Mila Kunis says that her time on That ’70s Show was an impactful experience that shaped her teen years.
Mila Kunis on the red carpetvia Instar
HIGHLIGHTS
Mila Kunis had a positive experience growing up on the set of That ’70s Show and credits the show for keeping her away from drugs and providing a safe space for her to grow.
Kunis lied about her age to audition for the role, but when the creators found out, they were not bothered and still loved her for the role.
Kunis and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, submitted letters on behalf of castmate Danny Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attacking and assaulting two women, causing them to get caught in the controversy.
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At the young age of 14, actress Mila Kunis took up the iconic role of Jackie Burkhart on the hit TV series That ’70s Show. The role garnered the young actress success and led to Mila starring in an intensive role in Black Swan and Luckiest Girl Alive, which viewers demanded a trigger warning for. Although many famous child actors have come forward to share their negative experiences of working in Hollywood at a young age, Mila Kunis has not been one of them.
The That ’70s Show actress revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that her years of growing up on the set of the Fox TV series was nothing but a positive experience.
Landing the role of Jackie Burkhart on the iconic Fox TV series That ’70s Show altered the course of 14-year-old Mila Kunis’s life. Although there has been long-standing speculation as to whether the creators of the TV series knew exactly how young the actress was when she auditioned for the role, Kunis eventually set the rumors to rest.
Mila confirmed that she had indeed lied to producers about her age, after finding out that they were only looking for older teen actors to star in the series. Nevertheless, Kunis had a happy ending. When she informed the series creators of her age they were not bothered by the news since they loved the actress for the role.
Despite becoming a household name due to the iconic role, Kunis’s parents were not always supportive of the teenager’s involvement with the TV show. The actress has previously recalled when she had to take the bus to the set after fighting with her parents when talking with Conan O’Brien.
O’Brien brought up the story she had told him in the past: “You would get into fights with your parents, and I remember you once told me, ‘Oh yeah, I had a big fight with my parents. They grounded me, so I have to take the bus to the lot to film The ’70s Show,'” before Kunis admitted that it had happened more than once.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Mila revealed how much of a positive effect spending her teen years on That ’70s Show had on her life.
“I will say the reason I don’t do drugs, the reason I didn’t get into drugs, all of that was because no one on the set did. And I looked up to them at 14. And so the trajectory of my career or my life could have gone any which way. But it didn’t.”
Rising to fame would normally influence most actors, especially young ones, to get sucked into the dark side of Hollywood fame but Kunis stands by the set and her castmates as having provided a safe space for her to grow up.
“I had the greatest experience of ’70s. 100% I was embraced. 100% I was never treated as like, lesser than. And if I did by one of the cast members, another cast member would stand up for it.”
Although Kunis was the youngest on set, her cast mates were only a few years older with Danny Masterson being the oldest of the gang at 22 when the show originally premiered.
“We were all trying to figure ourselves out. We were all young.”
Not only was the set a safe space for Kunis to go through the motions of being an adolescent but also where the young actress met her now-husband, Ashton Kutcher.
When reminiscing about her days on set with Conan O’Brien and discussing her parent’s reaction to her fame, the Luckiest Girl Alive actress recalled how it was Kutcher who drove her home after her parents confiscated her car keys after a fight.
One of the famous cast members of That ’70s Show, Danny Masterson, was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison, after being found guilty for attacking and assaulting two women nearly 20 years ago. Masterson’s sentence has raised questions about whether or not the iconic series has been tainted by the actor’s crimes.
Kunis and her husband submitted letters on Masterson’s behalf, asking for the court to be lenient in his sentencing, causing the couple to get caught in the controversy of Masterson’s actions.
“He’s taught me about being direct and confronting issues in life and relationships head-on, resolving them, and moving forward,” described Ashton Kutcher, before going on so far as to claim that Masterson had been a “role model” and adamantly attesting to Masterson’s lack of involvement with the “typically Hollywood life of drugs”.
Kunis even penned her own letter insisting upon her former co-star’s “exceptional character”, before describing him as an “amazing friend, confidant, and, above all, an outstanding older brother figure” to the actress.