Talking scents, sci-fi bobs and 90s beauty with Milla Jovovich

Hey Milla! You’ve rocked some bold looks on-screen over the years. 20 years later and your tangoed bob in The Fifth Element is still constantly referenced on the runway. Who came up with the hairstyle concept?

When [director] Luc Besson was describing the hairstyle for Leeloo I knew that we couldn’t trust any just any old hairdresser to do it so I called in my friend Ward who is a very iconic hairdresser in the fashion industry who came down to London and made that signature colour which was blonde at the roots and then bright orange and gave me the cut and the style for it.

Was this a liberating experience?

My hair was down to my waist [at the time] – I cut it all off! But it felt wonderful – I always love to change my look; I’m definitely somebody that I goes through a lot of personal changes when it comes to beauty and style and stuff like that. It’s very hard for me to keep my hair in one place. My best girlfriend has had the same haircut literally since we were teenagers and I’m like “wow you found that look and you love it and that’s amazing!”…

Okay so…Michelle’s boho vibe (Dazed and Confused), Leeloo’s tangoed tresses (Fifth Element) and Katinka’s fierce brunette bob (Zoolander) – which felt more ‘you’?

It’s funny, pretty much when I get into a script and I sort of naturally begin to take on some attributes of those characters. I’d say at the time when I did Dazed and Confused (in 1994) that was my style – I sort of came dressed like that and looking like that and maybe that’s part of the reason that Richard Linklater gave me the part. You know with Leeloo it was definitely a bit more of a jump but I loved it; I definitely embraced it. I guess maybe I never completely knew who I was, on a personal level, so I was always kind of loving being an actress to be able to jump into other peoples shoes…to be able to take on different personalities; to experiment with who I am and with who I could potentially be. I always felt more comfortable trying new things.

Talk me through the new Joop! Wow Woman fragrance, it’s quite a seductive scent…

Isn’t it beautiful? You just made me want to smell my arm again it really is so nice. It’s very warm – it’s sophisticated but at the same time it’s comforting.

Would you say it’s more of a day or night fragrance? Is there a particular place you can see yourself wearing it specifically?

You know, I’m the kind of person that when I like a scent I wear it all the time. It really depends – during the day I’ll kind of spritz it in the air and walk through it and then at night I’ll just spray it on and have more of an impact you know but what I love about the fragrance is it has got a lot of subtleties to it but at the same time it makes a statement. It is strong but not in an overpowering way that makes you dizzy.

What is one of your very first fragrance memories?

I remembered smelling my mum – [she] was wearing a Cartier perfume – which is that classic 70s kind of perfume. I remember every time I would go in a department store and would smell that back in the day it would remind me of my mum. Or any time I would pick up one of her sweaters. Once I had kids I remember how much I associated my mother’s scent with that feeling of comfort – just whenever I would feel sad or lonely I would go into my mums closet and just smell her and it would make me feel better.

Who is your ultimate beauty icon?

I always thought Kate Moss was incredible. She was definitely somebody that was a peer of mine and I always loved her style; I loved that face you know? When it came to like girls that I admired growing up I always just really looked up to her – she was just cool she and very laid-back.

Growing up in Moscow, how do you think the Russian approach to beauty differs from American?

Definitely when I’ve gone to Moscow I think you know it’s a certain type of woman with money [who] tend to go for the blown out, loads of make-up [and] designer clothes…but I mean that’s one type of woman. I’ve also seen Russian girls that are very natural in the way they dress and their style and it’s much more internal – about who they are as people more than what they represent when they get all dolled up. I think you could say the same for American girls too; you could say the same for any culture you’ve got the women that really tend to kind of put the armour on when it comes to their style and the extreme very expensive clothes and makeup and potentially like crazy plastic surgery and then you have got the girls that are more laid-back and confident with who they are.