Mila Kunis went from comedy to action in Max Payne, but that was just practice. In The Book of Eli, she’s hardcore surviving the apocalyptic wasteland and learning to defend herself. Behind the scenes, the toughest thing to survive was the weather.
Mila Kunis Reads The Book of Eli
“The weather was a little bit complicated,” Kunis said. “The weather didn't know what it wanted to be. It was snowing one day and then wind the next day and then sunshine and rain. I didn't really have many stunts. Denzel [Washington] had most of the stunts. He ran a lot. Walking for me is hard enough and so running, I was like, 'Whew. This is going to be rough.'”
Perhaps the most elaborate action sequence involving Kunis was a farm house shootout. “Oh, it was fun. I just stood there and was quiet. I just sat there and was like, 'Oh, there was a camera up here.' It was all done on bungee, I think is what it was called. I think it was a bungee cam and so everything was tied into one shot which was tied into the other shot. So if there was an exterior going through the window into the interior it's all broken down. So I don't know. It was fine. It seemed harder for everyone else. I just looked at it and went, 'Woo. This looks great.' I was just as impressed as everyone else was.”
Book of Eli
Book of Eli
She’s not cracking jokes in the film, because the end of the world is brutal. In real life, however, they had fun. “I laughed a lot. I'll tell you that Gary Oldman is probably one of the funniest people that I've ever worked with. I wish he was here. Jennifer Beals and I created a song for Gary that I will not go into detail about. I'll tell you. One of the lines, 'Gary is not so scary,' because everybody has this preconceived notion that Gary Oldman is going to be very scary. He's not. I mean, he is. Onscreen he's so powerful but in real life he's one of the funniest. He cracks jokes left and right, just fun to be with.”
Some of the advertising has made it clear that there are religious themes in the movie. Perhaps Kunis’s character, Solara, is an angel for Eli. “I think it makes sense because if you look at him, based on the story he was sent here for a purpose. He had to achieve this one goal and everybody has to have followers. That's not the right way of putting it but ultimately [need] people to believe in them. I think she was just one of those that followed him and believed in his journey and believed in his purpose and believed in what he wanted to achieve and wanted to learn from him and pass it along to future generations. So I thought that was important.”
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