Milla Jovovich is NET-A-PORTER.COM’s Latest Cover Star

This week’s edition of THE EDIT features model and actor Milla Jovovich in relaxed looks by Marni, J.W. Anderson, Proenza Schouler, Étoile Isabel Marant, Chloé and more.

In an exclusive interview, Jovovich discusses her style which she says is currently going through an evolution. “I love the sexy, boyish thing. I’m friends with Hedi Slimane and I got hooked up with all these clothes from the men’s collection. Harry Brant [the son of model Stephanie Seymour and industrialist Peter Brant] and I were sitting next to each other at the show and fighting over the clothes. I was like, ‘See that blazer Harry? That’s mine.’

590f7780-9a16-4c5c-b740-0a954e7b41b8

Shirt by Marni; pants by MICHAEL Michael Kors; sandals by Birkenstock

Her style reassessment may be partly to do with dressing a body that has changed over the last year. “Last summer, I was definitely 15lb lighter. I’d done a Vogue Paris cover at the end of 2012, so I’d been to the gym and I was on a liquid diet. I lost the weight but, to be honest, when I looked at pictures of myself – not in a magazine, in real life – I felt I looked older.”

When asked about how she’s continued to maintain her appeal after 26 years, she says, “It’s who you are when nobody is watching you that matters. You’ve got to have something else to bring to the table.” This was a lesson drummed into her by her mother, Galina, who was a movie star in her native Russia until they moved to California with nothing, in 1982. “They were at ground zero; they were housekeepers,” says Jovovich. “I saw my mum crying a lot.”

fa95054f-7e84-4f30-ae92-2489cae3c852

Shirt by Marni; pants by MICHAEL Michael Kors; sandals by Birkenstock

For years, Jovovich was plagued with insecurities about never matching up to her mother. She came into her own when she starred in the 1997 sci-fi blockbuster, The Fifth Element, and met soon-to-be husband Luc Besson. “I met [director] Luc Besson and fell in love and had this person who allowed me to make mistakes and still built me up after. He said, ‘Don’t think that just because she does her thing so well, that it makes you any less.’”

She discusses her six-year old daughter, Ever, who she wants to raise with the founding principles of her upbringing – mainly that success isn’t an entitlement but achieved through hard work and education. Hence, Ever, who already speaks better French than her mother, works to a specific reward scheme. Jovovich explains, “She wants to help our housekeeper, and I’m like, ‘Look, you’re never going to get as much money for sweeping floors as you will for reading books. I know housekeeping is harder, but life’s not like that. So I’ll pay you 10 cents for cleaning the floors and 20 cents for every page you read.’

4eee1ba5-5c82-4231-8661-e4493997b534

Shirt by Proenza Schouler

So what’s next? Jovovich is about to begin shooting two films, but she adds “I’m at that point where I don’t need to work per se. Which I know sounds so douchey to most people, but I’ve been working since I was a kid, so you know what? Step back, buddy. It’s nice to be able to say, ‘Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.’”

  • For more info visit Net-A-Porter.com
  • Photographed by Annemarieke van Drimmelen
  • Styling Natalie Brewster