Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet - A Lot Like Love

KUTCHER AND PEET ARE A LOT LIKE LOVE

Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet/ A Lot Like Love Interview

by Paul Fischer in Los Angeles.

A Lot Like Love traces the relationship of Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) and Emily(Amanda Peet) who met on a flight from Los Angeles to New York seven yearsago - each of them declaring that they couldn't be more wrong for eachother. With plane sex, romance and some Kutcher nudity to spice things up,this is not your typical romantic comedy, as the pair of actors concededwhen they met the press, together, in Los Angeles. Paul Fischer reports.

Paul Fischer: WHAT DID YOU WANT TO WORK WITH AMANDA PEET?

Ashton Kutcher: We actually read an actress in Los Angeles, and it was lastminute.

Amanda Peet: You read 20 people. You can tell the truth.

Ashton Kutcher: No. We read one other actresses and the chemistry wasn't justright. We were searching for the right person. We wanted someone who had thecombination to be vulnerable, but also to be funny. I've seen Amanda andshe's really, really funny. She's beautiful and funny and able to bevulnerable.


Paul Fischer: DID YOU IDENTIFY AT ALL WITH YOUR CHARACTER?

Amanda Peet: Well, I grew up in New York and I went through a big kindof, I don't know if I'd call it a Goth phase. I (thought I) was a hipsterkind of artsy person, but I wasn't really. I was really kind of a prude inhigh school and I did my home work and I went to college. I was prettynormal. But I identified with her kind of 'I'm a special, artsy, tough girl'kind of thing.


Paul Fischer: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE NUDE SCENE? WAS THAT JUST ANOTHER DAY ON THE SET FOR YOU GUYS OR WHAT?

Ashton Kutcher: I like being nude as often I can. (jokes) As much as I can benude I try to be nude. No. It's really not that great for me. For otherpeople, I like them being nude, but not me so much. It's this awkward thingand you're completely exposed. I had this banana thong with like a catcher'smitt to wear. It was a little awkward.

Amanda Peet: We were about halfway through the shoot when we had to dothat.

Ashton Kutcher: I think that we were both so insecure about ourselves that weweren't really looking at anyone else. We were on a soundstage and weweren't actually outside. So I think that kind of helped because it's alittle bit more private.


Paul Fischer: HOW ABOUT HAVING SEX ON AN AIRPLANE?

Ashton Kutcher: I've done it in another movie. I don't know why, but for somereason people fancy me having sex (on bathroom planes). So I was reallycomfortable with that.


Paul Fischer: HAVE YOU TRIED IT ON A PLANE?

Ashton Kutcher: I tried it once. I didn't actually get into the restroom. Wewere both sitting there and I got up and went over to there, and it wasweird trying to get two people in there and there was like a moronconvention going on around the bathroom door. So there was no opportunemoment. It was like, 'Everyone just go to sleep on the plane!' No one wouldgo to sleep.


Paul Fischer: HOW DO YOU LIKE TO SET THE MOOD?

Ashton Kutcher: I'm not like a mood guy. I'm pretty shy about this wholeconversation. I'm not going to get into it.


Paul Fischer: WHAT'S YOUR WHOLE TAKE ON THE WHOLE LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT THING THAT'S IN THE FILM?

Amanda Peet: I guess I certainly don't believe in love at first sight.I definitely believe in a lot of chemistry and lust at first sight. But Ithink that love is something that takes work. As you can see in the movie Ithink that timing, timing is everything. Those people have to be ready andopen and I think that's sort of what the movie is about.


Paul Fischer: WHAT ABOUT THE ROYALS AND THEIR LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT STORY?

Amanda Peet: I don't know. Was Camilla his first love?


Paul Fischer: Oh yeah.

Ashton Kutcher: Even through the entire marriage. The whole time really.

Amanda Peet: It's actually quite sweet. I feel badly that...

Ashton Kutcher: It's such a cool tourist attraction. No, it's really cool. Theywere getting it on the whole time apparently. That's what I heard.

Amanda Peet: I feel badly for Camilla.

Ashton Kutcher: Cornwall doesn't want her either. It's a whole thing.

Amanda Peet: It's so terrible.


Paul Fischer: DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS CHARACTER WAS A UNIQUE ONE FOR YOU?

Ashton Kutcher: Well, yes. Every character that I do I try to make different,but I'm just not successful most of the time. I think that every characteris unique in it's own way. I think that more so than the script told methat, I think that Nigel [Cole] like that. I mean, just watch 'CalendarGirls' and looking at what he did that. I think that knowing that I wasworking with people who had more experience and experience in a differentway and better than I am, your game rises, it gets elevated to everyoneelse's.


Paul Fischer: CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE APPEAL OF THIS CHARACTER?

Ashton Kutcher: I think that the appeal of Oliver is that he's relatable. Ithink that guys in general feel like they have to attain a certain personalstatus in their mind before they can be in a relationship like, 'I'm not whoI am yet. But I'm going to be who I am as soon as I get this and this andthis. Then I don't have to worry about trading up.' It's like, 'Right nowI'm at this level and so I can get this kind of girl. And then when I gethere I'm going to trade up and so why even go through it. Just wait until Iget there.' The truth is that you're never there, but you're always there. Ithink that's a very relatable place for guys.


Paul Fischer: HOW MUCH OF THE CHARACTER IS YOU?

Ashton Kutcher: There is a definite separation from your character.It's not you. The only thing that you're really bringing that is of yourselfis your sense memory and your physicality.


Paul Fischer: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH NIGEL AND HIM COMPLIMENTING YOU? HE SAID YOU REMINDED HIM OF CARY GRANT...

Ashton Kutcher: I can't thank him enough for saying something that kind. Idon't know. For me it's hard to say because I can't take an outsideperspective of my career or my life because I just live it. I have no idea.Someone will find some other category to try to put me in. 'Well, it's stillcomedy and so it's not a different character. He's still just being funny.'People always want to shuffle you into some category no matter what you'redoing.


Paul Fischer: AMANDA DID YOU EVER HAVE TO LIVE OUT OF YOUR CAR LIKE YOUR CHARACTER?

Amanda Peet: No. I came here to do a television show and so I waslucky enough to have an apartment. I was struggling, but I was strugglingout of an apartment.


Paul Fischer: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE RULES THAT YOU HAVE FOR GUYS?

Ashton Kutcher: I know them.

Amanda Peet: Well, I think that Ashton thinks that I do, but I try notto plan too much. If by rules you mean don't go call back until the thirdday and don't go to second base until you've had a second date and blah,blah, blah, no. I think that you have to try and not plan too much. Yeah.Just let it happen.


Paul Fischer: WHY DO YOU THINK THAT YOUR CHARACTER WAS HARD AROUND THE EDGES?

Amanda Peet: I think that it's just an age thing. I think thatprobably the younger you are the more interested you are in having some sortof persona of coolness. There are people out there who've had some kind ofloss or have been abandoned by a parent, who are afraid to be vulnerable anddon't know what to say to people like Aston's character. They prefersomething that's harder to get because it makes them feel safer. I thinkthat she's probably like that. I think she likes him despite herself and Ithink that's a great recipe for a romantic comedy or at least when you havethe right co-star. I had that in spades. It's nice because it's a kind ofold fashioned romantic comedy where one of them attracts the other one. Ithink that's what we were trying to achieve and I guess that when weauditioned with each other we fell in love with each other or I fell in lovewith Ashton.


Paul Fischer: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'A LOT LIKE LOVE ' AND LOVE?

Ashton Kutcher: Wow. That's a difficult question for me because I'm somewhat ofa love cynic in that I don't know if it's truly like a hundred percentattainable everyday in the human form. But I think that to me love is whenyour desire for someone else is greater than your desire for yourself orequal to that. That's a very tricky thing to attain. I think that a lot likelove is what most of us call love.

Amanda Peet: Yeah. I think that the idea of the movie is that it isreal love and was strong from the get go. The only difference is the abilityto talk around and around it or dance around and around it, tell each otherthat the timing isn't right or that you're moving to San Francisco or thatyou need to do A, B and C before I commit to you. But really if the thing isthere it's there and that's what the movie is about.


Paul Fischer: DO YOU THINK THAT YOU FELT YOU HAD TO BE AT A CERTAIN POINT BEFORE YOU COULD COMMIT TO ANYTHING LIKE YOUR CHARACTER?

Ashton Kutcher: Oh yeah, that was the relatable quality of the character forme. You kind of always set these bars for yourself of like where you need tobe in life before you can commit to doing other things. And you kind ofcreate this illusion for yourself that you can't possibly have both. 'If I'minvesting this amount of time in this, there's not enough hours in the dayto do this as well.' And then what you ultimately find out is if you do thatthis is going to fall apart because you have to have that balance. I thinkthat with my career I for sure in a lot of ways did that and was unkind topeople as a result. I don't think that I was fair to people and I think thatI made really poor judgments in a lot of things and went driving for thiscareer goal that could've exist and coincide with love.


Paul Fischer: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE THE SUCCESS THAT YOU'VE ACHIEVED AND WHAT'S THAT'S DONE FOR WHO YOU ARE?

Ashton Kutcher: Yeah. It's weird. I think that every time I have a movie comeout that's successful or a show come out that's successful is kind of like adream coming true. In a way when dreams come true more than once we start tocall them reality and now it's become like that. It's like I'm going, 'Waita second. I'm there. I don't have to keep driving myself crazy about thisthing.' It was more of like a dream. What I'm doing now never seemed like itwas something that was possible. Like, 'Why would anyone want to listen tome. Why am I sitting in front of the microphone.' I'd always gone to theparty and felt like the butler for my whole life.


Paul Fischer: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE MISCONCEPTIONS THAT THERE ARE OUT THERE ABOUT YOU AND IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU'VE CHANGED LATELY BECAUSE OF YOUR RELIGION?

Ashton Kutcher: I try not to A) have religious beliefs. That would be the firstmisconception. For me, religiosity is doing things because other people saythat this is some thing that will make your life better. Spirituality isdoing things and then seeing the results and then believing in them. I don'tknow that I've specifically changed that like, 'Oh, let me kneel four timesand say this phrase twenty times and now my life will be better.' I don'tbuy that at all. I think that the biggest change is that I think that I'mslowly trying to remove my ego from my life and by doing that I think that Ibecome a better person.


Paul Fischer: WHAT'S THE CRAZIEST THING THAT YOU'VE DONE FOR LOVE?

Ashton Kutcher: You go first because I'm thinking.

Amanda Peet: I think that it's more than I've probably tried toinsinuate myself or make a move at the wrong time. I've thrown pebbles atsomeone's window. I've gone after them or made a move when I know that I'mgoing to announce that I love them like when they've moved on or whenthere's another woman in the picture [Laughs].

Ashton Kutcher: Boy, have I done some things. I don't if I've done things thathave been crazy or absurd. I think that I've put some great effort intocertain situations to impress. But I wouldn't call any of that crazy becauseI think that those are like the greatest things that we get to do in life.For me, one of the craziest things was that I was in Canada shooting a filmand had started a relationship with someone, a long distance one withsomeone back in the states, and I flew in to Los Angeles for thirty minutesto see a person and then flew back out to Canada. I had a 30-minute windowwhere I could see them. And they weren't there. They showed up with aboutfifteen minutes to go. And then I had my 15 minutes and I was gone.


Paul Fischer: DID YOU ACTUALLY GET PUNK'D BY JOHN EDWARDS?

Ashton Kutcher: Well, it was sort of a Punk, but it sort of wasn't because itwas real. I was campaigning in Minnesota and we were flying back to Iowa Ithink to do another thing. I was riding on his like Air Force One jet thatthey have with all the press in the back of the plane and John has his cushyarea in front and the secret service is there. We were getting off of theplane and it was very, very strict with luggage checks and things, and theywere actually checking luggage on the tarmac. And one of the secret serviceguys goes, 'Go ahead.' So I get on the plane and one of the secret serviceguys comes up to me and says, 'Is that your grey bag out there?' I said,'Yeah.' He said, 'Is there any need for you to be carrying a firearm?' Isaid, 'No.' I'm immediately began going, 'I was speaking at an engagementand so I haven't had my bag.' He said, 'Well, you weren't hunting oranything like that?' I said, 'Why would I be hunting?!' He said, 'Well,we're going to have to detonate your bag on the runway.' I was like, 'Areyou kidding?' I was like, 'Detonate it! I'm not trying to kill anyone, Ipromise. Detonate it. Do it! Please. I don't want it on the plane either.'Then they were like, 'You just got Punk'd.' I was like, 'That's not evenfair. You're like actual Secret Service. You're not an actor. That doesn'tcount.' But they had a video camera taping it from the press place in theback. I'm trying to confiscate the videotape.


Paul Fischer: AMANDA, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR FASHION SENSE?

Amanda Peet: I love fashion. I think that it's fun. I think that it'spart of the business, the glamour and getting dressed up and going to dothese things. It probably fulfills some kind of adolescent fantasy of promor something like that, getting dressed up and that's probably part of why Ilike it.


Paul Fischer: WHAT ARE YOU WEARING TODAY?

Amanda Peet: It's Gautier


Paul Fischer: ASHTON, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT YOUR RESTAURANT INVESTMENTS HAVE TAKEN OFF?

Ashton Kutcher: I don't know. I'm just an investor. I think that it's reallygood management and good food. I think that they did a very select job ofchoosing investors that they could get free promotion from and I think thatthat was really smart and a good one for them.


Paul Fischer: DO YOU GET A DISCOUNT?

Ashton Kutcher: Yes. I get a discount.



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