From high school delinquent to Hollywood royalty, Ashton Kutcher has been on quite the journey — but how did fame change that plucky kid from Iowa?
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00:00From high school delinquent to Hollywood royalty, Ashton Kutcher has been on quite the journey.
00:06But how did fame change that plucky kid from Iowa?
00:10Christopher Ashton Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on February 7, 1978.
00:16Along with a sister, Ashton grew up with his twin brother, Michael, who was born with cerebral
00:20palsy.
00:21The future actor was very close with his brother.
00:23Speaking on Kerry Washington's podcast, Street You Grew Up On, in July 2022, he described
00:28their relationship as enmeshed.
00:31Kutcher also spoke fondly of his upbringing, but added that there were some difficulties
00:35along the way.
00:36So, after my parents got divorced, my mom decided she was gonna move with my stepdad.
00:42Kutcher and his twin brother moved with them out to the countryside.
00:45But one other major shift occurred around this time.
00:48When he and his brother were in eighth grade, it was discovered that Michael's heart had
00:51enlarged to four times its normal size.
00:54He was subsequently diagnosed with viral myocarditis.
00:57There was a point at which Kutcher even considered taking his own life so he could donate his
01:02own heart to his brother.
01:03But a donor was eventually found, and he thankfully underwent a successful operation.
01:08However, the brothers' bond changed after that.
01:10I think he came out of it and decided to find a new identity for himself.
01:15While Kutcher may be a celebrated Hollywood icon today, he was far from a role model during
01:20his teenage years.
01:21He had a knack for drama studies in high school, but he was caught drinking and ended up being
01:25kicked out of the school play.
01:27And this was far from his worst offense.
01:29When he was caught breaking into his high school, Kutcher was arrested and charged with
01:33third-degree burglary.
01:35He lived in a small town, so naturally, everyone knew about what he'd done.
01:39Looking back on his delinquencies made him cringe while speaking with Esquire in January
01:432023.
01:44During that interview, he compared tabloid rumors suggesting he'd cheated on Demi Moore
01:48to this high school incident.
01:50Kutcher explained,
01:51Calling it again at 32 is, oof, it's humiliating and embarrassing.
01:56You own this s—, you did wrong, and you go forward.
01:59Believe it or not, Ashton Kutcher didn't set out with the goal of becoming an actor.
02:03He had actually intended to enroll at either MIT or Purdue University.
02:08But after getting caught breaking into his high school, everything changed.
02:11In September 2006, he told The Seattle Times,
02:14"...my girlfriend broke up with me.
02:16Then I lost my college scholarships and got kicked out of the National Honor Society.
02:22and the play."
02:23But Kutcher was intent on going to college regardless, and so he began attending the
02:27University of Iowa in 1996.
02:30He studied biomedical engineering with the hope of becoming a geneticist and one day
02:34finding a cure for his brother's heart disease.
02:37Because he lost his scholarships, Kutcher worked and paid for his tuition out of pocket.
02:41As it turns out, it was because of these exact circumstances Kutcher was able to pursue his
02:46passion for acting.
02:47Speaking to Newsweek in October 2019, he said,
02:50"...because I had a job throughout all of high school, saved up some money and wasn't
02:54in extreme college debt, I was able to take the risk."
02:58Kutcher was just 19 years old when he met a woman at a bar who would forever change
03:02his life.
03:03On Street You Grew Up On, he told the story of how he was discovered.
03:06"...this woman came up to me and was like, have you ever thought about being a model?
03:10And I was like, what?"
03:12But Kutcher told the woman that he had thought of becoming an actor, and she suggested he
03:16use modeling as a way into Hollywood.
03:19Ultimately, Kutcher decided to take her up on her offer and enrolled in a modeling contest
03:23at the mall.
03:24He won, which secured the young star a trip to New York for another modeling competition.
03:29Kutcher arrived in the Big Apple, securing second place, with Josh Duhamel snagging first.
03:34"...not the tops that I've, the people that you meet, the connections you make, it's the
03:39best."
03:40After this event, Kutcher realized his potential and got himself an agent.
03:44In no time, he was on his way to stardom.
03:47Following his modeling stint in New York, Kutcher moved to Los Angeles to give his acting
03:51career a go.
03:52Like many parents of performers, his dad was concerned about this decision.
03:56"...I called my dad and I was like, I'm not coming home."
03:58"...Oh, I just got chills."
04:00"...He's like, get on a plane, you're crazy, this is a bad idea."
04:05Kutcher quickly proved that he'd made the right call, as he secured his breakout role
04:09within his first week of auditions in Hollywood.
04:12It was an incredible stroke of luck that he became Michael Kelso on That's 70's Show
04:16in 1998, with absolutely no prior professional acting experience.
04:21He stayed on the show for all eight seasons as Kelso, and the series set him up for a
04:25long-standing career, as well as a multi-million dollar annual salary.
04:30With a couple of seasons of That's 70's Show under his belt, Ashton Kutcher attempted to
04:34launch his movie career.
04:36His first film credit was for 1999's Rom-Com Coming Soon, which demonstrated his potential
04:41in the genre.
04:42Following the success of Dude, Where's My Car?, Kutcher became a rising star and briefly
04:46fell into the trap of typecasting.
04:49He continued playing similar characters throughout the early 2000s, including movies such as
04:53Just Married and My Boss' Daughter.
04:56In 2004, however, Kutcher was able to prove he had more range when he starred in The Butterfly
05:01Effect.
05:02The actor discussed working on a dramatic role compared to his usual comedic projects
05:06while speaking with Hollywood.com at the time.
05:08He said,
05:10Playing the dramatic characters involves going into the places where you've loved the most,
05:16and bringing that forward, and studying the tiny character traits, and the tiny affectations
05:20that people actually have.
05:23If there's one other thing besides the 70s that Ashton Kutcher's name has become known
05:27for, it's celebrity pranks.
05:29He became one of the OG pranks-for-content creators when he devised Punk'd, a hidden
05:34camera show that he and Jason Goldberg brought to MTV in 2003.
05:39The following year, Kutcher acknowledged the show's absurdity in an interview with 60 Minutes
05:43Australia.
05:44You shouldn't be able to come up with an idea that's that stupid and simple, and then actually
05:50make it into a TV show.
05:52The actor's time on the show ended in 2012, though it remained on-air for another few
05:57years after that.
05:58In July 2022, Kutcher told Extra TV why he'd never return to make more.
06:03For a long time, I would go out and like nobody would want to hang out.
06:07They were like, I am not messing with him.
06:09It's nice to have friends.
06:11Kutcher was slowly making a name for himself in Hollywood when the then-25-year-old began
06:15dating Demi Moore, who was 15 years his senior.
06:19Their relationship became the subject of the gossip columns during the early 2000s, with
06:24their age gap fueling much of the controversy.
06:26In September 2006, just one year after tying the knot with Moore, Kutcher told The Seattle
06:31Times that his decision to get married had been,
06:34"...absolutely 100 percent illogical."
06:37He went on to elaborate,
06:38"...I was 25 years old.
06:40I'm hosting Saturday Night Live.
06:41I'm on the cover of Rolling Stone.
06:43I've got the number one movie in America.
06:45Let's tie myself down.
06:46Let me really get tied down right now."
06:49In 2010, rumors began to circulate that Kutcher had been unfaithful to Moore.
06:53Initially, the couple denied having any issues, but they split up the following year and their
06:57divorce was finalized in November 2013.
07:00Many years later, Moore confirmed in her memoir that the rumors of Kutcher's infidelities
07:05had been true.
07:07Two and a Half Men quickly became a smash success when it premiered on CBS in 2003.
07:12Charlie Sheen led the sitcom alongside John Cryer and Angus T. Jones for eight seasons,
07:18until he was fired in 2011 for making a number of controversial statements in the media.
07:23Sheen's failure was Ashton Kutcher's opportunity, however, as the younger actor was hired to
07:28replace him in Season 9.
07:31In a statement released by CBS, Kutcher remarked,
07:33"'I can't replace Charlie Sheen, but I'm going to work my ass off to entertain the hell out
07:37of people.'"
07:38Sheen released his own statement, making clear his feelings about being cut from the show,
07:43and about showrunner Chuck Lorre, too.
07:45He said,
07:46"'Kutcher is a sweetheart and a brilliant comedic performer.'
07:48Oh wait, so am I. Enjoy Planet Chuck, Ashton.
07:52There is no air, laughter, loyalty, or love there.'"
07:55Kutcher played Walden Schmidt until Two and a Half Men ended in 2015.
08:01Everyone shipped Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis together long before they were an item, and
08:06before they even could be, as she was 14 and he was 20 when they landed their roles on
08:11That 70s Show.
08:12Their characters dated off and on, so naturally, they shared their first kiss while filming
08:17in 1998.
08:18Fast forward to January 2012, and Kutcher was newly separated from Demi Moore when he
08:23and his former castmate got together.
08:25"'And then I told her that I love her, and I meant it when I said it.'"
08:29The two stars got engaged in February 2014, and announced one month later that they were
08:34expecting.
08:35Kutcher and Kunis became parents in October 2014 with the birth of their daughter, Wyatt,
08:40and then again when their son, Dimitri, arrived in 2016.
08:44During a February 2023 interview with People magazine, Kutcher spoke about how fatherhood
08:49is suiting him, saying,
08:51"'For me, the number one role I will ever play is to be a father.
08:55It's the most important role in my life.'"
08:58Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson were co-stars on That 70s Show and had been friends for
09:03years, so they had their rapport to lean on when they reunited for The Ranch in 2016.
09:08It was a different type of show for Kutcher, who served as the lead character and executive
09:12producer.
09:13Speaking on Marc Maron's WTF! podcast in February 2020, Kutcher said that he ended the show
09:19simply because he decided they'd told their story.
09:22"'I've been on shows where you keep going, and you keep going, and then you got a brother
09:28who's a gorilla.'"
09:29Notably, Kutcher was in the middle of filming The Ranch when allegations about Masterson
09:34came to light in the media.
09:36He was subsequently fired from the show.
09:38When he stood trial, Kutcher and Mila Kunis wrote letters to the judge defending his character,
09:43and the internet turned on them pretty quickly.
09:45In September 2023, Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life for raping two women in
09:51the early 2000s.
09:53More than just an actor, writer, producer, husband, and father, Ashton Kutcher embarked
09:58on yet another career path, this time in venture capital investing.
10:02In 2010, he and Guy Oseary formed A-Grade Investments and made some wise investments
10:08early on in startups such as Skype, Uber, Spotify, and many more.
10:12With the backing of billionaire Ron Burkle, the pair founded SoundVentures LLC, a venture
10:17capital firm managing a portfolio of assets with a value of up to $1 billion.
10:22In May 2023, it was announced that Kutcher had helped raise a $243 million investment
10:28fund in a matter of weeks, which he intended to invest into tech companies, specifically
10:33AI startups.
10:35If you're wondering why you've been seeing less of Kutcher lately, this second income
10:38might be the reason.
10:40Not only is he busy keeping his finger on the pulse, but he's making plenty of money
10:44outside of his Hollywood career.
10:46In January 2023, he told Esquire,
10:48"...Now I can just worry about playing roles that I want to play.
10:52I'm hankering to find something fun."
10:54If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.
10:58Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
11:04at 1-800-656-HOPE, 4673.