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SUBJECT: What Happens in Vegas

Ashton Kutcher has come a long way since his days as a Calvin Klein model. In 1998 he was cast as the dim-witted, but sexy, Michael Kelso, in the hit TV series That '70s Show, and is one of a handful of performers to make a successful leap from the small to the big screen – oh yes, and he’s married to Demi Moore.

In his new comedy, What Happens in Vegas, Kutcher portrays Jack Fuller, a charismatic party guy who meets an uptight commodities trader, Joy McNally, played by Cameron Diaz, during a rowdy, drunken weekend in Vegas, which results in the couple waking up with a marriage license staring them in the face. But when Jack wins a million dollar jackpot with Joy’s quarter their annulment gets complicated when a judge, irritated by their in court bickering, sentences them to ‘six months hard marriage.’ Hollywood Hotline spoke with Kutcher about his soaring career.

Q: Did you relate to the character of Jack Fuller?:
A: Yeah, definitely. For one, I’m a very competitive person and I think that’s sort of part of the core of the movie and the core of the character. And I understand his not wanting to be under the thumb of somebody else. I think his sort of recklessness relates to my life.

Q: How competitive do you get?
A: I hate losing anything ever.

Q: How does it manifest when you lose?
A: I get really upset. Not upset with somebody else, I get really upset with myself and then I become sort of obsessively geared towards never letting that happen again.

Q: What was working with Cameron like?:
A: Horrible [he laughs]. I mean, to show up to work and have to look at a good looking woman who’s funny and happy to be alive and joyous and nice to people, that’s a nightmare. We had to deal with it every single day. I don’t think there’s anybody like her. I think she may be the only true comedic leading lady in our business right now. She’s worked with Jim Carrey, she’s worked with Adam Sandler, she’s worked with Mike Myers; she’s worked with every great comedic actor I can think of.

Q: What was your preparation for the drunken spiral?
A: I got drunk and spiraled. I’ve had my entire ‘20s to prepare for that scene. I have a lot of life experience to draw on for that kind of wild night.

Q: Was it all plotted out or did you come up with things?
A: The first act of the script and the first act of the movie as it turned out are really close to one another. I’d say the moments in between are kind of organic or original, but really from the roll of the dice, to talking on the dance floor, to the fire and fall off the bar, making out and waking up [it was in the script]. The way that it’s cut, you feel like you’re drunk in that moment. I like the editing.

Q: Were there any injuries during the scene where Cameron chases you across town in New York?
A: There were no permanent injuries. You know what I was shocked about is Cameron’s the fastest woman on planet earth. I trained for two months before this movie because I didn’t want my leading lady to be in better shape than I was, and she still was. She’s like Superwoman; I really could have been injured but whenever I was about to fall and hurt myself, Cameron would save me. She literally was my little savior person.

Q: Your character fears marriage – do you?
A: I never thought I would get married. I watched my parents go through a divorce and I thought this is just not something people are supposed to do. On top of that I thought, ‘Why am I going to put a legal document on top of a really great relationship? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.’ So I never really understood the whole idea of marriage until I met my wife and just knew that that was going to be the person I was going to be with for the rest of my life. I love it. I am the happilyest married guy on the plane – I just made up a word!

Written by Judy Sloane. Back to top

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Images above © Twentieth Century Fox
Feature © 2008 Visual Imagination Limited.
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