Mila Kunis wrote a powerful open letter about Hollywood’s gender bias
“If this is happening to me, it is happening more aggressively to women everywhere.”
Mila Kunis has said a film producer threatened to end her career if she didn’t pose half-naked for a men’s mag.
The Black Swan and Friends With Benefits actress revealed in an open letter on A Plus that the producer said "you'll never work in this town again" when she refused the shoot to promote one of her films.
Kunis said she was “livid” and felt “objectified” following the incident and said it highlighted gender inequality in Hollywood.
“It’s what we are conditioned to believe — that if we speak up, our livelihoods will be threatened; that standing our ground will lead to our demise. We don’t want to be kicked out of the sandbox for being a ‘bitch.’ So we compromise our integrity for the sake of maintaining the status quo and hope that change is coming,”
She continued: “Throughout my career there have been moments when I have been insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored and otherwise diminished based on my gender.
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“I taught myself that to succeed as a woman in this industry I had to play by the rules of the boys’ club. But the older I got and the longer I worked in this industry, the more I realised that it’s bulls[***]! And, worse, that I was complicit in allowing it to happen.”
The 33-year-old star, who’s married to actor Ashton Kutcher, also described an incident in which an “influential male producer” referred to her as “soon to be Ashton’s wife and baby momma” during a discussion for a work project.
“He reduced my value to nothing more than my relationship to a successful man and my ability to bear children," she said. "It ignored my (and my team’s) significant creative and logistical contributions. We withdrew our involvement in the project.”
Kunis said she’s now standing up to these “micro-aggressions”: “I’m done compromising; even more so I’m done with being compromised.
“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.
“If this is happening to me, it is happening more aggressively to women everywhere.”
She concluded: “I will work in this town again, but I will not work with you.”
