Milla Jovovich Trivia: 57 fascinating facts about the model!

Milla Jovovich is an American actress, model, musician, and fashion designer. She has appeared in numerous science fiction and action films, leading the music channel VH1 to deem her the “reigning queen of kick-butt” in 2006. In 2004, she was the highest-paid model in the world according to Forbes.

Let’s see some interesting facts about her!

1. Milica Bogdanovna “Milla” Jovovich was born December 17, 1975 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR.

2. She is the daughter of Galina Loginova, a Russian actress, and Bogich Jovovich, who is Serbian.

3. In 1980, when Jovovich was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union for political reasons and immigrated to London.

4. They subsequently immigrated to Sacramento, California, settling in Los Angeles seven months later. Milla’s parents divorced soon after their arrival in Los Angeles.

5. In 1988, her father had a relationship with an Argentine woman, and they had a son, Marco Jovovich.

6. Due to her parents’ divorce years before, Jovovich saw little of her half brother.

7. In Los Angeles, her mother, Galina Jovovich, tried to get acting jobs, but found little success because of language barriers, and eventually resorted to cleaning houses to earn money.

8. Both parents served as cooks and housekeepers for director Brian De Palma.

9. Milla’s father was convicted and imprisoned for participating in an illegal operation concerning medical insurance; he was given a 20-year sentence in 1994, but was released in 1999 after serving five years.

10. According to Jovovich, “Prison was good for him. He’s become a much better person. It gave him a chance to stop and think.”

11. Jovovich attended public schools in Los Angeles, becoming fluent in English in three months.

12. In school, she was teased by classmates for coming from the Soviet Union: “I was called a commie and a Russian spy. I was never, ever, ever accepted into the crowd.”

13. At age 12, Jovovich left seventh grade to focus on modeling, which she had started at age nine.

14. She has said she was rebellious during her early teens, engaging in drug use, shopping mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud.

15. In 1994, she became naturalized as a U.S. citizen at the age of 19.

16. It was Jovovich’s early work with Ritz, Richard Avedon and Peter Lindbergh that led to her success in advertising, bringing the young model contracts and covers for both Vogue and Cosmopolitan.

17. Since then, she has been featured on more than 100 magazine covers, including all the major fashion magazines in the US.

18. She has been part of campaigns for Banana Republic, Christian Dior, Damiani, Donna Karan, Gap, Versace, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Coach, Giorgio Armani, H&M, and Revlon.

19. Since 1998, Jovovich has been an “international spokesmodel” for L’Oréal cosmetics. She was referred to in a minor cameo in Bret Easton Ellis’ novel Glamorama, a satire of society’s obsession with celebrities and beauty.

20. Jovovich was said to be designer Miuccia Prada’s muse in 2002.

21. In a 2003 article claimed she was Gianni Versace’s “favourite supermodel”.

22. In 2004, Jovovich topped Forbes magazine’s “Richest Supermodels of the World” list, earning a reported $10.5 million.

23. In 2006, Jovovich was picked up by Mango, a Spanish clothing line, as their new spokesmodel and is featured in their ad campaigns.

24. She can also be seen in ads for Etro.

25. She has noted that “Modeling was never a priority” and that the money she earns enables her “to be selective about the creative decisions [she] make[s]”.

26. In 2012, Jovovich was hired as the new “face” of a global advertising campaign for wristwatch and jewelry retailer Jacob & Co.

27. Jovovich gained attention for her role in the explicit 1991 romance film Return to the Blue Lagoon, as she was then only 15.

28. She was considered to have a breakthrough with her role in the 1997 French science-fiction film The Fifth Element written and directed by Luc Besson. She and Besson married that year, but soon divorced. She starred as the heroine and martyr in Besson’s The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).

29. In 2002, Jovovich starred in the science fiction horror film Resident Evil, adapted from the video game series of the same name. It was disliked by critics, but was commercially successful.

30. She reprised her role in five sequels, all in the apocalyptic fiction action horror genre, made between 2004 and 2016.

31. Jovovich released an album, The Divine Comedy, in 1994. She continues to release demos for other songs on her official website and contributes to film soundtracks. In 2003, she and model Carmen Hawk created the clothing line Jovovich-Hawk. Jovovich has her own production company, Creature Entertainment.

32. Her favorite color is pink.

33. The Shining is her favorite movie.

34. When she can, she munches on cakes, peanut butter bagels and jelly.

35. Her music video of “The Gentleman Who Fell” was inspired by Maya Deren’s short film, “Meshes of the Afternoon.”

36. Played a song which turned out to be an excerpt from “The Alien Song” of her 1994 album in “Dazed and Confused.”

37. Attended the same high school with Christina Applegate.

38. Jovovich was named after her great-grandmother.

39. She is left-handed.

40. In addition to English, she is fluent in French and partly in Russian.

41. She had referred to the role the Russian culture played in her life when she stated in 2005: “I have a Russian mother, she was a famous actress in the USSR (Galina Loginova). And the first books, which I read, were in Russian. I was raised in the atmosphere of the Russian classical theatre school. The art, built on the system of Stanislavsky – that’s the most realistic art. And the modern cinema stands on the same principle. A Russian person wants to find the truth. This is the base of the Russian culture. I never forget it, especially since I have Russian roots”.

42. Jovovich established a charitable foundation in 2005 to help Ukrainian children. At the time she referred to herself: “I am a strong Ukrainian girl, that is why I work a lot”.

43. In addition to being a former smoker, Jovovich has advocated the legalization of cannabis, and appeared in a spread and on the cover for High Times.

44. In an article published in 1994, she admitted that her only vices were cigarettes and cannabis.

45. She practices yoga and meditates often in attempts to live a healthy lifestyle.

46. Although not affiliating with any specific religion, she prays and considers herself a “spiritual person”.

47. She avoids junk foods and prefers to cook for herself.

48. She practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in addition to other varieties of martial arts.

49. Jovovich also enjoys playing the guitar, and writing poems and lyrics for songs.

50. Jovovich currently resides in homes in Los Angeles and New York with her husband, film writer and director Paul W. S. Anderson, whom she married on 22 August 2009.

51. The two met while working on the 2002 film Resident Evil, which Anderson wrote and directed, and in which Jovovich starred. Anderson proposed to Jovovich in 2003, but the two separated for a period of time before becoming a couple again.

52. On November 3, 2007, Jovovich gave birth to their first child, daughter Ever Gabo. The child was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Their second child, daughter Dashiel Edan, was born on April 1, 2015.[

53. Prior to her relationship with Anderson, Jovovich married on-screen boyfriend Shawn Andrews in 1992 while filming Dazed and Confused together. Andrews was 21, while Jovovich was 16. The marriage was annulled by her mother two months later.

54. Shortly after the annulment, Jovovich moved to Europe with her friend and musician Chris Brenner where she met and then lived with her new boyfriend, ex-Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender, in London from May 1994 to October 1995.

55. From 1995 to 1997, she dated photographer Mario Sorrenti.

56. In Las Vegas, she married The Fifth Element director Luc Besson in 1997 where they went skydiving directly after the ceremony. They divorced in 1999.

57. Between 1998 and 2001, she befriended the young poet and musician, Anno Birkin, and each was the other’s inspiration behind many of their compositions. Jovovich became involved with Birkin romantically just before his death in a car accident on November 8, 2001.