Australian Sunday Telegraph Magazine talked with Mila about Oz, acting, Sydney, Hollywood and more… Read a recap of her interview below and take a look to the gallery for HQ scans (Thanks to Sam for her donation).

About Sydney
“Sydney – if you can get rid of that whole problem – is spectacular to me. The feel, the people, the weird Victorian architecture within the city to what feels like the Amalfi coast outside it – it’s all beautiful. We… I walked around the city for hours. I think I did 10 or 20 miles a day; I went everywhere. I loved it all. Aside from those testing problems… I’m definitely going back one day. I loved it until the second it was taken away from me. And then I was like, ‘F**k you!’ Up to that point, the fact you can walk through little neighbourhoods I call ‘Baby Venice Beaches’, that are like awesome hipster towns, was amazing. I loved how self-contained all these different areas are with butchers, hairdressers, bars and restaurants, and that you can have a long walk on the beach, then take an art walk into the city. It’s beautiful.”

About Theodora
“Theodora’s the teenager of the group and very naïve; she’ll throw a tantrum if she doesn’t get what she wants. She’s learning to deal with her emotions and, ultimately, she gets her heart broken. “It’s based on the original book, the one written before The Wizard of Oz, and it’s so interesting because it explains where the characters came from and how they ended up in Oz.”

About The Wizard of Oz
“Everyone loves it, so no pressure! I have wonderful memories of the original. I remember watching it as a kid. It was so visually stunning and breathtaking. And, prior to that, it was the first full-length book I ever read in English – I came to America when I was seven-and-a-half, and it was my first big-girl book.”

About her parents
“They’re the most driven, hardworking human beings I’ve met in my life, and they’ve only just retired, like a year ago. That’s definitely where I get my work ethic from. I think it’s an Eastern European thing.”

About her possible acting break
“Yes, you’re right. I’m stopping. Where are we now, 2013? I’m stopping in 2014. I’m going to take a little break. Don’t get the wrong idea; I’m actually OK, I just need to learn time-management skills. But, you know, I don’t want to turn down the good jobs. It’s OK to say you don’t want to work, but then a good script comes in and you think to yourself, I can’t pass this up.”

About separating her personal and professional lives
“I do take a conscious effort to step back and acknowledge where I’m at, and at least appreciate it. I often think to myself, this is great for what it is, but now it’s time to move on. You have to be present and stay in the moment or you get completely caught up, and miss so many things. I’ve been doing this for 20 years – I know, crazy – but it’s my career, and while I love what I do, it’s showbiz. It’s grand and it’s wonderful, but it’s not real life. Even though people think it is real life.”

About “Hollywood stay skinny” trend
“You know, I stay fit, but I dieted for Black Swan. I think it’s OK to do that for the part, but not just for being an actor. Actors [in Hollywood] starve themselves to play the normal girl – which, for me, is an issue. If someone’s playing a sick person then it’s OK for them to diet for the part. But to diet just to play the love interest or the girl next door, that’s absolutely not OK. You shouldn’t starve yourself; you should be able to live your life. Of course, it helps to stay fit when you have to turn up on set and pretend to fly – a skill she had to pick up for her role in Oz: The Great and Powerful. “You can’t be out of shape. You have to learn to stabilise yourself on wires, or in the flying bubble or whatever, so you don’t look like you’re on wires. You need strength. And you shouldn’t do it if you’re scared of heights.”

About acting against a green screen
“Zach Braff, who plays the monkey, would show up, act everything out in a blue suit and walk away, then James and I would act against nothing. But I did this movie after Ted, so I was used to doing scenes with a character who didn’t exist,” she says. “We were lucky because the sets for Oz were tangible, so we had those worlds.”