For more than two decades, Mila Kunis has been the voice behind one of Family Guy’s most recognizable characters, Meg Griffin. But while fans may assume that creating Meg’s voice requires a special technique or a carefully crafted cartoon impression, Kunis says the truth is much simpler.
According to the actress, Meg’s voice was basically just her own voice when she first started playing the character.
Kunis opened up about the role during a Vanity Fair career timeline interview, looking back at how she landed the part when she was just 15 years old.
Mila Kunis Says Meg’s Voice Was Originally Just Her
When asked about the voice she uses for Meg, Kunis had a surprisingly blunt answer.
She explained that there really wasn’t some complicated vocal trick behind the character. When she first recorded Meg, she was still a teenager, meaning the voice audiences heard was naturally much younger than it is today.
Kunis joked about the idea that she has some special voice-acting skill, essentially telling viewers that Meg was simply her voice at the time.
The biggest instruction she remembered getting during her audition was actually to slow down.
Kunis said she naturally spoke very quickly, and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane encouraged her to slow her delivery down. At 15, she was apparently more interested in getting through the audition than carefully shaping a character voice.
That simple approach ended up becoming one of the longest-running performances of her career.
She Changes Meg’s Pitch Now
There is one difference today.
Kunis has obviously grown older since she first began voicing Meg, while the character has remained a teenage girl. Because of that, she explained that she sometimes changes the pitch of her voice slightly to maintain Meg’s younger sound.
So while Meg isn’t built around an elaborate impression, Kunis does make small adjustments now to keep the character consistent.
It’s a funny contrast considering how recognizable Meg has become. The voice that millions of viewers associate with the awkward Griffin daughter started out as little more than Kunis simply sounding like herself.
Kunis Once Asked for Meg to Get a Makeover
The voice wasn’t the only thing Kunis had an opinion about.
After years of watching Meg remain stuck with her familiar outfit and hairstyle, Kunis said she eventually asked the show’s creators to give the character a makeover.
Her request was surprisingly specific: she wanted Meg’s signature hat and hairstyle changed.
The character eventually received a temporary transformation, including blonde hair, something Kunis enthusiastically welcomed.
Unfortunately for Meg, the makeover didn’t permanently change her status inside the Griffin family or at school.
She eventually returned to her familiar appearance, making the whole transformation more of a brief Family Guy moment than a permanent redesign.
Why Meg Still Sounds So Familiar
Kunis becoming Meg at such a young age may be one of the reasons the character’s voice feels so natural.
She didn’t have to invent an entirely new vocal identity. Instead, the performance evolved from the voice she already had as a teenager, with small changes added over the years.
That also makes the role unusual compared with many animated performances, where actors deliberately create completely different voices for their characters.
Kunis essentially grew older while Meg stayed frozen in the same teenage world.
And after more than 20 years, the connection between actress and character remains obvious.
Mila Kunis Has Been Meg for Decades
Kunis wasn’t actually the first actress to voice Meg. Lacey Chabert performed the character during the first season before Kunis took over the role.
Kunis has since become permanently associated with Meg, even while building a major film career through projects such as Black Swan, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Ted and Bad Moms.
Her Family Guy role has quietly remained one of the longest-running parts of her career.
And now fans have an amusing explanation for why Meg’s voice sounds so distinctive: there was never a huge secret technique behind it in the first place.
For Mila Kunis, Meg Griffin started with something much simpler — the voice she already had at 15.
