Ashton Kutcher portrays Byron Forst, also known as “The Corporation,” a haughty techbro billionaire tied to the Beauty.
“This is very different than anything I’ve done before,” the actor told TV Insider. “You enter in having a notion of what the character is doing, what the character wants, but you don’t know what the character’s relationship with all the other variable people are, and you just have to trust that Ryan’s going to take you there.”
Working with Murphy for the first time, Kutcher said, was a revelation. “I’ve never worked with anyone like Ryan before, where he’s incredibly specific about what he wants, and there’s an aesthetic to the show that is this elevated aesthetic,” he explained. “Ryan’s aesthetic pops everything, and it comes off the screen. And so he’s got a very specific vision for that. But then, on the other side, he’s not precious about anything, which is what makes collaborating with Ryan really fun.”
Per Kutcher, Murphy scrapped a three-page monologue he’d been preparing all night for at the last minute, and the actor found that choice refreshing. “I think that combination of not having an ego about it and also having a very specific vision really makes it a safe playground. And then when you get that feeling, you go, ‘Oh, I can go here, I can go there, I can do this, I can do that, and I know that I’ll be protected in doing that.’”
The actor also embraced the message of The Beauty. “It doesn’t matter who you are, how you are, what you are, you will always find your flaws and maybe the most beautiful thing in the world is our imperfections and the fact that we have a chance in life, through life, to change, to learn, to grow, to try to correct the things about ourselves that we don’t love and that we don’t like, and I think that that is the journey, and that is beauty and, and in essence, the question of the show is: ‘What would you sacrifice to have all those things closed in a moment? And would that be enough?’”