In an interview with Vanity Fair, Mila Kunis verified a persistent claim that she lied about her age to get her breakthrough job as Jackie Burkhart on “That ’70s Show.” Although Kunis was just 14 at the time, the myth suggests that she lied about her age to the show’s producers in order to get an audition since the network was only searching for older adolescent actresses.
“There’s a rumor going around that I may or may not have lied about my age,” Kunis said. “I’d like to make it very clear now that I did lie. I did.”
“However, by the time I went to what was then a producer’s network call…you have to sign a contract before you get the job and in my contract I had to put an asterisk for ‘studio teacher,’” she continued. “They were like, ‘What do you mean?’ And I was like, ‘Oh P.S., I’m 14.’ But at that point if you talk to the creators, they were like, ‘We loved you at that point so what did we care?’”
So, true, Kunis lied about her age to gain an appearance, but by the time the show’s production began, co-creators Bonnie and Terry Turner were fully aware of this.
“It was in the heyday of older kids playing younger kids and I was actually of the age of the character,” Kunis added. “I was never treated as lesser then. If I did by one of the cast members another cast member would stand up for it. The reason I don’t do drugs was because nobody on the set did. And I looked up to them at 14. The trajectory of my career could’ve gone any which way…but the set was cool.”
On the upcoming “That ’90s Show” sequel series on Netflix, Kunis will play Jackie once more; however, the streaming service has not yet disclosed a premiere date. Last month, the actor assured fans of “That ’90s Show’s” “extremely charming” quality and vowed that “Anyone who has ever seen or liked ‘That ’70s Show’ will be incredibly thrilled with it.”