It was crazy to work with Kurt who actually practices martial arts. In a lot of action films the director and the stunt coordinator are two totally different people. But in some sense Kurt was always one step ahead of everybody when it came to the action stuff because he had such vision. I definitely ruffled his feathers a few times. I gave him a black eye.

DRE: Were you a violent child?

MJ: I was so not a violent child. But I liked She-Ra: Princess of Power. She’s kind of violent but more girlie violent. I’d have My Little Pony fight the dark forces. In school I didn’t fight but I never backed down from anybody. When I would get picked on, I would just stand up and take it. I’ve been beaten up before by girls much bigger than me, but I held my ground. I cried a lot but I didn’t run away.

DRE: What was different with creating the action on this film?

MJ: We had an amazing stunt coordinator named Mike Smith who also had incredible vision. He really wanted to give the movie the feeling of an Eastern type martial arts movie. In Western action films, you really don’t have that fluid type of Wushu. Usually it’s street fighting with hard punches and it’s all about the violence where this is much more about the look and the movement. I was really excited and a little scared because I’ve never done these things before and I’ve got two left feet sometimes. All the sword tricks and the wushu are very balletic so you have to be very graceful. I can throw a punch but man, when it comes to gracefulness; I’m definitely on the bottom of the list. I trained for a year ahead of time to get everything right.

DRE: You’ve done a lot of unique high energy action films.

MJ: Thank you. I wholeheartedly agree. But a lot of people don’t. They ask me why the second Resident Evil wasn’t as good as the first. I say “Why don’t you start directing? Just write a script and give it to me and let’s see what you can do.”

DRE: After so many action movies do they ever ask you do something and you go “I’ve done that before”?

MJ: For Resident Evil 2, yes. The whole running down the building wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t pushed. I was “Ok, let’s do something crazy that we haven’t seen before.” But Violet was different from top to bottom. If I did recognize something, thank God, because that would be one thing I understand. It was a relief when I did something familiar because there was so much new information I had to take in. After a six hour stunt rehearsal, I would work three hours just swinging my swords in the hotel room. I destroyed my hotel room in China. They hated me over there. The hotel must have charged the studio quite a bundle.

DRE: Since gunkata is such a new thing, would you ever make something up and then want to try it for the movie?

MJ: There were a couple of times that I wanted to try some things. But Mike has the most insane fantasy world going on. I just wanted to learn what he was teaching and survive. He just kept throwing new things to do at me. He’s this total Bally fitness dude so he looks a boxer, but then he can do ballet.

The whole movie was incredibly complex and when it came to the fighting stuff we literally had to practice the whole way through the shoot. One of the stunt rehearsals was on the last day and we shot one of our main fight sequences the last week. So I had to work throughout the whole six weeks of filming to get to the end.

DRE: When you start doing martial arts outside of the movies?

MJ: Probably after The Fifth Element. That was the first time I ever got challenged in that way which opened me up to doing martial arts. My father was always a huge fan of Kung Fu Theater and boxing so I always had a masculine side to myself. But I never thought I would do it outside of the movies. I fell in love with martial arts and wanting to keep myself in good physical condition.

DRE: I heard that Kurt is not super happy with Ultraviolet.

MJ: I haven’t talked to Kurt.

DRE: Who would win in a gunkata between you and Christian Bale?

MJ: [laughs] I don’t know, my guns have swords.

DRE: As a result of doing this martial arts training, did you get into Eastern philosophy?

MJ: It’s funny because I’m a big fan of New Scientist and Scientific American magazines. I was reading this article about how Western science is having to find explanations for religion and why do we need religion and why was religion created. Obviously if we didn’t need it, we would have thrown it to the wayside. They’ve actually proven that people who meditate live longer happier lives than people who don’t. They have less health problems and less neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s. The amount of white brain mass that we have inside our heads actually shrinks as we get older. But people who meditate at 80 years old have a brain mass equivalent to a person in their 20’s. They’re actually going, “Ok, it’s not just about, does God exist or not, but does religion work.” I do try and practice Eastern philosophy. One of my favorite books is Luli which means Chinese for Physics.

DRE: Are you taking time off before you start Resident Evil 3?

MJ: Yeah, I have my clothing line, Jovovich-Hawk. I work on that all the time.

DRE: In the past few years you’ve really picked up a good crowd in the Goth and punk crowd. They’re obsessed with you.

MJ: Oh cool.

DRE: Have you ever met any of those fans?

MJ: I don’t think so.

DRE: [laughs] Were you ever that way when you were younger?

MJ: When I was 13 my favorite band was This Mortal Coil. I love punk music and we love punk style. We definitely we have some of that in the Jovovich-Hawk label.

DRE: What music are you listening to now?

MJ: Blonde Redhead is one of my favorite bands and their new album is just awesome.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Milla+Jovovich/