When it comes to juggling married life, work and kids, Mila Kunis has some advice: “There’s no such thing as balance, so don’t strive for that.”
The actress spoke at a Q&A in Santa Monica, Calif., on Wednesday following the screening of her latest film, Goodrich. She addressed a fan in the audience who shared that he and his wife would soon be new parents and wondered how to balance family life with work.
“Just do the best you can with what you’ve got,” Kunis said. “Be nice to each other. Be kind to each other. Put each other first, and then put the kid first to the both of you.”
Kunis has been married to her former That ’70s Show co-star Ashton Kutcher since 2015. The pair share two children — daughter Wyatt, 9, and son Dimitri, 7.
In recent weeks, the couple’s relationship has come under scrutiny following resurfaced videos and social media posts about Kutcher’s former friendship with embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. A source told People that rumors of the couple’s impending separation were “absolutely ridiculous and false.” They’ve been spotted together on numerous occasions in recent weeks.
In Goodrich, which opens in theaters Oct. 18 and is directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer (the daughter of filmmaker Nancy Meyers, who moderated the Q&A), Kunis plays Grace, the eldest daughter of Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton). Grace, who’s pregnant, has a complicated relationship with her art gallery owner father. He has remarried and is also dad to 9-year-old twins who need his attention more than ever after their mom (Laura Benanti) checks herself into rehab.
This dynamic is deeply personal for Meyers-Shyer, who revealed that the film is based on her own relationship with her screenwriter father, Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap).
“My father remarried and had a second set of kids, and I had a really complicated relationship toward that,” Meyers-Shyer said. “I think sometimes as writers, our way of processing is through writing things and then kind of understanding how you feel about it.”
As the daughter of two filmmakers, the writer-director said that making her own films was “a unique experience.”
Meyers-Shyer recalled how people “in random cities” would approach her parents when she was growing up and say to them, “That was my life.”
“That’s such a wonderful thing, I think,” she said, “Such a great compliment to my parents as people say to them, ‘I watch your movies over and over and over again,’ and I don’t think you do that unless that movie provides you with a lot of comfort.”
Kunis said that Meyers-Shyer’s authenticity came through in the writing.
While the actress revealed that her own parents are still married — “I’m shocked that they are together,” Kunis joked — she said that the dynamic between Grace and Andy “feels so real.”
“The things that she says to him are so deep and personal and intimate,” Kunis said. “I imagine that that is something that a lot of people that come from this situation are so desperate to say.”
Goodrich is in theaters Oct. 18.
