Eugenia Kuzmina: From Anorexia to Hollywood and Marriage to the Head of Miramax
You know, it's easy to judge someone else's success from the comfort of your couch. Especially if that success seems typically Hollywood. Beautiful face, successfully married a producer. Drew a lucky ticket. But the story of Evgenia Kuzmina is not about glossy luck. Rather, about how to survive when at the age of 15 you are burdened with the responsibility of providing for the entire family. And at 18, you sit in a doctor's office and hear a dull, peremptory verdict: infertility.
Growing up on an accelerated program
Moscow. December 1987. An ordinary intelligent family. Father is a nuclear physicist who devoted his life to science within the walls of the Kurchatov Institute. Mother is a mathematician who quietly left her career for the sake of her daughters. It seems that Zhenya's fate was determined back in the maternity hospital - it was there that the newborn baby was chosen for a touching picture in the newspaper.
And then the school years began. Scouts from children's modeling agencies kept stopping the girl on the way home, offering her to try herself on the catwalk. Mom didn't believe the business cards brought. She was afraid. The nineties were a murky time, and it seemed to her that bad people would certainly force her trusting daughter to do something indecent.
But one day, the name Vyacheslav Zaitsev flashed on another business card. And my mother gave up. They decided like this: if you trust anyone in the fashion industry of those years, it's only him. They went to the casting. The girl liked the master - he began to invite her to shows, gave her the opportunity to shoot for magazines. And at 13, the first Paris happened. The international agency "Natalie" invited her to them, and for several months Zhenya lived in France with her mother.
Two years later, a real adult contract came. Zhenya graduated from Moscow school externally and went to the capital of fashion completely alone. A fairy tale? No. The harsh prose of life. By that time, her father was gone. Her mother did not work, and she had Zhenya's younger sister in her arms. And the 15-year-old girl had to become the main breadwinner, to take on the financial support of the family.
The first year was terrible. Have you ever stood in the middle of a strange cold city, not knowing the language at all? She stood. Almost without work. She ran to castings in the same skirt, knocking her feet to blood in high heels. She didn't know how to present herself. Her roommates openly mocked her. Depression crept up quietly and covered her head - Zhenya simply stopped eating, losing weight to a frightening transparency.
Fear saved her. The psychotherapist explained the consequences, but the agent's words really sobered her up: if you don't pull yourself together, if you don't overcome your insecurity, I'll just send you home. Zhenya was scared to death that she would no longer be able to earn money for her family. She gritted her teeth. She pulled herself together and literally began to work hard. She practiced a confident step, ate food through force, like bitter medicine, frantically crammed French. And she broke through.
Soon she was earning several times more per month than her scientist father once did. She starred for the covers of Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Self, GQ, Japanese and Russian Vogue. She collaborated with industry giants: Armani, Dior, Hermes, Cartier, L'Oreal. She worked with enthusiasm, getting real pleasure.
Diagnosis and New York dinner
But the exorbitant workload and teenage anorexia took their toll. Doctors announced the diagnosis: infertility. What does a girl do at such a moment? Breaks down. Zhenya decided otherwise: I won't suffer, I'll save money and help orphans. For some reason, she was sure that a woman without children was not needed by any man in the world, and directed all her irrepressible energy exclusively into work. She didn't even think about marriage, betting on independence and self-sufficiency.
Years passed. After successful work in Paris, she was offered a contract in New York. It was unthinkable to miss such a chance. It's 2007. Zhenya is twenty years old. Katie Ford, the director of her first agency and the woman who cared for the young model like her own mother, calls with an offer. Dinner with her and her friend Bill. No conditions. Just a pleasant evening.
The friend turned out to be Bill Block. A 55-year-old producer, head of QED International, who had recently gone through a divorce. He came to unwind, and met a girl who was wise beyond her years, firmly on her feet, with whom it turned out to be incredibly interesting to talk. And Zhenya… She was always drawn to older men. She lost her father too early, she carried everything on herself for too long, forgetting what it's like to be taken care of.
Bill impressed her with the fact that he adored Russian literature. And the fact that he acted. It is no longer customary to court beautifully in Hollywood, but he turned out to be a romantic. He flew to her anywhere in the world just to support her on difficult shoots, rejoiced in her successes and never devalued her profession. And the "iron lady" gave up. She let go of the situation, ceased to be hyper-rational, and allowed herself to simply enjoy the moment.
Ring in the trash and its rules
And then something happened that, according to medical indications, could not be. Pregnancy. At first, Zhenya did not pay attention to the strange feeling, remembering the words of doctors, but the tests confirmed everything. There was no doubt for a second - to give birth. It was an awareness of the birth of a new life inside.
She called Bill. Not to ask, but to put him before the fact. She said honestly: I'm giving birth in any case, I don't need anything from you, I don't intend to extort alimony. She packed her things and flew to her mother, feeling incredibly happy. Bill flew after her. He offered to live together.
Life in two cities, endless flights. The birth of his son Theodore. Zhenya continued to work under contract. And only when her son turned a year old, she put the question bluntly: a child needs a father every day, not once a week. We need to decide. She did not ask for marriage - she asked for clarity.
When Theodore was two years old, Bill proposed. He prepared thoroughly, ordering a ring with an amazing Siberian diamond. Zhenya said "yes". And the ring… threw it away. Honestly. She was scared to death that her husband would consider her mercenary. Bill, of course, found it later, but she never wore this luxury. Now a tattoo flaunts on her ring finger of her right hand: "Only love". Two years later, they had a daughter.
Moving to Los Angeles, Zhenya changed the vector. The modeling business, which requires constant flights to Milan, Tokyo or New York, was not well combined with the family. She graduated from acting courses, found an agent and began to go to castings herself. In 2017, Bill headed the film company Miramax. It would seem - take any roles. But in Hollywood, "blat" is mauvais ton. She achieves everything herself, on a common basis, and is frankly proud of this independence.
Today she has more than 50 works in series and films. When in 2023 her husband left the post of head of the company, it did not affect her career in any way - because it was built autonomously. Moreover, Zhenya works as a stand-up comedian, performing in clubs, and checks new jokes at home, relying on her husband's brilliant sense of humor. She is friends with Zooey Deschanel, lives next door to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but for the sake of her career, she fundamentally did not change her name and surname, remembering her roots.
They have no secrets of an ideal marriage. They just live one day, not building castles in the air. Zhenya does not like social events, visiting them only with her husband out of work necessity. Both are much closer to a quiet home dinner. Bill's son from his first marriage often visits their house, living nearby, and all the children get along well.
Their only rule is that from the very beginning of the relationship they visit a psychologist. This helps to smooth out "sharp corners" and cope with the difference in age and mentalities. It turns out that to be happy together for almost 18 years, you don't need magic. It is enough to simply coincide. And choose the family as the main achievement of your life.
