Обнаженная Милла Йовович / Milla Jovovich "Nude" by Mario Sorrenti
Совершенно голая Милла Йовович... не знаю как вам, но для меня эти фотографии стали большой неожиданностью. Опубликована эта фотосессия была во французском модном альманахе Purple Fashion 2 года назад, в осенне-зимнем номере 2009 года.
За наводку на тему спасибо dannyboykiev
Milla Jovovich / Милла Йовович,
фотограф Mario Sorrenti
Purple Fashion #12 fall/winter 2009
- Как прошла съемка у Марио Сорренти?
- Было ощущение красоты и интимности, как будто мы создавали песню или поэму из этих фотографий. Я чувствовала, что была частью этого процесса. Раньше это было так: "Я модель, ты фотограф". Но на этот раз было взаимодействие. Мы помогали друг другу выражать себя. Мы с Марио - друзья в течении уже более, чем десяти лет, так что мне очень комфортно на съемках с ним. Мы заботимся друг о друге. Он друг, которому я полностью доверяю. Это первые ню, которые я сделала за десять лет, в течении которых я вышла замуж и родила ребенка, и много чего еще произошло. Я вышла замуж, когда мне было 22, и я чувствовала, что не должна больше сниматься обнаженной. Потом, после того как я развелась, не предоставлялось возможности... (полностью интервью Миллы Йовович об эротическом фото, детстве в Советском Союзе, переезде в Америку, начале шоу-карьеры и очень многом другом чуть ниже)
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Интервью Миллы Йовович журналу Purple Fashion #12 осень-зима 2009 / английский язык
Milla Jovovich | interview | Purple Fashion #12 F/W 2009
Olivier Zahm - How did the shoot with Mario Sorrenti go?
Milla Jovovich - The feeling was beautiful and intimate, like we were creating a song or a poem with these photographs. I felt like I was part of the process. Before it was like, "I'm the model, you're the photographer." But this time there was a synergy. We were helping each other express ourselves. Mario and I have been friends for over ten years, so I'm very comfortable shooting with him. We care about each other. He's a friend I totally trust. These are the first nudes I've done in over ten years, what with getting married and having a baby and everything. I got married when I was 22 and I felt like I shouldn't do nudes anymore. Then after I got divorced the opportunity didn't present itself. I did do nudes a couple of times with Peter Lindbergh, but it had been a long time. I had my clothing company, which took up five years of my life. I was working on films. I had a baby.
- Is it because of your baby that you stopped modeling for a while?
- Yes, because were so many other things I was doing. But this story with Mario was an opportunity for me to love myself again as a woman, after working so hard to get my body back in shape. But it wasn't like, "I'll do a shoot with anybody." No, it was with someone I trust, someone who isn't going to judge me.
- You and Mario were once lovers, weren't you?
- Yes, but that was long ago. Now Mario and I just love each other as people, and as friends. I could have never been this free with Mario when I was younger - I was too insecure. When you're in your twenties you're less comfortable with yourself. I know I was.
- Why, because you didn't really love your body?
- No, it was more that I didn't trust my ability to express myself. I constandy doubted myself. I think a lot of artists have this kind of insecurity - they're so scared of who they really are that they're constantly trying to reinvent themselves. I did this when I was younger, but now I know who I am. And in the photos I did with Mario I think you do see a woman who understands herself, who's comfortable, who doesn't have complexes.
- What is so different now?
- Well, it's a combination of things. I've acted in films and on stage, I was in a band, I had a clothing line, I had a baby, I gained a lot of weight, I lost it all and got my body back - I mean,
I've been so many different people in the last six years! Now I can take all of these people and use them. From experience, I've learned not to be scared of all the facets of myself. You accept who you are and what your relevance to society is. Plus, I've been working for almost 25 years now, starting when I was 11.
- Wasn't it Avedon who discovered you?
- No, it was Herb Ritts. Actually, it was the photographer Gene Lemuel. You should see his stuff - you'd love it. He's very underground. A real artist, and a poet. He took my first test pictures. He showed them to Herb in LA and the next day Herb hired me for the cover of Lei, the Italian magazine. I was 11. Then Avedon hired me for Mademoiselle. There was a big controversy about that. But it all took off from there - I posed for Scavullo, Peter Lindbergh, and all the guys - all when I was 11, 12, and 13. I never posed nude, but it was still controversial. Christian groups harassed Avedon, claiming he was shooting child pornography. Mademoiselle didn't want to put me on its cover, but Avedon said if they didn't he'd never work for them again. He really supported me in the beginning, really jump-starting my career. So it's been a long journey. But after 25 years, I still feel like I'm just getting started! [Laughs]
- Your modeling career never really stopped.
- Not until I decided to stop it when I wanted to try other things. I didn't do much acting when I was young. I wasn't very good at it. There are very few children who are really good actors. I played guitar and I loved to make music, so when I was 16 I took a few years off and moved to London and started a band. I got away from fashion and films. I had to make a comeback when I was 18! People were saying I was already too old, that I was from the '80s. I was 18 years old and already a passe '80s model. [Laughs]
- But you must have fit right in at the time! Purple started in 1992. It was a moment of change in fashion.
- Yes, that's when I met Mario Sorrenti and Terry Richardson. Actually, I didn't like the work I did as a child model. I wasn't into the late-'80s esthetic. But I really started enjoying modeling when I came back. We had an amazing group of friends - Davide and Mario Sorrenti, and Terry. And Frank B, who was still assisting Mario, had just started to do make-up. Mario took that picture of me for the cover of i-D, the crazy clown thing. That was Frankie's first make-up job. It was like all these kids together doing stuff.
Fashion was inspiring at the time. Helmut Lang was starting to get big. It was exciting and I worked a lot in fashion. But I started doing films with Luc Besson. The Fifh Element came out in 1997.
- Then you had to take another break from modeling and acting.
- Yes, when I was 26. I took another break from it all and started my own line of clothing - to try and express myself in another way. I got so much support from American Vogue and from Anna Wintour and the CFDA, and I met such a great group of people, like the Rodarte girls, and Thakoon and Phillip Lim, all of whom I'm still friends with. I started the company with Carmen Hawk, another model, and a stellar talent, who was an amazing stylist and artist. Now she's a photographer. We had an amazing run. We did a line for Target that sold out. But we weren't really ready for success and so we quit. When we were really small and doing everything by hand in our studio in LA it was perfect. But when we got big and people started placing large orders and we had to hire factories it all went wrong. We were artists, not business people. We didn't understand schedules, ordering fabrics, shipping, or taxes. We just got tired of it. It wasn't fun anymore. And then I had a baby, so I took another break from fashion and films.
- But you did act in a few films during this period, right?
-Yes, in the Resident Evil action films. It's an amazing franchise - we didn't expect it to blow up like it did. I lived out my fantasy of being a warrior, a superhero who saves the world. [Laughs]
- You dreamed of being a superwoman?
- Yes, definitely, even as a kid. I liked reading Japanese comics and seeing ninjas swooping from tree to tree. I wanted to have that kind of control over my body, the kind dancers and martial artists have. It fascinated me. I want my daughter to take martial arts lessons.
- Maybe my daughter should too.
- It's a good idea. You learn to control your emotions, to balance yourself - people can't knock you down. You can walk into a room with confidence knowing that no one can hurt you. On the other hand, knowing that you can hurt people can make you more peaceful and more protective of those weaker than yourself. It encourages compassion. Rather than fight, you walk away because you know they don't understand that you could actually kill them. Ballet is great too, but it's so physically destructive to the body. At a certain age your body is just destroyed. Whereas martial arts are good for you - your body gets stronger and stronger.
- It's not too masculine?
- No. I don't really think there's anything masculine about it. It's about achieving grace, balance, and equilibrium. Creating your path. A martial artist moves in the way a fish in a school swims, never bumping into other fish. It's great for women; it gives them an inner strength.
- You were so perfect in your role in The Fifth Element.
- It was a lot of work. I didn't start off as the perfect Leeloo. I studied animals a lot. I'd mentally put a baby lion and a bird together and think, Leeloo is clumsy yet strong like a baby lion, but light like a bird. And innocent - a child really, an instinctual, beautiful, intelligent, wise child, tuned into the magic in the world. She appealed to the part of me that loves the dream-reality of Carlos Castaneda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
- You're a born actress - but did you to study it?
- I did, when I was younger, but I didn't really become an actress until I did The Fifth Element. I was so inspired by the brilliance of Luc Besson. I fell in love with him. He cared about me so much and I wanted to do my best for him. Up until that point, I was more into music. Acting was something that my mom did, something I was always trying to escape. But I wanted to be Leeloo, the Fifth Element, wanted to become an actress so I could incarnate her, be in her world, because she inspired me. I may not have been so interested if it had been any other character. In a way, I'm still her, and will always be her, because, once I knew her, I became her. She never left me. With every role you play you come to understand who the person is, and you realize that they always existed inside you. You just had to find them. It's all about accessing the different facets of your personality - disappointments you've experienced, things you've closed off, repressed. You don't want people to see your vulnerability and that you're too scared to express yourself. You have to be comfortable and confident enough to access these things.
- But you had already acted in films, like Dazed and Confused, for example.
- Yeah, but I didn't really believe in what I was doing. I wasn't good in them. I was eye-candy. Being on stage as a musician taught me a lot about performing, about going with something emotionally. Being a musician allowed me to be an actress. From the mistakes I made as a musician, I learned to let myself go in front of an audience.
- To be in the moment and express emotions immediately.
- Exactly. That was my first tap into knowing who I was as an artist, what I had to give. I realized there was something there I wanted to express, maybe through film, maybe through music, maybe through design or fashion. My everyday life is pretty much about that, asking myself, "Who am I?" and "What do I feel Бке expressing today?" There's a constant flow of different characters inside me. Life and art - this magical world. I'm just blessed and lucky to have access to it. So many people are slapped with reality. I'm able to hold on to the child inside me, to the magic, and to see the world as a beautiful place.
- The way you sing is very powerful. You should make another record.
- Well, music is so personal and organic. I don't want to limit myself by saying, "OK, I have to record an album this year." I'm writing and putting my songs together as they naturally come to me, and I'll release them online.
- You don't want to collaborate?
- Sure. I love the music Maynard James Keenan and Danny Lohner wrote for me. Other people can push me to do new things on the guitar. I love to be challenged. I love to experience other worlds, not just mine. I'm alright on guitar and keyboards, but I also like to work with really talented musicians.
- Why don't you do an album with, say, Lou Reed?
- Well, I did his song, Satellite of Love. I don't know if he liked it. He never called me. [Laughs]
- Who would you like to work with?
- Karin Andersson. She's Scandinavian and goes by the name Fever Ray. I'd love to collaborate with her. Maynard and I really vibe well together and have a great working relationship.
- It seems like things happen organically in every area of your life.
- No, not at all. Most of my life is very planned, very sheduled. Being a model, an actress, and a mother means you're on schedule, you have to plan ahead. Modeling and acting is all business and work. In a way it's like a chess game. But music is what I do when become home and the baby's asleep. It's just for me. I can do what I want. I don't have to listen to anyone else.
- You can play all night long even if you know you'll be destroyed the next day.
- Well, I usually only do that when I'm in another way, without my baby, so I can be destroyed the next day and it'll be ..ay. Like that time in New York when you came over and I played guitar all night. I like the feeling of hotel rooms and empty spaces. In hotel room is inspiring because it has no personality of its own. You have to fill the room with yourself. It's a blank canvas. At home I'm constantly running after my child, there's phone calls, constant ..stractions - my whole life surrounds me to such an extent that ... hard to have a moment of peace. But in a hotel room it's quiet, ...thing happens! I get to sing!
- Like the empty room in wihich you did the shoot with Mario.
- Exactly. We had to fill it with ourselves. We were ... to express ourselves because there was nothing else in the room and no one saying anything.
- You were born in Kiev, right?
- Yes. I grew up partly in the Ukraine because my grandma is from there. But my mom is from Moscow so I mostly grew up there. We moved to America in 1981, when I was five. ... I remember a lot about Russia - hanging out with my friends, and my little dog disappearing, which was very sad. My mom was a famous actress in Russia. I remember going on set with her.
- Did you leave because of the Communist regime?
- Yes. My father is from Yugoslavia - from Montenegro, actually - so he could travel outside of Russia, ...ereas when my mother was single she couldn't. When she married foreigner she gained the privilege of being able to travel abroad. Mу father studied medicine in England and worked as a bartender at ...ngfellows. He waited on Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart and has a lot of great stories about all these amazing artists getting really drunk and doing crazy stuff. Anyway, we lived in England for a year and then we moved to America and never went back to Russia. I got my ...pers in 1987 because I was given political amnesty. There are a lot of political refugees and revolutionaries on my father's side of the family. Every male has spent at least 10 years in jail for revolutionary, anti-government activity! [Laughs] My great-grandmother smuggled weapons into the country during the Turkish war. They still sing songs about her. My great-grandfather's clothes are in a museum because he was a war hero. My grandfather was a crazy Communist. He was ...inst Tito and wrote books critical of him. My family is pretty crazy ... very idealistic, especially the men. They were often away from ...me because of causes they were fighting for, causes for which they ...en paid dearly - sometimes with their lives.
- Are people on your mothers side of the family more artistic?
- No, my mom was really the first to be an artist. ...iter the revolution my grandmother and her mother were taken out ... the desert and dropped off. They made it back home somehow but ... their furniture had been sold and they had to live in a basement somewhere. It was a crazy life. But from the age of seven my mom would take the train by herself to her violin lesson. She knew she wanted to be an artist. She was accepted into one of the best film schools in Russia. They accepted two applicants out of 800. She was really strong. She moved away from home at 16 and followed her dream to be an actress. Then she sacrificed that dream for me, to give me a better life in America, to give me more opportunities.
- Couldn't she continue to act in America!
- She had an accent, and she didn't have an agent.
- Do you still feel Russian, having left Russia at such a young age?
- Definitely. I still speak Russian. I speak it with my daughter. I read her Russian stories and poems. My roots are very important - they make me who I am.
- Do you feel nostalgic for your past?
- My whole life is centered around nostalgia. I mean, that's why I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez so much: his books are all about memory, and about how the best memories can cause the most pain. Bad things are almost easier to think of than good things, because the good things, the beautiful things, are gone.
- Can this feeling of nostalgia help your acting, say for a scene in which you're required to cry, for instance?
- Well, I have to be in the moment in any scene. I have to believe in what I'm doing; that's the most important thing. That's what Leeloo taught me: to believe, to see the world through the eyes of a child, to have empathy and compassion for who you are. To be an actor means being nonjudgmental and to have compassion for people. If I play a bad girl, it doesn't mean I'm a bad girl, but I do have to understand that the character believes what she's doing is the right thing.
- Was it difficult for you to assimilate into American culture?
- Well, I did feel isolated. My best friends, my parents' friends' kids, were all Russian. In the '80s in America, being Russian was definitely not the norm.
- Did people assume you were a Communist?
- Yeah, a Communist or a Nazi - no one knew the difference, and it didn't really matter!
- Really? Were people that ignorant?
- Yeah. Kids at school would call me a Commie Nazi. I didn't even understand the difference. [Laughs] I just knew they were making fun of me. But because of my mother and father, who are incredibly disciplined and have very strong work ethics - which they drilled into me from an early age - I never felt overwhelmed by my situation. My mom always told me I was going to be an artist or an actor. I went to art classes, dance classes, and took piano and guitar lessons. School was like an afterthought. Kids made fun of me but it was such a small part of my life. For what our family had to achieve, we had to advance very quickly. I knew I had a job to do. I could see my future beyond school and the kids who teased me. I never came home from school crying. I didn't have time. My days were totally filled up. As soon as school was out I had this class and that class, one right after the other! My mom would give me books to read. It was important to her that I read the classics. I had to fulfill a future for my family. The most important thing was what my parents expected from me. Moving to America meant I had to work hard and achieve something to help my family move forward.
- Do you have brothers or sisters'?
- I have a half-brother named Marco. He's 20 and lives in Miami with his mother. We didn't meet until he was nine, but when we did we just fell in love. He's an incredible guy. We've traveled the world together. His mom, who is Argentinian, is really great. We live on opposite sides of the country, but we phone all the time and visit each other every summer and at Christmas. I've taken Marco on sets with me. We went to China and Mongolia and Tokyo together. We went to Paris and Germany together. I really adore him. He was always such a sweet sensitive guy. I do have very strong family ties.
- Your image is that of a glamorous movie star - very magnetic - but you're actually very complex. Is it that you choose to show only certain sides of your personality to the public?
- Well, I give people what they want for the job I'm doing. Maybe if I make another record I'll show another side of myself to people. But with acting and modeling you play a role - you wear someone else's clothes and you give them what they want. But I still have plenty of time to show people different sides of myself. That's what being an artist is all about. Hopefully, someday people will perceive me as a fully rounded human being, not just bits and pieces. I still have a lot of work to do.
- Do the fashion and movie industries encourage this one-sided perception of models and actors?
- It's not just them. But if I had only been an actress, and had been totally dedicated to being one, I'd have tried to do different kinds of films. Now I'm auditioning for films in which I can work with really great actors. I'm starting another chapter of my life. People will see different sides of me because I want them to. I was very private before; I wanted to hide. Now that I'm more comfortable with who I am I can take risks. I love being a superhero, and I love to model - but musically and acting-wise, I think I've yet to show people who I am.
- You sound very optimistic.
- Well, I'm more focused now than I was before. I'm flexing my muscles a bit, as an artist. Also, after you have a baby you don't give a damn about what anyone thinks. As long as your baby isn't sick or hungry or crying, and is sleeping well, everyone can go to hell. [Laughs] Your child is the most important thing. Now it's not so important if I land this job or do that thing. The important thing is to be a great mother. And then if I get the job, great! I know my place in the world: I'm a mother. Everything after that is the cherry on top. So I don't try so hard to be an artist now. I just do things because I want to do them. It's not about impressing people.
- Sometimes when you stop wanting something so much, it comes to you.
- You're just more relaxed. I used to be so nervous on stage, but now it's fun. I just get up there and freakin' do my thing. If people don't like it, I don't care - it's my thing. I am who I am.
- So, now that you're a mother and in love with Paul, you'll have to stop breaking the hearts of all us men!
- Oh, I don't know about that! I think I can still destroy a world or two. [Laughs] It doesn't have to be in a sexual way. But now it's not about destroying, it's about making magic with people - like what happens when Mario and I work together. It's about creating worlds, not destroying them.
- It's about love.
- Yeah, about making a connection with people and creating something. Most of the people I hang out with are ones I create things with. I have very few friends who I just go shopping with or have lunch with. I do stuff with my friends - we create, we experience magical moments. That's the real beauty of life: tapping into emotions, drawing a picture, writing a poem or a song, taking a photo, making a movie.
- Are you receptive to love?
- Yes, but I'm guarded. Self-protective. But it's rare that I really connect with someone. I have many acquaintances - "Hi, hey, bye bye!" - but the people I let into my world, who I want to play music with, who I want to sit and talk to, are very few, and usually they're people I have some sort of creative synergy with. You simply enjoy some people's company more than that of others. I've lived my hfe in an organic way. When I'm inspired, when I'm passionate, it works. When I'm not, it doesn't. Like the company Carmen and I had - when we were inspired, it worked; when it became a job, we were like, okay, we can't do this anymore. Same with film, same with modeling, same with music. That's why I've jumped around and done different things. It has to be natural and spontaneous.
- This seems more of a European approach to life, and less of a business-like American one.
- Well, maybe I need a little more of the American thing in my life. [Laughs] Every artist needs a businessperson. Artists can create all they want to, but they need business people to market their stuff, brand it and put it out there. Very few people can put the two together. An artist needs someone - like it's all in Chinese and the right person puts it into English. [Laughs] Wow! Now I understand it! It's important to have both aspects and I certainly need more of the business aspect. But I do feel blessed. I've had incredible success, in my life and in my career.
- Thanks very much for this interview, Milla. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon.
- Oh, yeah. That's what I love about us - we're definitely two of the same type of souls and always seem to end up in the same places!
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Можно посмотреть еще:
Milla Jovovich / Милла Йовович, фотограф Simon Upton | Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, апрель 2010
фотограф Mario Sorrenti: Natalia Vodianova / Наталья Водянова | W Magazine 2004