Ashton Kutcher on the challenge of playing a villain in The Beauty

Pagesix reported Ashton Kutcher said at the New York City premiere earlier this week that he found playing the bad guy in the new Ryan Murphy series The Beauty “really fun.”

Kutcher plays Byron Forst, a tech billionaire tied to “the Beauty,” a sexually transmitted treatment that grants users beauty but has some rather nasty side effects. He said, “I learned a long time ago you can’t judge your character and so you have to figure out how to justify why that person’s doing what they’re doing,” calling the “psychological challenge of figuring out how to justify these behaviors” enjoyable. He added that his character, like many immoral people, often does not see anything wrong with his actions.

Kutcher, who began his career as a model, also criticized today’s obsession with appearance and the influence of social media, noting examples such as retailers targeting young people and saying, “I think everyone’s living online and everyone’s living in public” and that it feels “like going to junior high school, never leaving.” The Beauty, which also stars Jeremy Pope, Anthony Ramos and Evan Peters, premieres Jan. 21 at 9 p.m. ET on FX.

Key Topics

Culture, Ashton Kutcher, The Beauty, Byron Forst, Ryan Murphy, Fx