Yes, Ashton Kutcher knows he went viral last week because of those awkward photos with co-star Reese Witherspoon. The internet had a field day about how they stood next to each other at the premiere of their new movie With you or with me. On the red carpet, the two leads showed such a lack of chemistry that even Kutcher’s wife, Mila Kunis, took notice.
“My wife called me. She texted me and Reese together and she said, ‘Guys, you have to act like you like each other.’ And I thought, ‘What’s going on?'” he explains in a preview for Wednesday Chicks in the office podcast.
“Here’s the thing: If I put my arm around her and was totally friends with her, I’d be having an affair with her — I’d be rumored to be having an affair with her,” Kutcher continued. “When I’m standing next to her, I put my hands in my pockets so there’s no chance that, like, That could be the rumor.”
While the rumor mill has turned the other way, that they “don’t like each other,” Kutcher said that’s not the case.
“Reese and I are really good friends. We are very close. I don’t have to defend that,” he added. “I don’t have to defend it.”
Kutcher, who lost his sight and hearing in 2019 amid a life-threatening battle with the autoimmune disease vasculitis, said he still “can’t hear very well.”
“I’m hard of hearing in one ear and can only hear in the other. I don’t know who’s calling my name, but I know there are a lot of people screaming, ‘Reese! Ashton! Here! Look at one!’ At some point you think, “God, this is a real thing. OK, which one? Look at the camera. Understood. OK, are we done? Great.” For about 20 minutes,” he shared.
“If you’re going to tell me in that whole 20-minute period that you’re not going to have an awkward face at some point, then you’re better than me,” he joked. “And I’m cool with that.”
Witherspoon was also asked about the awkward photos during Monday’s appearance on the Today show. The actress said Kunis contacted her and Kutcher over the weekend.
“She’s like, ‘You guys look so awkward on the red carpet together,'” Witherspoon told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. “It’s just fun because when you know a friend so well it was just fun getting to know her other half because I’ve loved her for so long.”
Witherspoon said she has known Kunis for a while but “had to learn to be friends” with Kutcher because the two “didn’t really know each other”. She said that before filming, the two started talking and sending each other videos every day.
“I was like, ‘These are my dogs. These are my kids,'” Witherspoon recalled. “My kids would tease him about his soccer team.”
Fans can judge Kutcher and Witherspoon’s chemistry for themselves when Netflix’s With you or with me falls on Friday, February 10.