Ashton Kutcher defends Hollywood against beauty standards criticism

NEW YORK, NY – As debates over beauty standards continue to swirl, Ashton Kutcher says Hollywood isn’t the villain many critics make it out to be.

Speaking ahead of his new FX thriller “The Beauty,” Kutcher said the narrative of Hollywood-imposed perfection is overstated. 

“What’s interesting is everybody … targets at Hollywood,” the actor told Fox News Digital at the New York premiere. 

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He pushed back on claims that Hollywood forces actors and audiences to chase unrealistic beauty standards.

“If you go look on TV today, or you look in films, there are all different types of humans, all different kinds of looks, and there are older folks … younger folks and somebody who is larger … somebody who’s smaller … the myriad,” he said.

WATCH:ASHTON KUTCHER DEFENDS HOLLYWOOD ON BEAUTY EXPECTATIONS

Pointing to what he described as a growing range of ages, body types and appearances on screen, Kutcher argued that Hollywood is no longer imposing a single ideal but instead reflecting how people actually live and work.

“Hollywood is constantly trying to reflect back at humanity what humanity is reflecting at it.”

— Ashton Kutcher

“Hollywood is constantly trying to reflect back at humanity what humanity is reflecting at it,” he said, adding that the era of the chiseled, one-look leading man has given way to “all types of people that are the leads” on projects. 

According to Kutcher, beauty expectations are driven by real-world norms, not studio mandates.

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“And so I don’t think it’s a Hollywood-imposed thing. I think that it’s a world-imposed thing,” he told Fox News Digital. 

Those themes take a darker turn in FX’s new thriller “The Beauty,” which directly confronts society’s fixation on physical perfection. 

The series imagines a world where a sexually transmitted virus turns ordinary people into flawless specimens, with gruesome and deadly consequences.

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Kutcher plays “The Corporation,” a secretive tech billionaire who creates the miracle drug at the center of the global crisis. 

WATCH: ‘THE BEAUTY’ STAR EVAN PETERS SAYS WHAT ‘MAKES YOU UNIQUE IS THE THING THAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL’

Evan Peters, who stars as FBI Agent Cooper Madsen, told Fox News Digital on the red carpet that creator Ryan Murphy’s message is clear.

WATCH: BELLA HADID TURNS HEADS IN DARING RED SHEER GOWN AT FX’S ‘THE BEAUTY’ NEW YORK PREMIERE

“I know that Ryan has a through line for a lot of his projects, which is that the thing that makes you beautiful, or the thing that makes you unique is the thing that makes you beautiful, so I hope people take that message away,” Peters said. 

Other cast members include Rebecca Hall, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, and guest stars Bella Hadid, Isabella Rossellini, Ben Platt, Jessica Alexander, and Vincent D’Onofrio.

FX’s “The Beauty” premieres Jan. 21, 2026, on Hulu and Disney+.