Ashton
Kutcher
and
Amanda Peet:
A
Lot Like Love
by Lynn B.
 At
our interview, the way Ashton and Amanda exchange warm glances and flattering
feelings for each other, you would think they live up to the title of
their new romantic comedy film A Lot Like Love. The two are pals
but, when we spoke with them recently in Beverly Hills, the co-stars were
a mutual admiration society. When she needs a drink of water, Ashton sees
that her glass is empty and fills it. “See what a gent he is”,
she comments. He has a habit of leaning back in his chair, balancing on
its two legs during the interview. She grabs the chair to keep him from
falling over. You get the drift. According to their director, the two
had way too much fun making the movie, being told several times to stop
joking and cutting up.
Ashton, with
semi-scruffy beard, had thrown a black suit jacket over a maroon tee.
Picture Amanda, looking elegant in a black lace, high-necked blouse by
JeanPaul Gaultier. Read on for the fun chatter as the duo tells us about
their characters, answers intimate and funny questions and defines what
love means to them. Ashton even tells us about being the target of a Punk’d
joke for a change.
AGW: Amanda,
you look really elegant today. Can you talk about your fashion sense?
Amanda: I
love fashion. I think that it's fun. I think that it's part of the business,
the glamour and getting dressed up and going to do these things. It probably
fulfills some kind of adolescent fantasy of prom or something like that,
getting dressed up and that's probably part of why I like it.
AGW: Ashton,
why did you want to work with Amanda Peet?
Amanda: You
read 20 girls for the part. You can tell the truth.
Ashton: No.
We read one other actress and the chemistry wasn't just right. We were
searching for the right person. We wanted someone who had the combination
to be vulnerable, but also to be funny. I've seen Amanda and she's really,
really funny. She's beautiful and funny and able to be vulnerable.
AGW: Amanda,
did you identify with your character? When we first meet her, she’s
got kind of a Goth/rock thing going.
Amanda: Well,
I grew up in New York and I went through a big kind of, I don't know if
I'd call it a Goth phase. I (thought I) was a hipster kind of artsy person,
but I wasn't really. I was really kind of a prude in high school and I
did my homework and I went to college. I was pretty normal. But I identified
with her kind of 'I'm a special, artsy, tough girl' kind of thing.
AGW: What
is your take about this love at first sight thing that goes on in the
film?
Amanda: I
don't believe in love at first sight. I definitely believe in a lot of
chemistry at first sight. But I think that love is something that takes
work. As you can see in the movie I think that timing, timing is everything.
Those people have to be ready and open and I think that's sort of what
the movie is about.
AGW: Ashton,
do you think this character was unique for you?
Ashton: 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 character is unique in
its own way. I think that knowing that I was working with people who had
more experience and experience in a different way and better than I am,
my game rises, it gets elevated to everyone else's.
AGW: Can you
talk about what’s cool about your Oliver character?
Ashton: I
think that the appeal of Oliver is that he's relatable. I think that guys
in general feel like they have to attain a certain personal status in
their mind before they can be in a relationship like, 'I'm not who I am
yet. But I'm going to be who I am as soon as I get this and this and this.
Then I don't have to worry about trading up.' It's like, 'Right now I'm
at this level and so I can get this kind of girl. And then when I get
here I'm going to trade up and so why even go through it. Just wait until
I get there.' The truth is that you're never there, but you're always
there. I think that's a very relatable place for guys.
AGW: Amanda,
as a struggling actress, did you ever have to live out of your car like
your character seems to do?
Amanda: No.
I came here to do a television show and so I was lucky enough to have
an apartment. I was struggling, but I was struggling out of an apartment.
AGW: Your
character in the film has some rules for guys. Do you have any?
Ashton: Oh,
I know them!
Amanda: Well,
I think that Ashton thinks that I do, but I try not to plan too much.
If by rules you mean don't go call back until the third date 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.
AGW: Your
character Emily is kind of tough and edgy. Why is that?
Amanda: I
think that it's just an age thing. I think that probably the younger you
are the more interested you are in having some sort of persona of coolness.
There are people out there who've had some kind of loss or have been abandoned
by a parent, who are afraid to be vulnerable and don't know what to say
to people like Aston's character. They prefer something that's harder
to get because it makes them feel safer. I think that she's probably like
that.
 AGW:
So, she really likes Oliver (Ashton’s character) but makes it tough
for herself?
Amanda: I
think she likes him despite herself and I think that's a great recipe
for a romantic comedy or at least when you have the right co-star. I had
that in spades. It's nice because it's a kind of old fashioned romantic
comedy where one of them attracts the other one. I think that's what we
were trying to achieve and I guess that when we auditioned with each other
we fell in love with each other or I fell in love with Ashton.
AGW: Okay,
Ashton. Then what do you think is the difference between Love and “A
lot like love”?
Ashton: Wow.
That's a difficult question for me because I'm somewhat of a love cynic
in that I don't know if it's truly like a hundred percent attainable every
day. But I think that to me love is when your desire for someone else
is greater than your desire for yourself or equal to that. That's a very
tricky thing to attain. I think that ‘a lot like love’ is
what most of us call love.
Amanda: Yeah.
I think that the idea of the movie is that it is real love and was strong
from the get go. The only difference is the ability to talk around and
around it or dance around and around it, tell each other that the timing
isn't right or that you're moving to San Francisco or that you need to
do A, B and C before I commit to you. But really if the thing is there,
it's there and that's what the movie is about.
AGW: Ashton,
you are in a committed relationship. Do you think that you felt you had
to be at a certain point before you could commit like your character does?
Ashton: Oh
yeah, that was the relatable quality of the character for me. You kind
of always set these bars for yourself of like where you need to be in
life before you can commit to doing other things. And you kind of create
this illusion for yourself that you can't possibly have both. 'If I'm
investing this amount of time in this, there's not enough hours in the
day to do this as well.' And then what you ultimately find out is you
have to have balance. I think that with my career I for sure in a lot
of ways did that and was unkind to people as a result. I don't think that
I was fair to people and I think that I made really poor judgments in
a lot of things and went driving for this career goal that could've existed
and coincided with love.
AGW: Ashton,
can you say a bit about what it’s like to have the enormous success
you now enjoy?
Ashton: Yeah.
It's weird. I think that every time I have a movie come out that's successful
or a show come out that's successful is kind of like a dream coming true.
In a way when dreams come true more than once we start to call them reality
and now it's become like that. It's like I'm going, 'Wait a second. I'm
there. I don't have to keep driving myself crazy about this thing.' What
I'm doing now never seemed like it was something that was possible. Like,
'Why would anyone want to listen to me. I'd always gone to the party and
felt like the butler for my whole life.
AGW: What’s
the craziest thing each of you has done for love?
Amanda: I
think that it's more than I've probably tried to insinuate myself or make
a move at the wrong time. I've thrown pebbles at someone's window. I've
gone after them or made a move when I know that I'm going to announce
that I love them like when they've moved on or when there's another woman
in the picture [Laughs].
Ashton: I
think that I've put some great effort into certain situations to impress.
But I wouldn't call any of that crazy because I 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 film and had started a relationship
with someone back in the states, and I flew in to Los Angeles for thirty
minutes to see a person and then flew back out to Canada. I had a 30-minute
window where I could see them. And they weren't there. They showed up
with about fifteen minutes to go. And then I had my 15 minutes and I was
gone.
AGW: We’ve
heard that you got Punk’d by Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards,
true?
Ashton: Well,
it was sort of a Punk. I was campaigning in Minnesota and we were flying
back to Iowa. I was riding on his like Air Force One jet that they have
with all the press in the back of the plane and John has his cushy area
in front and the secret service is there. We were getting off of the plane
and they were actually checking luggage on the tarmac. And one of the
secret service guys comes up to me and says, 'Is that your gray bag out
there?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Is there any need for you to be carrying
a firearm?' I said, 'No.'
AGW: Oh, man,
you must have been scared at that point?
Ashton: I'm
immediately began going, 'Uh, I was speaking at an engagement and so I
haven't had my bag.' He said, 'Well, you weren't hunting or anything 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, 'Are you kidding?'
I was like, 'Detonate it! I'm not trying to kill anyone, I promise. 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 even fair. You're
like actual Secret Service. You're not an actor. That doesn't count.'
But they had a video camera taping it from the press area in the back.
I'm trying to confiscate the videotape.
AGW: We’d
like to see that! |
