Ashton Kutcher has opened up about the sexual abuse allegations facing his former That 70s Show co-star Danny Masterson.
Masterson was charged in June 2020 with three counts of rape from alleged incidents that took place between 2001 and 2003. His 2022 court case ended in a mistrial in December, and he will now face a second trial on rape charges.
The actor was first accused of sexual assault in 2017 and was latter written out of the third season of The Ranch, the second show in which he and Kutcher starred alongside each other.
Speaking to Esquire about the upcoming court case, Kutcher expressed his hope that the accusations are not true, as Masterson had been a huge mentor for him throughout his career.
“Ultimately, I can’t know,” Kutcher said about the outcome of Masterson’s trial. “I’m not the judge. I’m not the jury. I’m not the DA. I’m not the victim. And I’m not the accused. And so, in that case, I don’t have a space to comment. I just don’t know.”
Kutcher said that Masterson was very much a guiding figure on the set of That 70s Show, given that he’d already been working for some time before the Fox series debuted. He explained how Masterson would keep the young cast members in check, warning them to stay away from drugs.
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“He’s like, ‘One fucking rule: Don’t do anything fucking stupid and fuck this up. Because if you fuck it up, you fuck it up for everybody,’” Kutcher said of the advice Masterson gave him.
Further reflecting on the allegations against Masterson, Kutcher said: “Someday, his kid is going to read about this.”
The actor added that he supports anyone who has experienced abuse, saying: “I wholesale feel for anybody who feels like they were violated in any way.”
Kutcher recently made an acting comeback by reprising his That 70s Show character, Kelso, for the Netflix sequel series That 90s Show. He’s also set to star opposite Reese Witherspoon in the Netflix rom-com Your Place or Mine.