Mila Kunis is opening up about her personal experiences with sexism in Hollywood.
In an honest and open essay penned for husband Ashton Kutcher’s A Plus website, the 33-year-old actress slams gender bias in the industry and details the time she locked horns with a producer over her unwillingness to strip down to promote a film.
“’You’ll never work in this town again.’ 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,” Mila writes.
“I was livid, I felt objectified, and for the first time in my career I said ‘no’. 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.
Mila is slamming sexism in Hollywood in a new open letter. Photo: Getty
“What this producer may never realise is that he spoke aloud the exact fear every woman feels when confronted with gender bias in the workplace.”
Mila went on to state that throughout her years in Hollywood, she had seen first-hand the many ways in which women were devalued.
“There have been moments when I have been insulted, sidelines, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on my gender,” she revealed.
“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 realised that it’s bulls—t! And, worse, that I was complicit in allowing it to happen.”
Watch Mila speaking about becoming a parent in the video below. Story continues after the video.
In a bid to make a change, the actress eventually formed her own production company alongside three “amazing” women. But even then, Mila writes, she still battled moments of gender bias.
Recently, she explained, her team partnered with a male producer to pitch an important project to a major network. That producer then sent the following alleged email: “And Mila is a mega star. One of biggest actors in Hollywood and soon to be Ashton’s wife and baby momma!!!”
“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,” she wrote.
Despite it being just “one small comment”, Mila writes that “it’s these very comments that women deal with day in and day out”.
The star is pledging to take a stand against gender bias.
From now, the Bad Moms star has pledged to stand her ground.
“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,” she reveals.
Mila isn’t the only Hollywood star to speak out against sexism.
Jennifer Lawrence, Carey Mulligan, Jessica Chastain, Sienna Miller and many more have all thrown their support behind the gender pay gap issue, and Patricia Arquette famously campaigned for equal pay during her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress at the 2015 Academy Awards.
