Milo Kunis reveals why she got in trouble on the set of 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, Forgetting Sarah Marshall tells the story of struggling musician Peter (Jason Segel) who takes a trip to Hawaii to get over a recent breakup, only to find his ex-girlfriend, Sarah (Kristen Bell), staying in his hotel with her new boyfriend (Russell Brand). The film, which is produced by Judd Apatow, was a hit both critically and commercially and released just as Segel was becoming increasingly well known for his role as Marshall in the hit ABC sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
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Kunis stars in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as Rachel, a hotel concierge at Peter's Hawaiian resort. The two characters eventually develop feelings for one another, and it's ultimately Rachel that Peter ends up with instead of Sarah. Although already an experienced actor, having starred in the likes of 7th Heaven and That '70s Show, in addition to voicing Meg in Family Guy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall marked one of Kunis' first big roles in a major Hollywood film. Kunis would go on to appear in a host of popular films following Forgetting Sarah Marshall, including The Book of Eli, Date Night, Friends with Benefits, Ted, Black Swan, and Bad Moms.
In a new career retrospective video for Vanity Fair, Kunis talks about her experiences making Forgetting Sarah Marshall and reveals that she actually got in big trouble on the movie's set. The actor explains that there was a military base on the same Hawaiian island they were shooting the movie on, and she bought a young soldier a drink one night at the hotel bar. Since the soldier was underage, Kunis says that the resort staff ended up reporting her to a producer. Check out Kunis' full recollection. of events below:
“I also got in trouble. We showed up to the resort, we’re on an island that also has a military base on it, and so our resort at the time had a lot of families that were visiting their kids that were on the military base. I was of age, I was 22 at the time, and I remember grabbing myself a drink and there was a kid there that had his like whole camo on and he couldn’t get a drink and he was like 20, I think. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, you’re fighting for our country and you can’t get a drink? I’ll get you a damn drink!’ And I went and got the kid drinks and I got into so much trouble from that hotel. They went and talked to Shauna, who was our producer at the time, and they’re like, ‘Your actress, that’s not okay. She cannot be buying drinks for underage people.” And I was like, ‘He’s clearly in the military, give the kid a beer. Like, who cares?’ I didn’t get kicked out, thank god, and I didn’t get fired, but I didn’t do that again… at that hotel."
How Forgetting Sarah Marshall Shaped Mila Kunis' Career
Forgetting Sarah Marshall's success with critics and at the box office helped to make Hollywood stars out of Kunis and her co-stars. Kunis is next slated to appear in That '90s Show, proving the actor still has a love of comedy, but she did appear in some more serious movies after Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Kunis' role in The Book of Eli, for example, was the star's first action-oriented part, and the movie saw her star opposite Denzel Washington as a survivor in a post-apocalyptic version of America.
Despite these more serious roles, including an intensely dramatic turn in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, Kunis has always had a clear penchant for comedy. Forgetting Sarah Marshall remains one of the actor's most successful and beloved comedic performances, and the movie was released at a time when Judd-Apatow-produced comedies were immensely popular with audiences. Kunis' story about getting in trouble on the set of Forgetting Sarah Marshall will likely add to the experience of rewatching the film for fans and is clear proof that the actor enjoyed having fun both off-screen and on.