THE BEAUTY: Official Podcast Episode 6: Ashton Kutcher

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Welcome to the Beauty official podcast. I'm Evan Ross Katz, and I'm ditching my diet and canceling my gym membership for this revolutionary new drop. FX's is the beauty. Hitting up our podcast again is the megawatt star of the beauty. Ashton Kutcher. 

Ashton, we're back once again. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: Back, back back again. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Are you sick of me? 

ASHTON KUTCHER: No.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Okay, that's very kind. We're talking episode six. I can't not begin by talking about the post transformation dance. I feel like when I think about the beauty that's going to be one of those indelible images for me and many. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: Oh, great. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Can you talk about performing the dance? 

ASHTON KUTCHER: When I got to the dance? I understood the show. 

I got that scene for the dance, and I was like, I get this character. I get the tone of the show. I know what this is like. I know exactly what I'm making now, and I know exactly where I'm going with this character. It's a guy reveling in delight of his own manifestation. It's the celebration of achievement for himself, where destruction is this innocuous thing that happens as a result of something wonderful in the world, right?

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Un hunh. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: And it's in that scene. It's like the engine is started. The car is on the track and it starts to take off. And we we did it over the course of like three weeks in different chunks. There was the airplane piece and then there was the swimming pool piece, and then there was the closet. We had an amazing choreographer, Susie, who just made it so easy and fun and and was like, no, we're going to do dance moves.

It like you feel confident and comfortable doing. Because the most important thing about this is, like, this guy has this newfound confidence. It's like the day that you go to the store and you get the perfect outfit and you're like, I fucking look good today, right? And you walk out and you put it on and you're like, yeah. And this guy has this moment that sort of sets him off on his quest, but it also tonally set what human life meant to him. 

The minute he gets off the plane, there's this establishment of like, things happen. Let's keep moving. Right? And he just keeps moving and driving through it. There was a very important thing that I saw that Vincent D'Onofrio established that started this thread, where his character comes into his house and he doesn't take his own coat off. He just kind of holds his arms back and somebody else takes it off for him.

It always happens that way. The doors open for him, the coats come on. And so at that point, I saw that from Vincent and I was like, I never want this character to open a door. Like, never, ever, ever, ever. There's one scene in the entire show where I open a door. I never want this character to take his own coat off. 

He has people for that. And people are just this tool that he has in life that are completely disposable. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Right. So much of this show for me has been about implicating myself in how I feel about all of this. I mean, I think one thing many people are going to ask themselves when they see this show is like, would I take the shot or not? And right. And the easy answer is going to be, of course I wouldn't. 

Right? But there's the what if of it all. And then even as you're watching, wondering, well, if I got this, how would it make my life easier? How would it, like, make my life better? What problems that I have would go away as a result? Could the reward outweigh the risk? And so I think one of the really provocative things about this show is the implication of self throughout. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: Well, I've said it before. I'll say it again. This show's called The Beauty. You could just as easily be called the judgment, because it's constantly pushing you to make a judgment call about what your worldview is and what you would do, what you would sacrifice, whether you would do it or not. People get braces and nobody thinks anything about it. 

Like, great, they're fixing their teeth. Somebody else gets rhinoplasty, or somebody flies to Turkey and gets hair transplants, or somebody goes to their local plastic surgeon in Los Angeles and gets liposuction. Or somebody like, I got Botox. And somewhere in that myriad of things, from braces to pec implants, is where you go. That's I don't want to think that's too far.  

It’s somewhere in there and everybody's got a different place. Of like where's too far. Right? But like if we really think about it like objectively like we're aliens and we landed on this planet, why is changing this body part okay. That body part not okay. It's a really wild thing to think about. And then you go, okay, well, wait a second.  

We have these GLP ones and everyone's like, well, they're FDA approved.  Therefore they're safe. We think they are. We've like a pretty good conviction. They've been around for a while. We know the science of it and how they work. But do we really know the long term implications? We don't know. But do we really know what the long term side effects of XYZ are going to be?  

Some things we do, some things we don't, and people are always taking like a certain level of risk that they're comfortable with on a regular basis as to what they do with their bodies. And that's okay. But judging other people for the risk they're willing to take. That says a lot about who you are. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Is judgment in your view innate or is it a choice? 

ASHTON KUTCHER: I think it's a combination of the two. I mean, Chris Rock had this, like wonderful standup routine, which is like it was like selective judgment, right? Or like outrage. Selective outrage, like. And he's like, oh, I can't believe this person would do that. And yet, I think half of it's virtue signaling. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Totally. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: Right. But by the way, go for it. 

Yeah. You just want to purchasing a virtue signal. Half of it is like. I think I'm safer if I take this position, which is not is different than virtue signaling. Like it's societally safer. If I take this position, like damage control for yourself. And then part of it's like, that actually really offends me. Like that actually really hurts me and is actually in opposition to my moral position. 

And I think people are always somewhere in there and and maybe they're all those things and maybe I'm all those things. There's some things I'm like, I can't believe that. But like, people like to build stories and narratives of things. Why motivations, why people are doing things. And that's entertaining. And beauty is no different than any of that. 

It's a judgment cycle. And we all have moral fabric that's somewhere on the spectrum from our influences. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: But there is one detail that has stuck with me. You know, we have this transformation, Byron, completely reborn. But there's one detail that remains the same, and that would be that third nipple. 

Oh. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: Oh, yeah. Ironic, isn't it? I spent a lifetime toying with getting rid of it, to have it be the only thing left of the old me. My beloved third nipple. Archibald. Archibald. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Archibald. So I want to ask. How do you 

ASHTON KUTCHER: It’s got a name. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Archibald has a name. How do you feel about Archibald? And how do you feel about Archibald’s? Name? 

ASHTON KUTCHER: To me, it's a representation of one. It's an identification confirmation, which is very valuable to the character. Totally up two. I think Ryan was making a conscious choice because the character really doesn't like that about himself. And it's the one thing and he talks about, it's like the one thing that I despise my whole life and it's stuck around. And I think there's a commentary on it. 

When I was 19 years old, I, I went into modeling and I started working, and I'm doing, you know, Armani and Versace and product and Calvin Klein and this thing and that thing and all these different runway shows. And then I got a chance to do the women's runway shows where I was like, the one guy that was like walking down with, like, Naomi Campbell and go, Kate Moss and like all these, like, models that I actually knew who they were. 

I was like, oh my God, this is crazy. And you spend a little time in that world and you quickly realize that no matter how beautiful the rest of the world thinks you are, when you look in the mirror every day, you can find that one thing that you wish was different. Everyone has that. Anyone who says that they don't have insecurity is a boldfaced liar. 

And even the most esthetically famous people in the world have something esthetic about themselves that they that they, you know, they might not change it, but like if it changed, they wouldn't be bumped. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Fair. A pleasure. Last question real quick. You mentioned all these amazing runway shows you walked in. What's your favorite of the runway shows that you ever walked? 

ASHTON KUTCHER: Oh. Oh. Oh oh. There was one women's show that I got to walk in. It was right after Gianni Versace had died and Donatella had taken over. And it was the women's collection for Versace. There were, like, three guys in the show. I had a very funny backstage experience where I walked into, like, a restroom and there were two people in a stall. 

I don't know what they were doing. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Practicing. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: They were very not happy that I came, that I was like, oh, okay. And I was like, And they were like, God, look at that. So it was a very but it was a very, imprinted memory that I have in my mind. That was one of them. And then the second one, there was this, designer named Cynthia Rowley.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yes. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: And it was her, I think it was her first men's collection that she ever did. And she said to all of the guys, she's like, I just want you to feel cool. So, like, if there's something about the way you're styling this, like, make sure you feel cool and then just go have fun. And I got these, like, really baggy oversize jeans and like, all belted up and just like a tank or I don'teven remember what the top was, but I just felt cool. 

And it was like one of the first times in my professional life that I felt cool. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I felt cool talking to you. So thank you so much. 

ASHTON KUTCHER: Stop. 

EVAN ROSS KATZ: That's all. For this time on the next podcast, I'm honored to sit down with a true, timeless beauty. Oscar nominated international cinema star. The iconic Isabella Rossellini will join me to discuss her fiery role in the beauty. Watch new episodes of The Beauty Wednesdays on FX or stream on Hulu or Hulu on Disney Plus 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.