Spread

Ashton Kutcher

HS: How's it going?

AK: Well I took some Milk-thistle before I went to sleep, which is a liver cleanser, so I'm feeling pretty good, but I'm sweating out last night right now.

HS: [Laughs]

AK: We got a helicopter going, we're under siege. Can you hear me?

HS: I can hear you...The film is very much about LA living and style. Can you give us some background on how LA is portrayed in Spread? How did that influence the film?

AK: Well I think that people see a little different side of LA than what they see in most movies that I'm featured in, you know you're now seeing the red carpet, you're not seeing the stars, you're not seeing the glam, you're not seeing the glitz. You're seeing a guy who wants to experience that world but has...

*Guitar Sound*

What was that? Did you hear that? Weird. You're seeing a guy who wants to experience that world but hasn't quite gotten there yet. In doing so we were able to expose a bit of the modern club scene, some of the new trendier restaurants, some of the trendy hotel behavior. And you know David Mackenzie, the director, is from Scotland so what was great is that he was able to see LA with a tourists eye without this sort of jaded, under-appreciation of everything that's beautiful that happens when you live in a place for awhile. He was actually able to see it as a tourist where he wanted to take a picture of everything that looked neat, in LA, and I thought that was really a valuable aspect of this film.

HS: David Ellis helped design and curate a series of posters and an original logo for the film. How did that collaboration come about?

AK: You know I felt like the movie was an indie movie it was really, more of a, had more of a street vibe, I mean we sort of scrapped and dug and did whatever we could to put together the money to make the movie and it was really just done on the backs of people. Its a little bit of a gritty movie with some gritty content so we thought that doing a poster that was designed by a street artist would actually be within the realm of what this film is actually about. And I mean, we were privileged to have him do that, and he created some really cool images that sort of, kind of, meld into a little bit of the throwback sensibility we had in shooting the film.

HS: Do you have any other favorite artists?

AK: Street artists or just artists in general?

HS: Street art.

AK: Well I think my favorite is a guy by the name of Nomad, he does that Mr. Friendly character that you might have seen. And I think that he does an amazing job with that. He actually recently did this thing - I'm trying to remember where he went - but there was a beach side with a bunch of these giant cube things to hold the shore together and he painted them all like presents. That I thought was really cool. I don't know, I really dig a lot of different street artists but he's probably my favorite. A lot of the Berlin street art I think is really compelling

HS: Nikki, your character in the film, is hyper aware of style and labels. Do you have any personal favorite high end designers?

AK: I have a lot of personal favorites. I've always been into the Gucci brand, what that stands for. Recently for this movie, I started getting into this label DSquared cause it sort of fit the style of the character. Modern Amusement is s new LA brand I think is really cool. I dig Prada stuff, I think Dolce & Gabana stuff is really neat, Calvin Klein stuff sorta kind of depending on what Im doing. I kind of pick a designer based on what my evening is going to be like and then try to design my evening with the same inspiration as the designer, but I'm a little bit of a clothes junkie after working in the fashion business for a couple years I sort of developed a different nuance of taste.