Mila Kunis is eyeing the plate of cookies that's been placed on our table. "If we're sure there's no tomorrow," she says, "I'll go to town on these." We're having dinner on Manhattan's Upper East Side on a drizzly evening in late May, and according to some, the apocalypse is mere hours away. But before then, Kunis wants some clarity. "Are we dying on East Coast time or West Coast time? It's tomorrow somewhere in the world. Can we check if those people are dead already?" She giggles. "This is why I was put on earth, to ask these questions."

That's not the only reason. We need an actress like her. One who looks like a Disney cartoon with a dirty mind, who doesn't have that desperate theater-brat need to charm or wow, who doesn't try to be breezy or sexy but instead is able to just be—on-screen and off­. She's clearly as comfortable arguing about the hierarchy of _Star Trek _spin-offs as she is mind-fucking Natalie Portman in Black Swan. She eats with her hands. She bear-hugs a little girl who asks for her picture during dinner. It's this utter lack of pretense that lets you convince yourself she'd be okay with being asked out.

···

GQ: Your new movie is called Friends with Benefits. Ever been in one of those relationships?

Mila Kunis: Oy. I haven't, but I can give you my stance on it: It's like communism—good in theory, in ecution it fails. Friends of mine have done it, and it never ends well. Why do people put themselves through that torture?

GQ: It's because they enjoy sex.

Mila Kunis: But friends with benefits isn't a purely sexual relationship—it's two people who like each other having sex, not a random hookup. And when two people who like each other have sex, eventually someone catches feelings and everything is fucked. You might be able to treat our relationship as killing time. I might not. I may be in love with you.

GQ: Mila, it's just not going to work.

Mila Kunis: But I feel like I'm in love with you, okay? I love you.

GQ: So I went back and watched some of your earliest movies, and—

Mila Kunis: Oh Lord! I'm so sorry, buddy. How can I make it up to you?

GQ: By telling me what it was like to act with William Shatner [in American Psycho 2] and Hulk Hogan [in Santa with Muscles].

Mila Kunis: Jesus. You did not watch Santa with Muscles.

GQ: Fine. I watched the trailer on YouTube.

Mila Kunis: I was too young to fully understand the importance of working with Hulk Hogan. I just thought he was this huge man. Shatner was di­fferent. I'm a massive Trekkie, so that was crazy. He's exactly what you think he is.

GQ: When did you get into Star Trek?

Mila Kunis: I got into it in my late teens—18, 19, 20. Something like that. I got into it later than most people. But let's not talk about it in the past tense. I'm still a Star Trek fan. You never stop being one. Let me give you my rundown of the series in order of most favorite to least favorite.

GQ: I definitely have my answer to this. Let's hear it.

Mila Kunis: Okay. You should know this list is an ongoing argument between Seth MacFarlane and myself. But I have it: The Next Generation; the original series; then Voyager—