On Wednesday, Mila Kunis joined a number of high-profile actresses including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, and Helen Mirren in speaking out about the sexism they’ve faced in Hollywood, by writing a candid essay about her own experiences.
In the essay “You’ll Never Work in This Town Again,” written for APLus.com, Kunis explains that her title is “a cliché to be sure, but also what a producer threatened when I refused to pose semi-naked on the cover of a men’s magazine to promote our film . . . I was livid, I felt objectified, and for the first time in my career I said ‘no.’”
“And guess what?” Kunis continues. “The world didn’t end. The film made a lot of money and I did work in this town again, and again, and again. What this producer may never realize is that he spoke aloud the exact fear every woman feels when confronted with gender bias in the workplace.”
“Throughout my career, there have been moments when I have been insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on my gender,” Kunis reveals. “And always, I tried to give people the benefit of the doubt; maybe they knew more, maybe they had more experience, maybe there was something I was missing. I taught myself that to succeed as a woman in this industry I had to play by the rules of the boy's club. But the older I got and the longer I worked in this industry, the more I realized that it's bullshit!”
Kunis also describes how she formed her own production company, Orchard Farm Productions, and recently “signed on to partner with an influential male producer” on a show that would “shine a light on an important social issue.” However Kunis severed the relationship with the producer once he sent out the following e-mail, while attempting to pitch the project to network executives: “And Mila is a mega star. One of biggest actors in Hollywood and soon to be Ashton’s wife and baby momma!!!”
“Factual inaccuracies aside,” Kunis writes, “he reduced my value to nothing more than my relationship to a successful man and my ability to bear children. It ignored my (and my team's) significant creative and logistical contributions.”
“I'm done compromising; even more so, I'm done with being compromised,” Kunis writes. “So from this point forward, when I am confronted with one of these comments, subtle or overt, I will address them head on; I will stop in the moment and do my best to educate. I cannot guarantee that my objections will be taken to heart, but at least now I am part of creating an environment where there is the opportunity for growth.”
Click here to read her complete essay on APlus.com, the digital media company founded by Ashton Kutcher.
Last fall, Jennifer Lawrence, who happens to be Kunis’s neighbor, wrote an essay about the gender-pay gap for Lenny, the newsletter co-founded by Lena Dunham. In it, she wrote, “I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! Fuck that. I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard.”
