The famous actor and producer picked one moment in her life which give her the impetus to advocate for more women in the entertainment business.
Speaking at the Path to Parity women’s summit organized by Variety in West Hollywood, Mila Kunis revealed that it was when she became a mother that she was forced to re-examine what mattered in life.
“When I became a mom, so many things that I used to be insecure about and concerned myself with, no longer mattered,” she said on Wednesday. “The ability to say no, had a purpose.”
Since she was eager to see an iconic change for women in Hollywood, Kinus says she focused her attention on supporting young female writers, as she knew that the writers’ rooms contain men in abundance.
Despite her efforts, Kunis laments that the situation for women in Hollywood hasn’t changed in the 20-years that she’s been a part of it. Still, she is adamant that she has done her part to make amends, like taking risks with films other Hollywood veterans were calling flops.
Sharing an anecdote about her 2016’s ‘’Bad Moms’’ movie, Kunis admits that she wasn’t able to convince some women to become a part of it. The film, which was an R-rated comedy and featured an all-female cast, was being made when Kunis was pregnant and had a baby.
After she wasn’t able to get a positive response, Kunis says that she decided to play the leading role in the movie herself. However, even after she had taken the plunge, Kunis says her decision was doubted by several people.
The doubts were misplaced. For, in addition to raking in $113 million domestically, the film went on to make $180 million worldwide. Its success was so widespread that the movie eventually got a sequel.
The ‘’Bad Moms’’ star offers advice to newcomers on how to advocate for and empower themselves. She says that earlier in her career, she didn’t negotiate things like her salary, leaving it to her representatives.
And it was only after her husband Ashton Kutcher forced her that Kunis decided to take interest in these things.
She said she started by listening to the negotiations and writing down terms unfamiliar to her. Then, at the end of the day, she’d look for the definitions for those terms and ask questions to her lawyer.
Finally, recalling her time on the sets of ‘’The Spy Who Dumped Me”, which is the first time she worked with a female director, Kunis says there’s ‘’a noticeable difference’’.
“No one is yelling at each other. … Nobody got mad … no screaming matches. At 7 o’clock, bye, go home. I got to see my kids for dinner. It was lovely.”
