Milla Jovovich insisted on period dresses

Milla Jovovich insisted her Three Musketeers character wore period dresses.

The 35-year-old beauty plays swashbuckling spy Milady de Winter in the new movie which is directed by her husband Paul W.S. Anderson and insisted on a change from the original costumes to make her character more believable.

“With Milady de Winter, when the first costume drawings came in, they had pants for all her action sequences,” she said.

“I said, ‘No, the point is you want to see the woman who looks like she stepped out of a Rembrandt portrait take out a sword and start fighting. Not some science fiction weird woman in pants.’ ”

Milla admits the costumes were uncomfortable, but thinks the restrictive outfits further showed how tough her character was.

“Of course it was hard. Corsets were created to keep women docile,” she said.

“Dresses then were for women who sat and drank tea. So, to me, just the fact that Milady de Winter can do the things she does dressed in the way she is shows that she could kick every musketeer’s butt.”