Milla Jovovich joins GQ as she revisits some of the most iconic characters from her career so far: from her breakout role as Leeloo in The Fifth Element, to her portrayal of Alice in the Resident Evil franchise.“That was the scene that changed my life as an actress,” says Jovovich of the multipass scene from The Fifth Element. “That’s where I really understood what it was to leave myself behind and become something else.” Watch the full episode of GQ’s Iconic Characters as Milla Jovovich breaks down her most iconic movie roles.
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00:00What is it like being, having a career?
00:04I can't believe it.
00:06Perfect photo, by the way.
00:14The fifth element.
00:17And this is?
00:20Lilou Dallas multi-pass.
00:22I auditioned for the role in Full Hair and Makeup,
00:26and Luc Besson, he definitely saw something in me.
00:30We spent, you know, a good, like, 40 minutes in the room,
00:34so I felt confident that I did a good job.
00:36But then I never heard from him again.
00:38A few months later, I was with my boyfriend at the time,
00:42staying at the Chateau Marmont.
00:44We had been, like, partying all night, as you do.
00:47I had come down wearing his clothes, his baggy jeans,
00:50his T-shirt, my hair was a mess, no makeup.
00:53And I'm having breakfast by the pool,
00:56and who happens to be sitting at the table,
01:01two tables down, is Luc.
01:03And he saw me, and suddenly in his head, he saw Lilou.
01:09He had his assistant come and say,
01:11oh, can you meet with Luc again?
01:14I said, yeah, sure, let me just, like, get ready.
01:19And she's like, no, no, no, no, no.
01:21Like, Luc wants you to come exactly as you are now.
01:27Like, didn't want me to put a stitch of makeup on, you know.
01:31So I was like, okay.
01:33That was where I think he saw the little animal in me.
01:39Luc definitely wanted to do a color for the hair
01:43that had never been seen before.
01:45They came up with this fluorescent orange
01:48and the blonde roots.
01:50It was almost like people working at night on the roads.
01:54When they need to be seen, they would wear that kind of orange
01:57so you don't get hit by cars.
01:59In practice, it was difficult to keep up
02:04because what we didn't realize at the time
02:06was that my hair grows very fast.
02:09They would grow out literally every week.
02:11You would start seeing, like, that little bit of dark hair.
02:16They kept trying to touch it up,
02:18but you have to be very delicate.
02:20You can't, like, overlap.
02:22It was overlapped,
02:23and then my hair started falling out in clumps,
02:26and so we had to wig me.
02:28We timed it well for after she takes a shower
02:32and gets cleaned up,
02:33so it, like, kind of made sense
02:35that it was a little, like, poofier
02:37and more clean-looking.
02:43What's she saying?
02:44I don't know.
02:45When I were talking about Lili's birth,
02:48and, you know, I couldn't be, like, naked, obviously,
02:51because that's weird,
02:52I said, well, I mean,
02:54when you think about scientists doing experiments,
02:58they want as little on you as possible.
03:02You need space to put in injections and needles.
03:06So I said, what if bandages came out of the machine?
03:10They just cover up the essentials,
03:12so it's, like, as little as possible,
03:14but very utilitarian as well.
03:17Luke took that idea to Jean-Paul Gaultier,
03:20who loved it and ran with it
03:23and created, you know, one of the most iconic outfits
03:27in cinema history.
03:29If you want out,
03:31you're going to have to learn
03:33to develop those communication skills.
03:35That was the scene that changed my life as an actress.
03:40That's where I really understood
03:43what it was to leave myself behind
03:46and become something else.
03:48And it's still, like, when I watch it,
03:50it makes me cry because I see Lili
03:53and her innocence and her vulnerability.
03:57I feel so bad for her being trapped that way
04:01and not understanding what's going on.
04:03It still makes me cry.
04:08Resident Evil.
04:09♪♪
04:12-♪♪
04:18I played the video game a lot with my little brother,
04:22and I wanted to produce it.
04:24I wanted to make the movie.
04:26And then I found out that my, well,
04:29he wasn't my husband then,
04:31but this guy had the rights to it.
04:34We reached out, and he asked me to read for it.
04:37You know, at that point, I was like,
04:39hey, I'm the fifth element.
04:41Like, you're really going to ask me to read for this?
04:44And he was like, yes.
04:46I came in just very nonchalant
04:48and saw this really hot young director,
04:52and I was like, ooh.
04:54And that was the beginning of the rest of my life.
05:00Costume design has always been something
05:03that I was very involved with through my entire career.
05:06The red dress was definitely something
05:10that I envisioned in my head,
05:12something that was in between an evening gown
05:16but at the same time could also look really great
05:20in a fight sequence with a leather jacket over the top.
05:25Alice was like a newborn.
05:28She woke up with no memory.
05:31She was the audience in a sense.
05:34She discovered the world as we, the audience, discovered it.
05:39There's this dynamic between being completely innocent
05:43and then also being a complete master at what you do.
05:47I love to play with that,
05:49to be able to kind of, like, confuse myself a bit
05:54and confuse the audience a bit and humanize it.
05:58She was definitely a child being led into a very dark place,
06:03having to be baptized by fire in a sense.
06:12One of my favorite stunts,
06:15there's a few, to be honest,
06:18but it was Resident Evil 2,
06:20and I ran down a 60-foot wall,
06:26like, straight down,
06:28and the only thing that's coming to meet me is concrete.
06:33I mean, we did this so many times,
06:36and I've never been so terrified in my life
06:40but also just feeling so badass
06:43that I was actually doing it myself.
06:51I did almost everything in every movie I did.
06:54I love doing stunts.
06:55It was a passion of mine.
06:57I always wanted to do my own stunts,
07:00and that was part of what I gave to my fans.
07:03You're coming with me on this adventure,
07:05and I'm going through it,
07:06and you're going to go through it with me.
07:10Zoolander.
07:14Derek, I'd like you to meet Katinka Inga Borgovina.
07:19She'll be your day-to-day on the campaign.
07:22Katinka was literally my mom.
07:25If my mom was in America,
07:30in the fashion industry,
07:32what kind of clothes would she wear?
07:35Like, her makeup has always been, like, fabulous, you know,
07:39and, like, full-on.
07:40You'd do the eyeliner, the mascara, the blush,
07:45the lips, the eyelashes, the everything.
07:49Definitely an homage to her
07:51and her powerful sense of fierceness.
07:56My mom is a true queen.
07:58You had us worried, Derek.
08:00Everything's cool.
08:01I'm really super psyched for the show.
08:03Ben was amazing.
08:05It was crazy to see him as Zoolander,
08:08going between playing Zoolander and directing all of us.
08:12Working with Will Ferrell was the best.
08:15We had so much fun, like, joking in between takes,
08:18and he made me feel so comfortable,
08:21and it was really such a privilege and an honor
08:25to work with such talented people on that movie.
08:31The Three Musketeers.
08:41I loved making Three Musketeers.
08:43Not many people put me in historical pieces,
08:48and I don't get to look like a fancy lady much.
08:52I'm usually covered in blood and dust
08:55and extremely unpleasant things,
08:57so it was wonderful to play Milady
09:00and to be able to combine that with the fighting skills.
09:05And I just thought, wow, this is gonna be so beautiful
09:09to watch in the cinema,
09:11to see this woman with this great big skirt
09:13that you think should hamper her,
09:15but using it against her opponents
09:18and being able to, like, use it to her benefit.
09:24I love choreography.
09:25I love being able to use my body to do extreme things,
09:29so to be able to play characters like that
09:32have always fascinated me
09:33because I always imagined myself when I was a kid
09:37to be, like, that ninja warrior.
09:39This gave me the opportunity to be a ninja warrior in Bloomers.
09:45Dazed and Confused.
09:49I'd had a really hard time as a child actor in Hollywood.
09:54I guess I'd never realized how savage adults could be
10:01when they criticized a child.
10:04It was just one of the most, like, soul-sucking,
10:08demoralizing experiences I've ever had,
10:12and especially being 15 at the time,
10:15it was, like, such an integral part of my development,
10:20and it just made me very insecure
10:24and really solidified in my own head
10:27that I was not a good actress
10:31and that I was just a pretty face.
10:34When I went into Dazed and Confused,
10:38I was shocked that I got the part.
10:41It was a big audition.
10:43All these really great actors were there.
10:47It was terrifying because I was at a real low point
10:51in my confidence levels with myself,
10:54and it was hard to feel comfortable
10:56with the amount of incredible talent on that movie
11:00because I just didn't feel like I was anywhere close
11:03to being able to go head-to-head with any of them.
11:07Watch them fly.
11:09So I was kind of, like, a loner, and I brought my guitar,
11:14and I just played music on my own,
11:17and I think Richard, like that,
11:20probably why he hired me was to just be that loner chick
11:25that smokes weed and plays guitar
11:27because that's really what I was and what I played in the movie.
11:33The Messenger, a story of Joan of Arc.
11:40I'm just a messenger.
11:43He needs me.
11:45Joan of Arc could have been an amazing movie.
11:48Unfortunately, my relationship with Luke at the time
11:52maybe skewed his vision of what he wanted the movie to be.
11:57We were going through a divorce at the time.
12:00It was tough on him.
12:02This morning, God gave us a great victory.
12:07When I saw the finished product, I felt like he was mad at me.
12:11I felt bad about that because I felt like
12:14that was one of the greatest performances
12:16I had ever given in my career.
12:18We had so many different levels from 1 to 100,
12:24and it felt like because of the emotional involvement,
12:27the edit ended up being, like, 100 the whole way.
12:31I didn't want Joan to be so unhinged.
12:35How dare you stop me from doing God's will?
12:38He didn't tell you to cut all your hair off!
12:40How dare you tell me what God tells me to do?
12:42I wish that things had been different with that movie
12:45because it had everything in it to be a classic,
12:50and it just didn't hit that mark.
12:53Joan, what are you doing? You need to rest.
12:56We must wake up the soldiers. Now!
12:59That's what is extraordinary to me about acting,
13:02to experience things, to go on adventures,
13:05to go into these fantastical worlds
13:09and experience things I would never see
13:12through my own eyes normally
13:14if it wasn't for this team coming together
13:17to build this world around you
13:19and insert you into it and bring you into that moment.
13:23I got to wear armor and slog through the mud
13:26and gave myself a crazy haircut
13:29and was in the middle of war.
13:32It's definitely made me who I am.
13:34It's changed me because I've seen things
13:36that people would never normally see
13:38and been a part of things that people would never
13:41normally in our day and age be a part of.
13:44It was astonishing.
13:47Dirty girl.
13:52This is Clark. He's from school.
13:54Sue Ann. I'm Daniel's mom.
13:56You wouldn't know it to look at me.
13:58It's a totally gross thing to say.
14:00This was a really interesting project
14:02because, again, nobody was going to think of me for this role.
14:06And Abe came and said,
14:07Listen, I think it would be really fun for you
14:10to play this part because I've never seen you do anything like this.
14:13Ray's bringing the kids over for dinner later.
14:16You all think you're going to be done by then?
14:18Close the goddamn door.
14:20Leave us alone and let us concentrate.
14:22And then I met Juno Temple through that
14:24and she was just this young kid
14:27that had done a few things
14:29but really at the beginning of her career
14:32and it was like a revelation
14:35that she's such a talent.
14:37When I got off that film, I said to Paul,
14:41I think we found our queen for Three Musketeers.
14:45Like, you have to see this girl Juno.
14:48She's kind of like plays these kind of bad girls
14:53and, you know, runaways and strays
14:57and I think it would be amazing to put her in a corset
15:01and a beautiful ball gown and see what she does with it
15:04because she's an incredible actress
15:06and I think she could handle it.
15:08And so it was really fun to be able to go on
15:12the Musketeers journey with Juno
15:15because at that point, like, we were friends
15:17and, you know, I love supporting young talent.
15:20I've seen quite a bit in my career.
15:22It's always been wonderful to kind of be the stepping stones
15:27that they take for their own trajectories
15:30through my movies, you know?
15:32Dummy.
15:36We're going to kick ass, man!
15:38I can feel it, you know, both of us.
15:40You're going to be a famous dummy guy
15:42and I'm going to kick ass with my band.
15:44Dummy was a lot of fun for me.
15:46I was at a place in my life where I really wanted
15:49to do as many indies as possible
15:51and flex as an actor and try different roles
15:55and I knew that nobody was going to pay me
15:57to be in a comedy or to play this kind of a part
16:00so I was just, like, going out there
16:02just trying to play as many different characters as possible
16:06and Fangora ended up being one of them
16:09and she was definitely a part of me
16:11at that time of my life in so many ways.
16:14She's loyal. She was a good friend.
16:18A perfect getaway.
16:31Outstanding.
16:32Perfect getaway was a chance for me
16:35to hide behind, like, a normal person character
16:39which I always found appealing
16:41and was a huge fan of Steve Zahn
16:44and Timothy Olyphant and Marlee Shelton
16:47and I just thought, wow, what a great cast.
16:49And then suddenly, halfway through the film,
16:52this god-like creature comes into the mix
16:55and he's playing this rando day player part
16:59and I said to Paul, I said,
17:01mark my words, this guy is going to be a star
17:05and it was Chris Hemsworth, one of his first films.
17:10I could see immediately he would be
17:13leaping and striding way beyond
17:16Perfect Getaway and All of Us
17:18and he did, like, it was amazing.
17:21The thing that was hard for me is I just had a baby.
17:23I had my first daughter at the time.
17:25She was four months old
17:28and so I had to go on, like, a strict diet
17:33and train and get back into shape
17:37to be, like, an action hero
17:39and that was a little hard because, you know,
17:42there's, like, the guilt of being the working mother.
17:46I have to do this because I have a career
17:49but at the same time, I would have liked to have just
17:52been a stay-at-home nursing mom for a little bit longer
17:56with my kid rather than being in the gym
18:00going on really strict diets and stuff.
18:03Having our first child changed me
18:08in so many ways for the better.
18:11It definitely made me understand
18:14that I wasn't the most important thing in the world.
18:18There was something else to put all my energy
18:22and thoughts into, so I got outside of my own head
18:27and it was very kind of liberating in a sense
18:32and then I feel like having more kids
18:36and getting older also is different.
18:39I think we change all the time.
18:42Yes, there's these momentous big changes in our lives
18:45but, like, a lot of changes happen
18:47and we don't even realize they're happening.
18:49The things that worked when I had one child
18:53wasn't going to work with two kids
18:55and what worked with two kids
18:57wasn't going to work with three kids,
18:59so it's constantly having to adapt
19:02and be ready to change your tactics
19:06and change your approach to life,
19:10to parenting, to yourself, to your work.
19:15I guess that's what kids definitely remind you so much of
19:20is how we have to constantly evolve.
19:25In The Lost Lands...
19:33I'm looking for a guide.
19:35Someone who knows The Lost Lands.
19:37Why are you going to leave the city?
19:39The fact that I was able to play this character
19:42who was sort of this demigod,
19:45she's been around for millennia.
19:48She has this extraordinary power
19:51to grant people their greatest wish.
19:53It's a curse and a blessing all at the same time
19:57because people don't really understand what they want.
20:00Friends of yours?
20:03Yeah, I don't have many friends.
20:05Me neither.
20:06It was fascinating because I had a lot of questions.
20:09I had a lot of questions about her
20:11and I still do when I imagine somebody
20:14that's lived for so many centuries.
20:17Do you even remember where you came from?
20:20How much can you remember?
20:22She definitely always keeps me questioning
20:25my humanity and mortality
20:28and just, like, seeing the magic in the universe.
20:32We definitely wanted her to have tattoos.
20:36Our amazing makeup artist, she was Icelandic,
20:39so she knew Icelandic ruins.
20:41She was able to make these temporary tattoos out of them
20:44and she actually just spelled out everyone on the crew's name.
20:49When you see Grey Alice,
20:51if you know how to read Icelandic ruins,
20:53you can read all the people who worked on the movie.
20:57That's really cool, though.
20:59It looked amazing.
21:01For me, it was like every time she grants somebody a wish,
21:05a new ruin appears.
21:07Like, that was my thought process behind it,
21:10but I just love that, like, she was cheeky
21:13and sneaked, like, all the crew members' names in there.