Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher work their schedules around family now. Picture: Warner Bros Roadshow Pictures

When the star of Friends With Benefits, Ted and Black Swan was seven years old and preparing to leave the house she grew up in Ukraine, her mother told her the family was moving “just up the street”. In fact, they were relocating to Los Angeles for good.

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis both grew up poor. Picture: FacebookSource:Supplied

“Finding out that ‘up the street’ meant America, I would say that to me was the biggest shocker,” says Kunis with a laugh. “‘What do you mean we’re not moving up the street? What’s a train? What’s a plane?’”

“I was seven years old and lived in a Communist country. I didn’t even know what LA was. I didn’t know what America was. I didn’t know any of it existed. When you are that little and that sheltered, your centre of your universe is you. I didn’t know about other countries — I didn’t know anything. So from the language barrier to race — I had never met anyone of a different colour — nothing. It was all very much an eye-opener.”

With such a seismic shift and a jarring culture shock at a formative age, it would be easy to think that Kunis turned to acting as a way of fitting in and making sense of an alien environment, but the 32-year-old laughs uproariously at the very suggestion.

Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Kathryn Hahn in a scene from Bad Moms. Picture: Michele K. Short/STX Productions via APSource:AP

“Noooo, no, no, no,” she says. “Not at all. I wish it was something so profound — but I simply liked being the centre of attention. I enjoyed it and my parents saw that and thought ‘well, I guess we should embrace it because this is our kid and it is what it is’. I was too little, like 9 years old, thinking ‘this is AMAZING — look at all the attention I get’”.

Kunis says she is still in awe of the sacrifices her parents, Elvira and Mark, made for her and her older brother in trying to build a better life in the US. And while Elvira was never big on dishing out advice, she and her husband set an example of hard work that continues to inspire Kunis, especially now that she is a mother herself.

“She very much lived life in a way that she hopes would make me proud of her and make me aspire to be like her,” she says. “I will never understand how my parents were able to have the amount of jobs they held. My parents held multiple jobs, worked non-stop — as far as I was concerned they’d never not work but yet they were always able to be there for dinner. We always had food on the table, we always had the electricity bill paid, and I was never lacking anything in life. I don’t know how they were able to do what they did. They are two of the most selfless people I have ever encountered.”

The characters played by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn cut loose after the succumbing to the pressures of modern parenting. Picture: Michele K. Short/STX Productions via APSource:AP

Kunis is in a reflective mood on the subject of parenting as she sits in her home office in LA, with Wyatt, her 22-month old daughter with husband Ashton Kutcher, chirping merrily in the background. Her new movie, Bad Moms, is a raunchy and very adult comedy that milks its laughs from three mothers, played by Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn, who cut loose after the succumbing to the pressures of modern parenting. Written as a “love letter to their wives” by the two men behind The Hangover, at its heart it’s an examination of what it means to be a “good mother” in 2016, juggling work, family and personal fulfilment, while also dealing with the dangers of overparenting and ridiculous external expectations.

“I think that as far as what society is expecting of mothers, it’s impossible — but I think you just have to ignore the noise,” says Kunis. “I think that we as women should just embrace one another and know that there is no perfect way of raising a child and that everyone is going to have their way and that’s the right way for their child. And that’s all that matters. So I think that theoretically I am the most perfect mum that I can be for my daughter and that’s the best mum that I can be. I am going to make mistakes — but she won’t know.”

Mila Kunis said her “amazing husband” Ashton Kutcher is very hands on with their daughter. Picture: Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

The male of the species doesn’t come off terribly well in the movie, but Kunis says she hit the jackpot in Kutcher, the star of films including Jobs, What Happens In Vegas and No Strings Attached. The two first met while making That ‘70s Show — Kunis was 14 when she auditioned and Kutcher five years her senior — but didn’t become involved romantically until 2012, six years after the long-running sitcom had wrapped up. The pair married last year and with a toddler and baby No. 2 on the way, Kunis says they have both changed their work habits to make sure only one of them is shooting at any given time and that they “travel as a nomad family” when required.

“He is an incredibly hands on dad,” Kunis says. “I got very, very lucky with him from the moment that Wyatt was born. He is an amazing husband but you know sometimes it takes dads a minute to adjust to having a baby or feel like they can be hands on or participate or find what it is that they latch on to with a newborn. It’s very hard because as a mother it happens so instinctually and so instantly. And I got incredibly lucky with my husband because the second that Wyatt was born he could not have been any more hands on. It’s physically impossible. He took on every task that was possible for him to take on and mastered it.”

Kunis and Kutcher first met on That ‘70s Show, but didn’t start dating until six years after it had finished. Picture: Supplied.Source:News Limited

Kunis says that her and Kutcher’s similarly modest upbringings put them squarely on the same page in the parenting handbook. The know that the daughter of two wealthy and successful actors could easily grow up entitled and cosseted what can be a glitzy and superficial city, but both are determined to not let that happen.

“We talked about it since before we even had a family — ‘how do we raise a kid to not be an a--hole?’,” says Kunis with a chuckle. “He and I grew up very poor and the last thing that either one of us has ever been is entitled. That wasn’t even in our vocabulary. I think it’s super important to have kids understand the value of everything and have empathy. All you can ever do is have them understand the value of hard work and earning your own everything, whether that’s a material earn or a superficial earn or earning someone’s trust. Ours is still little and she’s still a good person but that’s something we definitely focus on.”

Bad Moms opens Thursday August 11.