Actress Mila Kunis arrives at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre on February 27, 2011 in Hollywood, California. Photo / Getty
Actress Mila Kunis arrives at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre on February 27, 2011 in Hollywood, California. Photo / Getty
Mila Kunis opened up, in her own words, about her personal experience with Hollywood misogyny on Wednesday.
The pregnant 33-year-old rallied for equal pay and treatment for women in an op-ed she penned for her husband Ashton Kutcher's blog A Plus.
Actor Ashton Kutcher (L) and Actress Mila Kunis during the FOX Television Critics Association Press Tour on January 16, 2004 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. Photo / Getty
The Golden Globe nominee revealed a producer threatened she'd 'never work in this town again' unless she posed 'semi-naked' in a men's magazine.
'I was livid, I felt objectified, and for the first time in my career I said "no,"' Mila - who has a two-year-old daughter Wyatt - wrote.
'And guess what? The world didn't end. The film made a lot of money and I did work in this town again, and again, and again.'
Ashton Kutcher (R) and Mila Kunis attend a basketball game between the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on January 3, 2014. Photo / Getty
Kunis had stripped down for Esquire, FHM, and GQ while promoting her male-centric comedies - Friends with Benefits and Ted - but she felt 'compromised.'
'Throughout my career, there have been moments when I have been insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on my gender,' the Bad Moms funnywoman explained.
'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 bulls***! And, worse, that I was complicit in allowing it to happen.'
Actors Ashton Kutcher (L) and Mila Kunis attend day 1 of 2014 Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 25, 2014. Photo / Getty
To empower herself, the expecting actress formed Orchard Farm Productions in 2014, scored a first-look deal with ABC Studios, and pitched a socially-conscious project.
'In the process of pitching this show to a major network, the typical follow-up emails were sent to executives at this network,' she explained.
'In this email chain, this male producer chose to email the following: "And Mila is a mega star. One of biggest actors in Hollywood and soon to be Ashton's wife and baby momma!!!"'
The Jupiter Ascending star immediately withdrew from the project because he reduced her value to 'nothing more than my relationship to a successful man and my ability to bear children.'
Mila - born Milena - added: 'If this is happening to me, it is happening more aggressively to women everywhere. I am fortunate that I have reached a place that I can stop compromising and stand my ground, without fearing how I will put food on my table.'
The teenage cast of That 70's Show. Photo / Getty
According to Deadline, Kunis has sold six TV projects, including a horror comedy called Trapped at Starz with Rob Zombie at the helm.
Meanwhile, she and her 38-year-old husband of 15 months will welcome a son any day now.
The That '70s Show lovebirds aren't exactly eager for their Beverly Hills-raised children to follow in their famous footsteps.
'When it is a choice that she is making, then I think it is fine,' the venture capitalist told Entertainment Tonight in August.
'As long as it's not a choice that she is making, it is my job to protect her from all this nonsense.'
