“Hey, I’m The Fifth Element. You’re Really Gonna Ask Me To Read?”: Milla Jovovich Recalls Meeting Her Future Husband When He Made Her Audition For Resident Evil

Milla Jovovich recounts the story of meeting her future husband when auditioning for Resident Evil. An iconic horror series, the Resident Evil movies tell the story of a military unit that fights against a supercomputer and a group of zombie scientists after a major lab accident. The movies are based on the survival horror video games of the same name, which began releasing in 1996. The movies were led by Jovovich, who played Alice in the film series.

Speaking with GQ, Jovovich explains how Resident Evil led to her meeting her husband. The actor says that after being a longtime player of the video game series, she wanted to be a producer on Resident Evil. She found out someone else had the rights to the film, and he asked her to read for the part. Stunned at first to be asked to read as she had recently starred in The Fifth Element. She recalls that she “came in very nonchalant,” but ended up not only taking a part in the film, but eventually marrying the director. Check out the full quote from Jovovich below:

I played the video game a lot with my little brother, and I wanted to produce it. I wanted to make the movie. And then I found out that my — well, he wasn’t my husband then — but this guy had the rights to it. We reached out, and he asked me to read for it. You know, at that point I was like ‘Hey, I’m the Fifth Element. Like, you really going to ask me to read for this?’ I came in very nonchalant and saw this really H๏τ, young director, and I was like ‘ooh.’ And that was the beginning of the rest of my life.

What This Meant For Milla Jovovich

Jovovich Had Already Been In The Fifth Element


Milla Jovovich as Leeloo pointing a gun in The Fifth Element.

As Jovovich alludes to in her quote, she was a rising star at the time who did not need the Resident Evil acting job to make her well-known. She had come off her star-making role as Leeloo in Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element just a few years earlier,a major film starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and other big stars. Despite her already being a significant star, her Resident Evil audition ended up being career-changing, as the video game adaptation franchise is her biggest recurring role and one of her most iconic parts.

Jovovich’s quote also illuminates how the Resident Evil audition was life-changing in more ways than one. The first movie was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who was 37 years old at the time that the first movie came out (Jovovich was 27). After getting into a relationship, the pair would go on to get married in 2009. They also have a child together, Ever Anderson, who is now a model and actor who has been in several films, including the 2016 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

Our Take On This Resident Evil Love Story

Anderson Is Not The Only Director Jovovich Has Been Married To

Jovovich’s behind-the-scenes love story with Anderson is even more interesting when considering her previous marriage, which was to The Fifth Element director, Besson. Besson and Jovovich were married from 1997 to 1999. So, Anderson is the second director who went from working with Jovovich to marrying her. This Resident Evil-started relationship worked out for the pair, however, as they have been married for over a decade and are still making films together, including this year’s poorly-reviewed In the Lost Lands.

Source: GQ

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