Ashton Kutcher, Jeremy Pope & Anthony Ramos on “The Beauty” & Trying Viral Beauty Trends

In the world of FX’s The Beauty, the price of perfection is total transformation. We find ourselves in a classic Ryan Murphy playground: a landscape where the “ideal” version of the self is just one injection away, yet the side effects are as unsettling as the results are unbelievable.  

Based on the graphic novel by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, the series — now streaming on Disney+ — explores a society in which a new drug (that can be sexually transmitted) allows one to gain physical perfection. It has become a status symbol: those infected wake up with flawless skin, ideal physiques and a supernatural glow. But, as the world becomes obsessed with this ‘gift,’ two detectives begin to uncover the horrific price of beauty. The series stars Evan Peters, Rebecca Hall, Ashton Kutcher, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, and Isabella Rossellini, alongside several guest stars. 

“Everyone is a villain to someone, whether it’s an elementary school teacher and their students, or an ex from high school, or a boss. […] [Keeping] this character thinking that what he’s doing is the right thing, I think that was more of the work.”Ashton Kutcher

For Kutcher, who plays a tech-savvy mogul with a hidden agenda, the series marks a significant pivot into the role of a true antagonist. Despite his real-world reputation as a veteran tech investor, he looked beyond Silicon Valley to find the DNA for his character, focusing instead on the intoxicating nature of absolute power. 

“I was more inspired [by] some people that I’ve met through my life that have a lot of power, and they sort of arbitrage power — the way that they walk and move through the world, when they have an army at their disposal — I took a little inspiration from that,” he explained. “Everyone is a villain to someone, whether it’s an elementary school teacher and their students, or an ex from high school, or a boss. […] [Keeping] this character thinking that what he’s doing is the right thing, I think that was more of the work.”

While Kutcher leans into the darkness, Jeremy Pope and Anthony Ramos provide the show’s electric pulse. Their brotherhood is the result of a 15-year friendship that began from college to Broadway to the screen, Pope said. “Me and Anthony went to college together. It’s been over 15 years. That is family right there,” Pope explained. “Whenever you’re doing something new or unique or considered wild, you want to feel safe in doing that. […] With Ant, my experience working with him is a ‘yes,’ so anything I do, he’s gonna gas me and double down on it. He’s my biggest supporter, my biggest hype man.”

Ramos added, “It just made going to work easier. You’re just hanging out with your boy, you know? […] Some of the more difficult scenes were the ones where we had to act like we didn’t know each other: the fight, all that stuff in the car when I’m singing the song. That was a little bit more difficult than the later stuff.”

This blend of deep-seated character work and heightened reality is what defines the show’s unique pace. Pope and Ramos also serve as executive producers on the series, with Pope having earned an Emmy nod for starring in Murphy’s Hollywood. 

“People are injecting themselves with GLP-1s, with Wegovy, Mounjaro and Ozempic, to have a different figure. People are injecting their face with bovine material in order to numb muscles so that they don’t work and like inoculate a muscle. Like, people are injecting themselves right now for beauty.”Ashton Kutcher

The series strikes a unique balance between drama, horror and heightened absurdity, a tone Kutcher says “crystallized” for him during a specific dance sequence — and a scene where Pope and Ramos sing Christopher Cross.

“It heightens the grounding,” Kutcher says. “It makes these characters doing somewhat awful things really endearing. You’re like, ‘Oh, they’re actually having fun doing terrible things.’ You get on board with it.”

Ultimately, The Beauty serves as a stark mirror to our current cultural moment. The cast is quick to point out that the show’s central premise about a drug that offers physical perfection is hardly science fiction in an era of GLP-1s and bovine-derived injectables. “I don’t think it’s far-fetched at all,” Kutcher says, noting that “people are already doing it” without knowing the ultimate consequences.  

“If there were a drug that were to make you feel like the ultimate self, how far are you willing to go? What are you willing to risk or lose or gain to have access to that?” Jeremy Pope

“Right now, people are injecting themselves with GLP-1s, with Wegovy, Mounjaro and Ozempic, to have a different figure. People are injecting their face with bovine material in order to numb muscles so that they don’t work and like inoculate a muscle. Like, people are injecting themselves right now for beauty, people are doing cosmetic surgeries, and they’re getting Invisalign and doing all kinds of things that, in some way, we don’t know what the ultimate consequences of some of these things are gonna be,” Kutcher said. “People are already doing it and that’s what makes it so topical and so interesting. It’s not a judgment of any of those things. It’s a question, which is, ‘What are you willing to risk for beauty? What is beauty?’ And I think all of those questions are incredibly fruitful and make the show, while fun and entertaining, also thought-provoking.”

Pope adds that the series is less about judgment and more about a provocative question: “If there were a drug that were to make you feel like the ultimate self, how far are you willing to go? What are you willing to risk or lose or gain to have access to that?” 

When asked if the cast have ever tried a viral beauty trend in the name of beauty, Ramos is quick to share a hilarious anecdote diving into the world of high-tech toning. Describing his first encounter with M-Sculpt, a treatment designed to “zap” abdominal muscles into submission, Ramos explained: “I’ve never done this in my life, and I heard about it. So I said, I want to do it.” The experience quickly spiralled into a surreal comedy of errors as he tried to prep for a photoshoot.

“I was like, ‘Yo, I got this photoshoot the next day — let me see if I could get my joints looking even crazy,'” Ramos laughed. The scene he describes is peak Hollywood absurdity: lying on a table, getting a facial, while a machine zaps his core. “She’s like, ‘Should I crank it up five decibels more? This is level 20. Can we crank it up to 30?’ I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no.’ Like, you’re right there, on level 20, while I was getting a facial. It was the craziest, most Hollywood shit I’ve ever done in my life.” Despite the intensity, Ramos remains skeptical of the outcome: “I don’t know if I’m gonna do it again.”

Kutcher, for his part, shared a visceral memory of the grooming requirements for his role in The Beauty as a tech-mogul-turned-villain. While he is a regular proponent of the cold plunge — “It’s like, why am I in this cold water? It’s just real cold” — it was the aesthetic demand of a chest wax that pushed him to his limit.

“For this character, I got my chest waxed, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not doing that again,'” Kutcher declared with the finality of a man who has seen too much. He describes his natural state with self-deprecating humour: “My chest here grows like a Batman symbol, but it hurts, and I am not doing that. I’m done with that.”

The Beauty serves as a provocative mirror to a world already obsessed with Ozempic and aesthetic optimization. Through the lens of detectives played by Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall, the show navigates the thin line between self-improvement and self-destruction. As the first season unfolds, it leaves the audience with a haunting question: What are you willing to trade for physical perfection?

FX’s “The Beauty” is now streaming on Disney+ in Canada.

FEATURE PHOTO COURTESY OF FX NETWORKS.

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