Ashton Kutcher steps into the twisted world of Ryan Murphy’s FX series beauty. The actor plays Byron Forst, the developer of a mysterious drug that promises perfection but has devastating consequences. And while the series leans toward a heightened, stylized tone, Kutcher said it’s the themes behind the show that really drew him in.
In a conversation with Gatey, Kutcher talked about the deep ideas driving the series and how Byron fits into the story’s exploration of identity, perfection, and self-acceptance.
A surreal world with real themes
As some viewers explained, beauty Like Eerily, Kutcher sees the tone of the show as more layered.
“For me, I think it’s a functional suspension of disbelief and just a little bit of surreality,” he explained. “Sometimes I jump into this surreality to the point of exploding.”
Kutcher compared the show’s structure to the drug itself at the center of the story.
“It’s like the structure of the show is like a drug itself, and it has this level of perfection that keeps exploding,” he said. “When a show becomes too perfect, it explodes, becomes hyper-real, and starts to become perfect again.”
Social pressure to be “other”
For Kutcher, the project’s biggest appeal wasn’t the tone or the villainous character. It was a cultural conversation that the show tapped into.
“I think there’s a social competition right now where people want to be something other than who they are,” he said.
Kutcher emphasized that the show does not criticize such desires, but encourages reflection.
“I think people should be happy, and I think we should all embrace people who have a desire to be happy,” he said. “But at the same time, I think that race can become very temporary and actually obsessive.”
Instead, he says, the show ultimately asks more powerful questions.
“What do we want to do? What do we want to be? How much tolerance do we want to have for our flaws? And how many of them are actually perfect just the way they are?”
Byron’s emotional anchor
Despite Byron’s extreme actions throughout the series, Kutcher said the character was always grounded in one important relationship in the story.
“Ryan and I talked at the beginning of this piece about the anchor for this character, what he was orbiting around, and the idea was always that Isabella was that,” Kutcher explained of the character of Isabella Rossellini.
Rossellini plays Foust’s wife Frannie, and their on-screen chemistry quickly becomes one of the show’s emotional highlights.
Regarding the finale, in which Forst begins to see things more clearly, Kutcher said that his character’s change in thinking was not surprising to him. The actor always understood that the character would eventually find its way back to its emotional center.
“As I was playing it, I was like, where is the moment where he gets closer to Jesus?” Kutcher said.
The bigger question for him was how far he could stray from what was truly important before he finally realized it.
“I thought, ‘How far off track do I have to go to get back on track?'”
As the series builds toward its final moments, the pullback to Franny becomes one of the most defining elements of Forst’s journey.
“Do you have wrinkles on your neck?”
Kutcher also had a humorous response to some of the online comments about his character. While fans debated Byron’s fate in the story, many joked about how the character’s changes compared to other characters in the series.
Kutcher said he had a moment of self-awareness after reading the reactions. A comment sent to the actor by a friend said: “Byron, the drug developer, is in trouble. Everyone else becomes this beautiful 25-year-old version and Byron becomes this old 40-year-old man.”
“Then I think, ‘Wow, does he have wrinkles on his neck?'” As I read the explanation, I think, “Oh, that’s right.” And I thought, “Oh my God, that made me feel personally self-conscious.” ”
But what did that moment actually reinforce for Kutcher? beauty is what I am finally trying to say.
“But the funny thing is, to me, all those comments are the theme of the show, and that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing,” he said.
The actor said the online reaction itself reflected the social pressures the series explores: the constant pressure to appear younger, better, and more “perfect.”
“Having the confidence to accept yourself wholeheartedly may be the most beautiful thing in the world.”
beauty Season 1 is currently streaming Hulu.
Source: Gayety – gayety.com
