At a Glance
- Ashton Kutcher denies skipping showers after 2021 podcast joke with wife Mila Kunis sparked global headlines
- The actor got “Speedo-ready” for FX thriller The Beauty with 5 a.m. workouts and a full grooming reboot
- Kutcher calls the villainous tech-billionaire role the “most fun” character he’s ever played
- Why it matters: The interview ends years of internet jokes about his hygiene and spotlights his dramatic TV transformation
Ashton Kutcher wants the world to know he showers. The 47-year-old actor, still fielding questions three years after a tongue-in-cheek podcast moment went viral, used a new interview about his FX series The Beauty to set the record straight once and for all.
Clearing the Air on the Hygiene Joke
During a 2021 episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert, Kutcher and wife Mila Kunis joked about their family’s relaxed bathing routine. Kunis, 42, said she “didn’t shower very much” as a child, and Kutcher added that he cleans his “armpits and my crotch daily and nothing else ever.” The clip rocketed across social media, spawning memes and headlines that the couple rarely bathed.
“It was the craziest thing of all time,” Kutcher tells News Of Los Angeles. “We made a comment at one point, and people were like, ‘Does he stink? Does he smell?'”
Sitting with The Beauty co-stars Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope, Kutcher doubled down on the clarification: “I shower, I go to the gym, I shower.” Ramos, 34, backed him up, laughing, “I can confirm my boy showers.”
From Office Chair to Speedo-Ready Physique
Kutcher’s grooming routine became urgent once he signed on to play The Corporation, a shadowy tech billionaire who spends much of The Beauty shirtless and in revealing swimwear. The character heads a trillion-dollar empire built on a miracle drug that lets users become younger, more beautiful versions of themselves.
“Let’s get clear about it, I’ve been sitting in an office chair doing venture capital,” Kutcher explains. “And so, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. What am I gonna do?'”
He hired trainer Robbie Egan, who arrived at Kutcher’s house at 5 a.m. daily for pre-work workouts. After months of “getting beat up,” Kutcher added a fresh haircut and a dry-January regimen that began January 1, 2025, twenty days before filming started.
“I went into Speedo mode,” he says.
A Villainous Turn Written Just for Him
Creator Ryan Murphy crafted the role specifically for Kutcher, pitching it as “unlike anything you’ve ever done before.” The actor, best known for rom-coms and That ’90s Show, jumped at the chance to lean into darkness.
FX describes The Corporation as willing to “do anything to protect his trillion-dollar empire,” including unleashing lethal enforcer The Assassin, played by Ramos.
“Ryan is one of the greatest writers on this planet, and the notion that someone’s gonna create something for you to bring to life is humbling,” Kutcher says. He praises Murphy’s “linguistic craft” and the challenge of finding emotional layers beneath sinister dialogue.
“It’s really the most fun I think I’ve ever had playing a character,” Kutcher adds.
Premiere Details and What Comes Next
The first three episodes of The Beauty arrive Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FX, with next-day streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
Kutcher hopes viewers focus on the show’s twisted storyline and his physical transformation rather than old podcast punchlines. “There was a comment on a podcast, so long ago… and people are like, ‘They don’t shower,'” he says, shaking his head.
With Ramos vouching for his hygiene and a new ripped physique on display, Kutcher considers the rumor officially washed away.
