Mila Kunis confirmed a long-running rumor to Vanity Fair about how she landed her breakout role as Jackie Burkhart on That ’70s Show after lying about her age. Kunis was 14 at the time, but rumor has it she told the show’s creators she was 18 in order to audition, as the network was only looking for older teenage actors.
“There’s a rumor going around that I may or may not have lied about my age,” Kunis said. “Now I want to make it very clear that I lied. I did.”
“At the time I went to what was then the producer network, you had to sign a contract before you got the job, and I had to put an asterisk in my contract for ‘studio teacher,'” she continued. “They said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ And I was like, ‘Oh PS, I’m 14.’ But at that point, when you talk to the creators, they’re like, ‘We loved you at that point, so what did we care?’”
So yes, Kunis lied about her age to get a foot in the audition door, but co-creators Bonnie and Terry Turner were aware she was a 14-year-old when the show began filming.
“It was in the heyday of older kids playing younger kids, and I was actually the character’s age,” added Kunis. “Back then, I was never treated as inferior. If I did it from one of the cast members, another cast member would stand up for it. The reason I didn’t do drugs was because nobody on set did. And I looked up to them when I was 14. My career could have gone either way…but the set was cool.”
Kunis will reprise the role of Jackie in the upcoming Netflix sequel That ’90s Show, but the streamer hasn’t announced a release date just yet. The actor promised fans last month that That ’90s Show was “very cute,” adding, “Anyone who has ever seen or loved That ’70s Show is going to be really happy with it.”
Watch Kunis’ full Vanity Fair video interview below.