Q&A: Ashton Kutcher

The naked truth about letting, uh, most of it hang out in 'Spread'

By Matt Pais

Posted August 10, 2009

Metromix

Since moving to Los Angeles at 19, Ashton Kutcher hasn't spent much time out of work. He landed a role on "That '70s Show" almost immediately, and has had at least some degree of the spotlight on him since, between his roles in movies like "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "What Happens in Vegas," his marriage to Demi Moore and, more recently, his huge following on Twitter.

However, in the sexually charged new drama "Spread," opening in limited release Aug. 14, Kutcher plays a character for whom status doesn't come quite as easily. In the film, Nikki (Kutcher) is a good-looking grifter in L.A. who doesn't have a job, a house or a car. His stability comes only while he shacks up with—but rarely commits to—the women he beds. The role required Kutcher to explore new levels of depth as an actor—and, during sex scenes, to reveal more of himself than ever before, literally.

From his office in L.A., the 31-year-old actor talked about filming sans-pants, the difference between a stud and a douchebag, and what not do to on Twitter.

"Spread" is refreshingly frank about sexuality. What was it like to spend a decent percentage of the shoot without pants on?
I gotta tell you ... take your pants off right now.

I've tried that before. My coworkers weren't having it.
It's like the first time you go into the shower in junior high. You go in and you want to make sure that your size is matching up to everybody else's size and you're looking around, [like], "I'm just getting a little peach fuzz and everybody else has a full bush of hair down there." And you're playing that little comparison game and you're going, "I'm all right." Except for [in this case] nobody else has their pants off and you're the only one standing there with your [genitals] out. It's sort of like that but not like that at all.

What did you do to get over your nerves about those scenes?
After the first day everybody had seen your junk. You sorta go, "All right, well, what's it going to be?" I'm not, like, incredibly worried about it because I'm not really trying to impress the cameraman. At a certain point you just kinda have to jump into the head of your character, and the character in this movie was completely confident about his sexuality and who he was and what he was and what he was doing. You're focusing on the task at hand.

What's a preferred topic of conversation when filming is on hold, and you and Anne Heche are sitting around naked and waiting?
Anne and I had enough scenes like this together where we just got very comfortable with each other. The first time you go on a date with a girl and you're naked in front of her it's like weird, and the girl wants to hide under the covers and you kind of scamper off and get your pants on really quick. And after a couple weeks, a month, whatever, you're farting in front of each other and running around naked and it doesn't really make a difference. It was sort of like the accelerated version of that process. Where it was like, day one, we both kinda didn't know what to talk about and do, and day two we're talking about what we're going to have for lunch, and you're just there, naked, and it just is what it is.

In what way do you relate to Nikki?
I remember when I went to New York for the first time. I was 19 years old and I won a trip to New York, and I got there and I told my dad that I wasn't coming home. And that I was going to pursue this career in modeling and acting, and I just remember the immense fear of ever having to call home and tell him that I failed.

I remember being in New York and being broke in New York and couch-surfing at my agent's house and really failing and struggling and living on a cup of noodles a day. That was my breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, snack. For Christmas I went down to Canal Street in New York and I bought a bunch of these fake TAG Heuer watches. They were all like 5 bucks apiece or whatever, and I went home and I gave them to my parents so they thought that I was doing really well, and they thought that I was really successful. Because I couldn't let them think that I was struggling or that I wasn't successful. When your survival instincts kick in because of your fear of failing, you'll do a lot of things that you wouldn't necessarily otherwise do.

Continue reading our interview with Ashton Kutcher to find out if he thinks his “Spread” character is a stud or a douchebag and get his tips on naked tweeting.