Max (France) May 2002

Last Page ... L'Allongee du Mois: Milla Jovovich
By Florence Trédez

Long-limbed, bright, she sips a glass of white wine and lights cigarette after cigarette, laughing. Suddenly, reforming onto herself, she is sad and fragile. Milla Jovovich, whose miniscule dog is named Madness, is a lively paradox. Her current endeavor: filling the screen with Resident Evil, her latest movie packed with zombies.

Do you like how the cinema removes you from reality?
Yes, I’m in a parallel world nine months per year, I’ve got mad timetables, I make plenty of friends that I’ll never see again after the film making process is over, I love it.

That must be destabilizing...
I’m not really balanced. At the same time, I really admire freaks like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It doesn’t bother me to come across as a little bit crazy.

Are you hysterical or paranoid?
Let’s just say I’m emotional. And since I’m working all the time, I’m constantly in a peculiar mood, where one never sleeps. If I see something that displeases me psychologically, or if one points out my faults, I take it all in and become depressed for a month.

Your beauty is a part of your strangeness?
On the contrary, my very classical beauty is something that is still the most normal thing about me. My strangeness comes from my education, from my family, from my sensitivity. And from music, which I also love.

Did your mother make sacrifices for you?
She had a career in Russia, a privileged life. She left everything to come to the States and had to do housework in order to survive. I’ll do anything for her.

Have you ever seen a psychologist?
Yes, at the age of 15. I told my mum that she was crazy and that I needed to see someone. It helped me a lot. The psychologist noted down what I was saying during a session and would ask me about it the week after. I could clearly see that I’d be saying exactly the opposite thing from one week to the next.

Do you like yourself?
Yes, I’m proud of myself, knowing where I come from and everything I’ve done for my family. I think that we would have had a lot of problems if I hadn’t worked while very young in order to help my parents. It justifies my existence.

Are you a realistic person?
I should be, I’m no longer 16 years old. Now I pay my rent with my modeling career or my movies, and when I want to paint or play music, I do it at my place. In any case, your art doesn’t interest people until after you’re dead.

Do you get recurring dreams?
I have really strange dreams. I dream that I’m attached to a rope at the back of a plane and that I’m flying. I also dream a lot about houses. It’s always the same thing, I’m trying to find the pieces that I recall, and I can’t do it because something distracts me. It’s normal that I dream about a house; I’ve traveled a lot during my childhood. Even now, I still need to spend at least two weeks a year over at my house.

Do you believe in great love?
I’m not sure. The legend of Tristan and Iseult taught me a lot on this matter. I understood that I would never come to appreciate the men I’d be living with because in my head I always had an image of the ideal partner that would interfere with everything. In the end, I like the idea that I’ve learnt something. But perhaps everything I’ve said about that doesn’t really mean anything in practice.