In 2013, Ashton Kutcher starred as Steve Jobs in the movie Jobs. I actually wanted to see it, mostly because I thought casting Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak was inspired. I didn’t get around to it but remember thinking that Ashton looked like he might pull it off. Apparently, Ashton went method to become Jobs, and not just because he considers himself a tech genius. In 2013, he said he’d followed a fruit-only diet to emulate the one Jobs was on. Ashton admitted at the time it caused him pancreatic issues. Mila Kunis appeared on Thursday’s episode of Hot Ones and host Sean Evans asked her if Ashton’s story was true. Mila said it was and it was actually worse than he’d said. Mila said Ashton had landed himself in the hospital twice with pancreatitis and at one point, all he was eating were grapes.
Mila Kunis is sharing details from a medical mishap involving her husband, Ashton Kutcher.
While being interviewed on Thursday’s episode of the web series Hot Ones, the Family Guy star, 38, partook in a segment called Spousal Fact Check, in which she confirmed or denied certain factoids shared by previous Hot Ones guest Kutcher, her husband of six years.
Among the questions the show’s host Sean Evans asked was whether or not Kutcher, 43, indeed gave himself pancreatitis because he was drinking “too much carrot juice” while preparing to play Steve Jobs in 2013’s Jobs.
Jobs was notably strict when it came to his diet, largely as a result of dealing with his neuroendocrine cancer.
On Thursday’s Hot Ones, Kunis said her husband’s affliction was indeed true, but that he was in fact “downplaying it.”
“He was so dumb. He only ate grapes at one point, it was so stupid,” she told Evans. “We ended up in the hospital twice with pancreatitis!”
In 2013, Kutcher — who followed a fruit-only diet to get into character as the late visionary for the biopic — said that he was “doubled over in pain” from his pancreatic issues.
“First of all, the fruitarian diet can lead to like severe issues,” he said at the time following a screening of the film, according to USA Today.
“My pancreas levels were completely out of whack,” he recalled. “It was really terrifying … considering everything.”
I have to agree with Mila on this one, it was so stupid. I generally don’t need more than one hospital visit to convince me to change everything I was intentionally doing that put me in the hospital. We’ve discussed major weight gain or loss for a role here before. There has to be a better way. In some cases, a character loses or gains the weight over the course of the film, like this role, I guess, or Tom Hanks in Castaway, but that needs to be monitored by a medical team. And I still argue it doesn’t have to be that extreme. I know CGI is expensive, but it needs to become more commonplace. Mila and Aston had only just started dating at that point. I don’t know what kind of sway she had with him but I would have been ticked off with that nonsense.
I remember the trailers for this film covering the period up to Jobs taking Apple back. They certainly didn’t emphasize the latter part of Jobs life so for how much screen time did Ashton risk his life? And did he not stop his fruit diet after the first pancreatitis? Or did he do so much damage that the second came even with a nutritional correction? My gawd, doctors must want to pound their head against the wall when they hear actors’ “methods.” I just checked to see what kind of recognition the movie got. I figured if Ashton was willing to kill himself for a role, it must’ve paid off, right? The film got two nominations: one was a guild award for Makeup and Hair Styling. So his team was good enough that they could have made him look sick without him destroying his pancreas. The second was a Razzie for Ashton for Worst Actor. *shakes head* I’ll bet he thought this weight loss was his ticket on the Oscar train.
Photo credit: Instagram and Avalon Red
I have a friend with chronic pancreatitis and it is no joke. This was very stupid and very preventable.
A friend of ours is currently in the hospital and has been since September due to pancreatitis. At one point we didn’t know if he’d make it. He’s had gallstones in the past, and apparently he has a gene that increases his risk of getting pancreatitis. He’s lost 13 kilo since his stay and if all goes well, he may be out by Christmas. He has to be infection-free, he’ll have to get stronger so they can remove his gallbladder. Potentially, he might need to have his pancreas removed and have to take enzymes for the rest of his life. That would also cause diabetes. Pancreatitis is absolutely no joke. Do not follow Ashton Kutcher’s diet.
Years ago my brother went on an all fruit diet and got very ill. Terrible idea.
Stupid is the right word. Method acting in general is often more stupid than anything else, but what insight into the character could you possibly get from following a ridiculous diet.
Lol actors think they are so above everyone, method acting is just another thing they brag about. Without realizing how dumb they sound.
As Laurence Olivier famously said, “Why don’t you just try acting?”
Full-on Method acting is funny to me. Awarding someone for physically contorting themselves is kind of crazy–“He/she actually got thin! Fat! Paralyzed! Lobotomized! Blonde!” That’s not talent.
I love that quote.
I don’t understand the “method.” Jobs was on a restrictive diet because he had cancer. Ashton doesn’t have cancer, so how does eating only grapes replicate anything or give him any insight into what it’s like to have cancer? If he wanted to lose some weight for the role, he could have done that with a relatively healthy diet. It’s weird, like he doesn’t understand how acting works.
It’s ironic that Jobs might be alive today if he let his cancer be treated by modern science.
Maybe if they had treated him aggressively right from the start. He used alternative therapies for about 9 months before he went the medical route and still managed to live another 8 years after his diagnosis – and 7 years after his Whipple procedure, which is longer than expected for that kind of procedure. A friend of mine died 6 months after her Whipple – they removed the cancer, but her body couldn’t derive enough nutrition after the procedure.
Steve Jobs was on a restrictive diet because he believed “holistic methods” would cure him, opting out of radiation and chemo. He thought “eating clean” would somehow get rid of his cancer. It was something he chose to do. He died because of his own idiocy, to be blunt.
I have a friend with breast cancer who is doing this as well – it’s hard to watch because you know how it will end 🙁
If you use the primitive methods they used in the 1800s, you’re going to get the same results. I had a doctor tell me that.
Whatever he believed, once he had the Whipple procedure he would have to be on a restrictive diet.
My mother-in-law did this. It was breast cancer as well. Mushroom pills, keto diet, etc. She was in denial even as she went into paliative care. It made her passing so much more difficult. My partner and I had to deduce that she was in serious trouble because she wouldn’t admit it herself. As a result, my partner was her only child who was able to see her in her last days. The others arrived too late to say goodbye.
It’s funny how quickly people jump on a diet to solve all their health problems when we still don’t have a full picture of why cancer is so prevalent. I just learned about PFAS on Last Week Tonight – which are super harmful long-lived chemicals found in so many common objects we all use. I started looking into it thinking I could avoid them and it’s like – do you own a raincoat or have carpet in your home or sometimes get a food item served in wax paper or drink tap water? It’s nearly impossible to avoid without government regulation limiting their use in manufacturing. But sure go on an all fruit diet the problem was that darned bread you were eating.
Acting is hardly what most would consider a dangerous profession. Why do some think endangering themselves is a good idea??
Hustling for those awards. When you see people gain weight, lose weight, injure themselves for the sake of a film, and it gets rewarded, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. There was a whole decade of beautiful women making themselves ugly for an Oscar, and then appearing beautiful again when awards season starts. It’s a racket. The stupid thing about method acting is that anything you do to emulate a character is necessarily a contrivance. There’s nothing really at stake for you as it was for the person. This guy did harm to his health and only got a Razzie nomination out of it.
Note to the world: do not take nutrition or hygiene advice from this couple!
I always like to see how magazines refer to actors by one of their roles- either best-known, recent, etc. I was not expecting “Family Guy” for Mila Kunis. I guess I would have gone with pretty much anything live action.
I’m glad she said it was stupid, because wow, that is stupid. I guess it was his attempt to be seen as a Serious Actor which…didn’t really pan out?
So much can be done with wardrobe, makeup, and prosthetics, it just isn’t necessary for actors to do huge physical transformations like that.
LMAO! He tried to go method?! And doing it that way is exactly what I would expect a mediocre actor to do. Oh Ashton, method or not you are not a good actor. You are just not. Calm down.
The hot ones is a hilarious show and he gets great answers!
It’s stupid and the outcome was 100% predictable. We aren’t pandas or koala and don’t have to restrict our diet to one food group (mind you, the pandas’ microbiota isn’t even optimized for a bamboo-only diet, they’re really weird animals) and no amount of shakes and vitamin pills/injections can compensate for a mixed diet.
Also, Jobs died due to following quackery for too long, no need to go full on method if you want to avoid the same outcome
Gold collar problems.
Putting your health and life at risk for a golden state.
Make it make sense.
Dumb as a box of rocks. geez.
It didn’t improve his acting so this type of method was clearly pointless in his case.
Steve Jobs had pancreatic cancer. There was nothing he could have done to prevent death from this terminal illness. No one survives it.
Uhhh is it 2013? Because if not who cares. I’m sorry 8 years later??!
Don’t care!