The Movie Mila Kunis Regrets Making To This Day
Mila Kunis may have disappeared from the spotlight for the most part these days, however, there's no denying that she accomplished quite a bit while she was popping up onscreen during the peak of her career. The actress won over TV audiences with her comedic ways on That '70s Show (while she was way younger than you thought), made movie-lovers laugh in 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 2016's Bad Moms, and 2018's The Spy Who Dumped Me, even earning a Golden Globe nomination for her chilling performance in 2010's Black Swan.
The star discussed her tendency to be open to experiences that she might have once rejected while chatting with Marie Claire in 2014, saying, "I was really good at saying no. I decided I was just going to say yes to any opportunity that came, no matter how crazy. And it changed my life."
While that inclination has surely led her to some unexpectedly exciting opportunities, it also might have resulted in some controversial choices, including the one role that she seems to regret.
Mila Kunis wanted to stop American Psycho III after starring in the sequel
A few years after Mila Kunis rose to fame as Jackie Burkhart on That '70s Show, the actress landed the lead role in 2002's American Psycho II: All American Girl, the follow-up to 2000's American Psycho film that starred Christian Bale as a chic serial killer. The stand-alone sequel, which also featured Star Trek legend William Shatner, told the story of Rachael Newman (Kunis), a girl who "has developed a taste for murder and will stop at nothing to become a college professor's assistant." It ... wasn't a hit.
"However clever the director thought he was being, his savvy was not reflected in the film's style," The Independent noted while pondering if the movie was "the worst sequel of all time." What was the problem? Well, "[d]espite costing at least $2 [million] more to produce than the original's $8 [million] budget, All American Girl looks horrendously cheap." Beyond that, Kunis was "incredibly miscast" and her performance was "perpetually shrill and irritating," per the outlet.
Frankly, when a third movie was in the works, according to MTV, Kunis implored, "Please — somebody stop this! Write a petition." She added, "When I did the second one, I didn't know it would be American Psycho II. It was supposed to be a different project, and it was re-edited, but, ooh ... I don't know. Bad."
While we all have regrets, at least most of our mistakes don't end up living forever onscreen like Kunis' unfortunate endeavor.
'American Psycho's original author also seemed unsure about the sequel
If you think that Mila Kunis and The Independent were being a little harsh on American Psycho II: All American Girl, then you might want to consider the fact that plenty of others were also unimpressed by the sequel. Just take a look at the comments left on Rotten Tomatoes. "The movie is neither frightening nor funny; in fact, it's extremely boring," one person wrote, while another deemed the film "[o]ne of the oddest and most inexplicable sequels in movie history." Frankly, even Bret Easton Ellis, the author of the original novel that lent its story to the first film, wasn't keen on the idea of a follow-up film.
"If they're not careful they could end up with something like The Pink Panther movies," he told the New York Post (via IGN). While noting that he'd "sold the rights" to the book — meaning that he had no control over what was being done with the films — he also revealed there could be even more additions to the American Psycho story onscreen. "I've even heard that they were thinking about doing American Psycho in L.A., American Psycho in Las Vegas, and making a whole franchise out of it."
Considering the sequel didn't turn out so well, those behind the scenes might want to rethink putting out more American Psycho movies — that is, if they haven't already.
Mila Kunis has appeared in her fair share of film failures
We have to assume that if more American Psycho movies are made, Mila Kunis would want nothing to do with them. In fact, it seems as if she's been involved with enough questionable films to last an entire career. While American Psycho II only received an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, plenty of other projects the actress appeared in didn't fare much better. Scroll down the list and you'll see that 1998's Krippendorf's Tribe only has a 16% rating and the same goes for 2008's Max Payne.
As it turns out, a few of the star's films were apparently even worse than American Psycho II, including 2007's Moving McAllister (10%), 2014's The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (9%), and The Color of Time (5%). Kunis was even nominated for a Worst Actress Razzie Award for her part in 2015's Jupiter Ascending. Ouch!
Thankfully for Kunis, she's not focused on others' opinions. "When it comes to picking parts, I do make an effort to choose parts that I want to do, and not necessarily parts someone else wants me to do, or parts that someone else is going to respond to," she told Interview magazine in 2012. She later added that when it comes to thoughts regarding what we see on camera, "It's just a matter of opinion." That may be the case, but the general opinion seems to be that American Psucho ll: All American Girl was not a good film.