Mila Kunis is this year’s Sexiest Woman Alive, at least according to Esquire. Previous winners of the title have included Angelina Jolie, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, and Scarlett Johansson, amongst others. Mila’s pictorial (you can see it here) is kind of boring – I mean, her body looks great, and it’s hard to take a bad photo of her, but the styling is just kind of “been there, done that.” Still, the title IS some kind of honor, and I can’t say I hate the choice of Mila this year. She’s been on a roll the past few years, and I think most dudes would probably include her in their Top Five crushes. Unfortunately, her recent dalliance (or is it love?) with Ashton Kutcher has kind of killed my girl-crush for Mila. Fortunately, Mila still gives a good interview. You can read the whole piece here, and here are some highlights:

Mila’s interesting industry story: “My career was threatened over me not wanting to do the cover of a magazine. By an executive. Oh, that’s not even true. A person higher than an executive. It was like, If you don’t do this magazine, you’ll never work in this company. I went, “Great.” It was the first time that I had someone on the phone tell me that I will never work in this industry again. I said, “I’m sorry, what did you say?” It wasn’t Playboy, but it was a magazine I didn’t want to do. It’s very simple. I just didn’t want to do it. I said I would do that one and that one, just not this one. And this person couldn’t accept no. In my twenty-nine years, I’ve never met someone who lied as much as this person did. You know when little kids look at you with chocolate all over their face, and then you say, “Why did you eat that chocolate?” And they say, “I didn’t eat chocolate,” and you say, “But you have it on your face.” It was worse than that. There are good, honest people who work their asses off and don’t reach nearly as much success as this person does. I never spoke about it, and I did as little interviews as I possibly could. Because why support a project that didn’t support me back? People in this industry lie so much, they believe their lies. That’s what I learned on that movie. I learned people are a–holes and people lie. I think that was the turning point of my career. Where I said no!”

On Seth MacFarlane: “He’s such a douchebag. I keep telling him, “Sarcasm does not translate well in print.” And he is so f–king dry. I’ve known him since I was fourteen, and I find self-deprecating humor great. I tell him, “You can mock away because I know who you are. In print, though? You’re going to come off like an a–hole. So be careful.””

She doesn’t think she’s funny: “I think I stumbled upon doing funny things, but I’m not funny. I just know how to deliver a joke. There are people who naturally exude humor and are constantly saying funny things, and there are the people who know how to deliver a joke. It’s a learned skill. Through twenty years of doing this, I practice it. I think that the second you think that you’re funny is when you stop being funny.

Her work ethic, and work philosophy: “What I do and who I am are two different things. And they always will be. What happens with people is they lose sight of who they are, and they become either who they want to be or who they are perceived to be. But whatever it is, it is no longer who they are. So much of who you are in this industry is based on what that critic says, what that director says, what that actor says. People start believing all that, and they become what everybody else wants them to be. And I think that I’ve consciously separated my two lives. I love what I do. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. But when I’m done with work, I’m done with work. I think that if I bought into the hype, I would lose all sight of who I am, and so much of who I am is what my parents went through and instilled in me. And I never want to lose that. Ever. Because I would be so disappointed if I didn’t make them proud.”

The paparazzi and setting up photo-ops: “Here’s the truth: People want to get photographed in this industry a lot more than they let on. For instance, everything is sponsorship-based. When you see photos in magazines and someone’s holding a Coke or a Sprite and they’re just walking down the street, that’s a sponsorship. [With pap setups of beach photos]… At least that’s controlled. But I don’t want it. I really don’t want it. The fact that I even have to talk about it … it’s common sense: Privacy is privacy. I no longer have it.”

Politics: “The way that Republicans attack women is so offensive to me. And the way they talk about religion is offensive. I may not be a practicing Jew, but why we gotta talk about Jesus all the time? And it’s baffling to me how a poor person in Georgia can say, ‘I’m a Republican.’ Why? Do you remember the McCain commercial? “Finish the dang fence.” Do you remember this? God, not many people have seen this commercial. McCain’s walking along the Arizona border fence and talking to a sheriff, and the sheriff says, “You’re one of us, sir.” And McCain turns to the sheriff and says, “Eh, finish the dang fence.” I lost my s–t. “Finish the dang fence.””

[From Esquire]

Mila gives an extraordinarily good interview, doesn’t she? If you go to Esquire, she also talks a bit about her experience as an immigrant, and how she really wishes people would focus more on her parents’ immigration experience rather than hers. And I like that she just comes out and admits that most people in the industry are active participants in the paparazzi game. Is Mila one of them, though? I don’t know. But I think she’s dating someone who is an active participant.

Photos courtesy of Esquire.

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