New territory: Mila Kunis isn't used to working on a blockbuster movie. Source: Supplied
MILA Kunis is happy to admit that, yep, she's made a few dud flicks.
"I've done some horrible movies," she says, declining, of course, to say which ones she's referring to.
"For whatever reason, sometimes they just don't work. But every movie that I do, regardless of the outcome, I'm proud of it going in. You can never predict. It's all relative - what I think is great, you might think is horrible, what you think is great, I might think is horrible. It's truly a matter of opinion."
Despite the occasional dud, at just 29, she's already forged an impressive, if eclectic, career. ("Eclectic," she says, "is very polite.") She's been as drawn to darker indie fare such as Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, as she has been to post-apocalyptic action films such as The Book of Eli, or to light comedies such as Friends With Benefits and Ted (not to mention giving voice to Meg Griffin on the hugely popular animated series, Family Guy).
"If you look at the films that I've done, they don't make any sense," says Kunis, adding that she never sticks to one genre because she doesn't want to "limit" her options.
"They're all over the place. I take roles because I look at the people who are part of it. If they're people I respect and admire, then that informs the choices I make."
Still, Kunis reckons there's a fair bit of kismet in her landing a role in Oz The Great and Powerful. (Based on the books of L. Frank Baum, the film takes place before the events depicted in The Wizard of Oz.)
For Kunis, Baum's books and Victor Fleming's classic had a significant impact on her childhood. She recounts how, after moving to the US from the Ukraine at just seven, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first book she read in English, and the classic 1939 film was the first movie she watched.
"It was just so fantastical, so magical. I think that film is part of the reason I went into acting. I wanted to play pretend like that."
At the other end of the spectrum, Pretty Woman had a similar effect on her. "But not the prostitute bit."
In Oz The Great and Powerful, Kunis plays Theodora, a witch who possibly turns into the Wicked Witch of The West, and who possibly turns green. A tight lid has been kept on significant plot details in the lead up to the film's release, and there were no press screenings prior to our interview.
"She is very na adive, very young, and she believes in the good in people, and that the world is a positive place," says Kunis, adding that Theodora, who "has a temper", "ultimately gets her heart broken and goes through a slight transformation".
Directed by Sam Raimi (his first outing since 2009's Drag Me To Hell), Oz The Great and Powerful propels Kunis solidly into the blockbuster realm (James Franco, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz also star), an entirely new territory for her.
"It's definitely different," says Kunis of the experience. "I don't come from the world of movies this size. There's a very big machine behind it. It's an experience, that's for sure. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet."
Bigger global exposure also means even more focus on her personal life, something which horrifies her.
Interest in her private life had already skyrocketed thanks to her relationship with Ashton Kutcher (she was previously in a long-term relationship with actor Macaulay Culkin). Still, she zealously guards her personal life and is resolute that if her career impacts too negatively on it, she'll quit the business.
"I've always said - and I constantly remind myself - that what I do and who I am, are two totally different things," she states. "I love my personal life so much more than my career. Choosing one or the other, I'm going to choose my life. I'd give up acting in a second for my personal life."
It is, she admits, a strange business to be in, particularly in Los Angeles, where the spotlight is suffocating.
"I live in Los Angeles where everybody's face is frozen, and where everybody who was the prettiest girl in school, comes to Los Angeles, so you're surrounded by people who are all transplants, and who all think that they're good looking. It's a different world."
She says being judged on your looks is "awful", but recognises it's a byproduct of the industry she's in.
"Looks are so fleeting. You can't beat the ageing process, although some people may try," she laughs.
"A lot of people get so stuck on being a certain age, wanting to look the way that they did at a certain age. My philosophy is, go with it. Of course, I say this now, I'm 29. Get back to me in a couple of years. It's almost like, you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't"
Still, Kunis can't escape the fact that, whether she likes it or not, she is considered a sex symbol. She says she laughed when Esquire magazine named her "The Sexiest Woman Alive" last year.
"Look, I'm human, of course it's flattering, and I can't wait to have grandchildren and tell them that grandma was considered sexy at one point in her life. Here's the proof!"
Kunis may work hard to maintain a work/life balance, but right now, work doesn't look like letting up. Aside from Oz The Great and Powerful, she has three films in the can and a couple more on the horizon.
She's currently filming The Third Person, which teams her again with her good mate, James Franco.
"We just get each other, and we've worked together so many times that we don't know what it's like not to work together," she says.
"If two years go by and we don't work together, we go, 'Oh my god, this is so weird."'
When she gets another break, she plans to indulge in her great love, travel.
Last year, she and Kutcher took a trip to Australia, which they loved ("except for the paparazzi who followed us everywhere").
"I really like the Australian lifestyle," she says. "I like the way people live, I like their attitude. I've realised that people live to work in the States, and in the rest of the world, people work to live. I think it's the one underlying difference."
But probe a bit further for specifics of the couple's trip and there's a significant pause.
"I don't mean to be an asshole," she says, "but I won't talk about him."
Even an innocuous question as to what she does away from work is met with a deep exhale.
"It's a funny question to get asked, I don't think dentists get asked what they do when they're not looking at people's teeth."
SEE Oz The Great and Powerful, opens today
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