THE BEAUTY: Official Podcast Episode 10: Ashton Kutcher and Ari Graynor

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Welcome back to The Beauty: Official Podcast. I'm Evan Ross Katz, and I'm truly pleased to sit with two indelible stars of FX's The Beauty. Ashton Kutcher and Ari Graynor.

Ashton, Ari, thank you both so much for being here. We're going to dive into episode ten, an episode that neither of you appear in, but I think it's actually good to have you both here to talk about this, because I want to know what was your reaction to this episode and the implications of the beauty outside of the world?

We knew.

ASHTON KUTCHER: Well, I'm sorry I touched the mic. I'm not supposed to touch the mic and like and I already broke the rules. I started by breaking rules, which is not where I would like to start about this.

ARI GRAYNOR: I had obviously heard about the episode, but I hadn't read it. But it's like such a brilliant thing to go right into a high school. And the scene with the two girls and the nose job, and they're talking about how they look. I was like, immediately transported to high school, to those years where, you know, the aching pain and self-loathing during that time that just, like, breaks my heart.

But the scariness of thinking, like, if that enters a high school, like, now, it's a very different thing in your 40s, how you feel about yourself, self-acceptance and a whole other playing field. But back then it's like, would have done anything to feel beautiful and boy, did it bring me back.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: How about for you?

ASHTON KUTCHER: My first thing was like a little bit of a an odd reservation. I don't think any of the cast that has you've been with up until this point is even in this episode.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Correct.

ASHTON KUTCHER: Most shows would be like, no, we can't do that. None of our lead characters are in that. Like, where is going to be the emotional resonance in it?

It deeply speaks to Ryan's craftsmanship, his courage and the studio's courage to also go like, yeah, okay, that's the episode. I think the other thing about this episode, high school, junior high school, are the roughest emotional environments in the world. Because if you don't have enough money to buy the right thing, or you don't look a certain way, or you're not participating in the right activities or it's a judgment factory.

And I think as much as this show is about beauty, it's about judgment.

And what we judge as okay. And what we judge is not okay. And then I think about it from the perspective of internet media companies that I've been in and around or associated with. You know, it took until like just a couple of years ago to like really start to put any kind of filtering on age gating for any of this stuff.

And so there's this notion of like safeguarding these things and the brilliance of Ryan to go, yeah. When people put these things out into the market, are they really thinking about a whole market and what those unintended secondary and tertiary consequences might be? More than anything, it's like a flag for every company in the world to maybe have a conscience about how they're putting things out into the world and the people that are going to want to access it the most are the people that are feeling the most judged and the most insecure.

SHOW: Is this real life? Oh my God.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Ari, we are introduced to you. You come out of nowhere and immediately adversarial energy. Yeah. I would like to say. Yeah. So, what drew you to this project and in particular this role?

ARI GRAYNOR: Well, once you were lucky enough to be in one Ryan Murphy show, then the dream becomes, is Daddy Murphy going to call me again? I really keep your fingers crossed. And so this was one of those like. Yes. He called again. So I spoke to actually Tiffany Canfield, who is the great casting director of Ryan's stuff, and she was like, okay, so I'm going to tell you a little bit about the show, you know, which is bonkers.

When you first hear some of this stuff, you're like, wait, what do you mean? This is crazy? And she's like, this is a really fun part, and you're going to come in like this and the first thing I shot was like an eight page monologue. Basically, my name is Doctor Dianna Sterling. Most know me as the mother. And I like hadn’t worked in a long time.

I was like digging in the dirt upstate where I live. And then like, was so excited and scared. I'd also, I don't personally think she's a villain. I think she is ultimately maybe the hero, but is also kind of giving some like villain vibes. And that was something I'd always wanted to do. And she comes in so hot and powerful and there's these rooms that I was terrified.

I was quite scared of doing it. And then when we got to do it was only my second day on set. But getting to do the scene where we meet it for I don't know how it felt to you. We haven't talked about it, but that's.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: What we're here today.

To do.

ARI GRAYNOR: Okay, okay, we go, we're like, whatever. But it kind of feels like when you like, are in a playground or something in your kids and you just, like, see a kid, and you're not going to talk about how we're going to play together, but you're just like, yeah, yeah, we're going to go play that game.

And it just was like an immediate let's play. This is not just a job to me, Byron. This is my life. What we are working on can help humanity.

ASHTON KUTCHER: It's a business.

ARI GRAYNOR: It was so fun to do. And also really funny because at some point, like the I think makeup kept coming over with like, like a little fan and then like, and they kept coming over and I was like, I’m okay. I don't feel I don’t feel that hot. And they were like, okay, you're just like, you're flushed ok your flesh.

And I was like, well, I'm in like a staring contest of power, nose to nose with Ashton Kutcher. Like, of course I'm flushed. This is this is like a thing. And, was such a fun day at work.

ASHTON KUTCHER: Yeah, that scene was wild in the show. My character has a lot of these, like, soliloquies where he's just kind of like, waxing on about something. And then suddenly there was this other character that had these soliloquies, and I went, oh, that's an adversary. Like instantly, right? Right. It's like when you walk into a room and you're like, she's wearing the same dress and you're like, oh my God.

She's like. And all of a sudden Ari comes in, she's wearing the same dress, and I'm like, oh.

ARI GRAYNOR: I gave up everything for this. I gave up my husband. Any chance for having children? I have given you everything I have.

ASHTON KUTCHER: You have a…

Good story on paper. Some stories have a shit ending. there's this line that Ari's character has. It's like I sacrificed my husband, and you can take that in a bunch of different ways. Like, she was work addicted, sacrificed her husband. Or you could take it as maybe there's something that happened, and there was a moment where we both sort of cut that thread in the scene as we were.

We were just running it and we both cut that thread and we went, yep, there it is. There's this pain that is coming as a part of this that is personal given at this point, my character had already changed to the beauty. Whatever affair they may or may not have had wasn't with this version of the character. It was with the previous version of the character.

There's a power play in that. For that guy. This version of me is not going to be with you.

It's over.

ARI GRAYNOR: Or this version isn't going to be this version. You know what I mean?

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Or that, oh.

ARI GRAYNOR: She's always the same.

ASHTON KUTCHER: This same, same, same, same.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Ari, I'm thinking about what you said earlier. You had your hands in the literal dirt upstate before getting cast on this show, and I just am thinking about, you know, the idea of doing this, like, yard work we're talking about.

ARI GRAYNOR: Yeah, I have, like, over 60 acres. So I'm like, wood sculpting, I'm getting rid of invasive plants. I'm stewarding the land.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: You're present. You're in the moment. It's sort of like being one with the earth.

ARI GRAYNOR: Yes.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: And you come onto this set.. This is heady. This is up here. This is thinking and plotting and scheming and all of that stuff. Was that a little bit of a whirlwind for you?

ARI GRAYNOR: Yes, yes. Sharp transitions in this life I'm loving right now. Sharp transitions.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Silence to microphones.

ARI GRAYNOR: That's right, silence to set as I like to say, the Ari Graynor story. There was a day I was having. We were in the city. We were at like 50 floors up. Weirdly, eight pages of dialog is sometimes easier for me to do than like one line that is sort of specific and expositional. And something was going on in the world that day that was particularly scary.

I was just having like a lot of like world anxiety and like life anxiety. And I had one line in this scene and I... do you remember this?

And

ASHTON KUTCHER: but there was a, there was a whole the yeah.

ARI GRAYNOR: But that thing that happens where sometimes you're when your brain gets hooked in, it's like we're all looking for the place of being free, mindless, in the dirt or at work. When you're at play and you're not thinking, you're just. But I got so fixated on this line I like, could not remember it, and was so embarrassed because also the day that Ashton's family was there and like,

my kids came

Mila, the kids, I was like, that's.

ASHTON KUTCHER: The only scene that's safe in this show for my kids to actually come to see.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Understand.

ASHTON KUTCHER: they were you, they were like, can we come and see you? And I'm like, at this, since the only safe scene, you can actually come to.

ARI GRAYNOR: And then you catch like me with like an 11 year old being like, listen, usually I know my line. She's like, girl, I'm sure you're fine.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: This has been very, very fun. Thank you both so much.

ARI GRAYNOR: Thank you.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Thank you.

That's all for this time. Join me next time for a megawatt conversation with Ashton Kutcher and the iconic Isabella Rossellini as we discuss their relationship as husband and wife on FX's The Beauty. Watch new episodes of The Beauty on FX, or stream on Hulu or Hulu on Disney+. For bundle subscribers, be sure to rate, review and follow the beauty official podcast wherever you watch or listen.

I'm Evan Ross Katz, and I'll see you next time.