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Mila Kunis is one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood. She’s also one of the most interesting, having moved to the United States from Soviet Ukraine when she was just a child. Battling her way over obstacles such as having to learn a foreign language and acclimatize to a completely different culture, Mila ended up beating the odds and rising to the very top.
Her career has featured some stellar moments and she’s showing no signs of slowing down, even now as she raises a family with Ashton Kutcher. Check out these 10 facts you might not have known about Mila Kunis.
Her Name Isn’t Actually Mila
It comes as a shock for most people to find out that Mila Kunis’s real name isn’t actually Mila Kunis. The star was named Milena Markovna ‘Mila’ Kunis when she was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, in 1983. Naturally, her nickname of Mila is a better fit for show business in the United States, even though we love the name Milena!
Mila and her family left Ukraine in 1991 when Mila was just seven years old to begin a new life with more opportunities in the United States. They arrived in New York and then moved to Los Angeles.
Her Parents Are Seriously Smart
Mila comes from a seriously smart family tree! Her mother, Elvira, is a trained physics teacher. When she arrived in the United States, she ran a pharmacy rather than continuing her physics teaching. Mila’s father, Mark, is a trained mechanical engineer. When he arrived in the United States, he worked as a cab driver.
Qualifications are not always transferrable between countries, so it can be difficult for migrants like the Kunis family to get the jobs that they are trained for. But that doesn’t take away the fact that Mila’s parents are two smart cookies!
One Of The Reasons Why They Left Ukraine Was Antisemitism
There were a few reasons why Mila’s parents decided to relocate her family to the United States. In addition to there being little opportunity for Mila and her brother in Ukraine, there was also rampant anti-Semitism in Soviet Ukraine at the time Mila was a child. Being Jewish, the Kunis family felt it would make sense to move somewhere else.
According to Haaretz, Mila witnessed anti-Semitic graffiti in the schoolyard and heard anti-Semitic stories from her friends, even though some residents of her home town deny that there is any anti-Semitism in Chernivtsi.
She Had A Hard Time At Elementary School
Elementary school can be tough for a child of any age. But for Mila, it was particularly difficult because she was a foreigner who did not speak a word of English when she started second grade in Los Angeles. In an interview with the LA Times, she revealed that she completely blocked out her experience of second grade because it was so hard for her that she used to cry every day.
“I didn’t understand the culture. I didn’t understand the people. I didn’t understand the language,” she confessed. “My first sentence of my essay to get into college was like, ‘Imagine being blind and deaf at age seven.’”
She Landed A Role On Her First Audition
It’s difficult to deny Mila Kunis’s acting talent. Especially when you find out that she was able to land her first role with just one audition. Not many actors can say that! The very first time she auditioned for a Barbie commercial, she beat the other kids and got the part.
After she started acting classes at the Beverly Hills Studios, she began doing a series of commercials, including for the Lisa Frank product line. In 1994, just three years after moving to the United States, she landed her first TV role on the soap Days of Our Lives.
Her Personal Accounts Were Hacked In 2011
Since becoming an international celebrity, Mila Kunis has, unfortunately, seen the ugly side of fame. In 2011, her phone and email were hacked by a man named Christopher Chaney from Jacksonville, Florida. Images then surfaced of Mila’s co-star, Justin Timberlake, in a few compromising positions. Following the ordeal, which was quite stressing for Mila, Chaney pleaded guilty to nine counts of computer hacking in federal court.
Mila wasn’t the only celebrity to be affected by the hacking scheme. Vanessa Hudgens and Scarlett Johansson were also hacked by Chaney. Their cases were all investigated by the FBI.
Mila And Ashton Choose To Keep Their Kids Out Of The Public Eye
Fans of Mila and Ashton Kutcher were over the moon when the couple announced that they had welcomed their first child, Wyatt. Now the A-lister couple has also welcomed Dimitri to the family, but neither child is often photographed. That’s because Mila and Ashton have made a conscious decision to keep their kids out of the public eye.
“We don’t share any photos of our kids publicly because we feel that being public is a personal choice,” Ashton said (via PopSugar). Though the paparazzi have snapped some photos of the kids, Mila and Ashton have stuck to their word and don’t share them.
They Don’t Believe In Spoiling Their Kids
As far as parenting goes, Mila and Ashton appear to be quite conservative in some ways. They don’t believe in spoiling their children, especially when it comes to Christmas. In a 2017 interview, Mila told Entertainment Tonight that she had implemented a “no Christmas gifts” rule in the house.
“The kid no longer appreciates the one gift,” Mila explained. “They don’t even know what they’re expecting; they’re just expecting stuff.” In lieu of gifts, Mila and Ashton sometimes make a charitable donation. We’re sure that Wyatt and Dimitri are going to grow up to be two level-headed adults!
She Was Temporarily Blinded In One Eye
Mila Kunis has some of the most beautiful eyes in Hollywood, due to the fact that her irises are different colors. While her left eye is brown, her right eye is green. This is a condition known as heterochromia iridum. But in the past, Mila has run into trouble with her eyes. She struggled with chronic iritis, which is the inflammation of the colored part of your eye.
In 2011, revealed that she had been temporarily blinded in one eye as a result. Thankfully, Mila was able to have surgery that fixed the problem and saved her eyesight.
She Attended A Ball With A Marine In 2013
We all know that Mila Kunis is in a loving relationship with Ashton Kutcher. But in 2011, she did accompany another man to a ball. That man was Sgt. Scott Moore and the ball was actually the United States Marine Corps Ball which took place in Greenville, North Carolina.
Moore invited Mila to the ball by posting a video on YouTube. At the time, he was serving in Afghanistan with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. When Mila heard about the video, she couldn’t say no to the invitation.