Ashton Kutcher: What's Happening?

Sitting in a tall director's chair in front of us, actor Ashton Kutcher is slugging down a power-C Vitamin Water as we prepare to chat about his new romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas in which he co-stars with Cameron Diaz. Ashton can show up at events dressed either wildly or very properly stylish. Today, he's casual cute in dark wash jeans, red and white check shirt and brown suede jacket.

The popular actor branched out in the last few years to produce MTV's "Punk'd" which he also hosted, "Beauty and the Geek" on the CW and NBC's "The Real Wedding Crashers". Ashton's Katalyst Films is also producing "Adventures in Hollywood" on MTV featuring the rap group Three Six Mafia and he's delving next into game shows! We don't know if he was inspired to be all that he can be by his wise and gorgeous wife Demi Moore but Ashton is carrying on that theme in What Happens in Vegas by playing Jack Fuller, a guy whose life is stalled until he meets the right woman!

We wanted to know about Ashton's own Vegas adventures, TV ventures, his wedding memories and why his relationship, that most critics gave a shelf-life of a couple of months, has now lasted for several years. We also learned that he just hates to lose.....anything! We ask a question and hear a crunching sound....

Ashton: I'm chewing ice so I can't hear. Hold on. Ever do that? I guess that's why they have straws in the cups in movies. If you actually chewed the ice, you wouldn't be able to hear the movie. Sorry...

TeenHollywood: So, how was working with Cameron?

Ashton: Horrible. I mean to show up at work and have to look at a good-looking woman who is funny and happy to be alive and joyous and is nice to people is a nightmare but we had to deal with it every single day. I don't think that there's anybody like her. I think she maybe the only true comedic leading lady in our business right now, that has really honed that craft. And, she's worked with Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler and Mike Myers. She's worked with like every great comedic actor so she's got a one up on all of them.

TeenHollywood: There is a crazy chase scene in which Cameron throws mangoes at you. Were they any injuries? Some of that looked painful.

Ashton: There were no permanent injuries. What I was shocked about is Cameron is the fastest woman on planet earth. I trained for two months before this movie because I didn't want my leading lady to be in better shape than I was and she still was. She's like superwoman. All of the fighting stuff, she's so strong and was kind of like gung-ho to go for it. I really could have been injured but whenever I was about to fall and hurt myself, Cameron would save me. She was literally like my little savior-girl person.

TeenHollywood: What was your preparation process for the drunken, downward spiral in Vegas? It was a huge montage but you really seem to get into it.

Ashton: We got drunk and spiraled. [laughs]. I had my entire early 20's to really prepare for that scene. I have a lot of life experience to draw on for that kind of wild night.

TeenHollywood: That crazy montage was well-edited.

Ashton: Yeah, when watch it, you start to feel like you are drunk and in that moment. It's in the way that it's cut.

TeenHollywood: Your character doesn't like marriage at least not to Cameron's character at first. What about you?

Ashton: I never really thought I'd get married. I watched my parents go through a divorce and I felt like this is just not something you're supposed to do. On top of that, I thought, 'why am I gonna put a legal document on top of a really great relationship?' It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I don't do legal documents with my friends. I don't go out and like 'let's go down to the courthouse, Rob, because now that we are friends, we need to verify our friendship and we need to get a license to watch the game together from here on out'.

TeenHollywood: Well, when you put it that way, I can kind of see what you mean.

Ashton: I never really understood the whole idea of marriage until I met my wife and just knew that that was the person I was gonna be with for the rest of my life and knew that I had that desire. So, I took the time to understand a little bit more of what it was about, what it meant and I love it! I might be like the most happily-est married... is happily-est a word? [we laugh]. I just made up a new word! I'm the happily-est married guy on the planet.

TeenHollywood: What about your character, Jack, could you identify with?

Ashton: For one, I'm a very competitive person and I think that's part of the core of the movie and the core of the character. I understand his desire to not be under the thumb of somebody else. I think his recklessness I can relate to in my life.

TeenHollywood: How competitive go you get in your life?

Ashton: I hate losing anything, ever. I HATE losing anything ever.

TeenHollywood: How do you react when you lose?

Ashton: I get really upset, not upset with somebody else. I get really upset with myself and then I become sort of obsessively geared towards never letting that happen again.

TeenHollywood: Okay, I don't think I'll challenge you to anything. What's the worst thing you've done in Vegas?

Ashton: I've had really, wild, fun times in Vegas. I ended up on stage once with this band called Digital Underground doing the Humpty Dance. My job was to do the [he sings] 'Ah, do me, baby' part of the Humpty Dance. I was next to Ron Jeremy rapping through a sea of porn stars. Wild night. They had this thing called the Digital Video Software Dealership Awards and they do it at the exact same time as the AVN [Adult Video Network] and I was there for the Digital Video Awards getting an award and it just turned into a wild night...but I didn't get married.

TeenHollywood: Well, there is that sudden, wild wedding in this film. What was your own wedding like?

Ashton: Very private. We had to set up my whole wedding under the cloak of darkness and very secretively because I didn't want a lot of photographers there hanging out. It was like 45 people and we told everyone it was a housewarming party, so literally people didn't even know. Some people, my mom included, didn't know they were coming to a wedding. Actually, a funny story, I told my mom, 'Mom, it's a really special housewarming, like a really, really special housewarming.' I was on jury duty the week of my wedding and my mom showed up while I was on jury duty and she walked in when Demi was trying on her dress. Demi puts on the veil and my mom walked in, she's like, 'We don't wear dresses like that to housewarming parties where I come from.' Demi almost didn't marry me. She was so upset with me. I thought that I'd really gotten the hint across [to my mom] but apparently I didn't.

TeenHollywood: What is the secret to a happy marriage?

Ashton: My friend [Yehuda Berg] actually just wrote a book called 'The Spiritual Rules of Engagement', that is coming out really soon. It sorta lays out, as far as I am concerned, the secrets to a happy marriage. I think at the core of it, it's about working on it. I think guys grow up and, from a very young age, are taught that the apex of a relationship is sex. So guys are like, 'some day, I'm gonna have sex!' And like that's the goal, right? And I think that women from a very young age, are socially conditioned to say, 'some day, I'm gonna get married' and it's all about the wedding and the gown. So it's to get married, to have sex---but everybody's missing what happens after that. Because being married is a lot of work. If people start the desire to work on their relationship, and set that as the goal, we'd be a lot better off. Like, if you got a new job and you showed up and you didn't work, you'd probably get fired pretty quickly. I think people think that once they get married, the work's done, when really you just got the job.

TeenHollywood: Makes a lot of sense to me. So, have you ever won in Vegas?

Ashton: I won a lot of money one night but then I lost it all the next day. I never go negative because I take out like a certain amount.

TeenHollywood: I read that Vegas certainly didn't shut down while you were shooting there. What was that like? Anybody just walk into the shot?

Ashton: Well, we drew some crowds. Like in front of the Bellagio, there was a pretty big crowd. There was a guy with a parrot on his shoulder who's like 'do you want to take a picture?' and you take a picture with the guy, and then he charges you.

TeenHollywood: Ashton your character is a carpenter and is finally inspired to actually complete the things he is designing and building in wood. Can you build/fix anything?

Ashton: My dad was a carpenter. And my stepdad was a carpenter. And I started working construction when I was 12. My stepdad and I built the house that he and my mother currently live in. I have a construction company with my dad and we flip houses in Los Angeles. And so I've built some stuff.

TeenHollywood: Wow, so there's a lot of experience there. Did you build anything at your current home?

Ashton: No, I brought in professionals to do that!

TeenHollywood: With your new show ["Adventures in Hollywood"] , every time an item breaks about a celeb, everyone is questioning it now. Did you intend to just show how fake a lot of the tabloid news is?

Ashton: Yeah my whole desire to do the show was that I felt a lot of the tabloid magazines and shows were just making stuff up for their own commercial gain. They would put up headlines that had question marks behind them because they didn't know whether or not it was true, but then report it as if it was news. And I felt that false journalism that is predicated on questions as opposed to answers, was really nothing more than a soap opera that was being played out by the magazines for commercial success. And so I figured, if you can't beat them, throw a wrench in their works.

TeenHollywood: What's next for you?

Ashton: I have a couple of movies. A movie called Personal Effects that I do with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates. It's a dark film about 2 people that find solace in each other on the steps of the courthouse. And then I have a film that will come out after that called Spread. It's about a guy, kinda a climber who sleeps with wealthy women for their money. After that I have a couple of TV shows that are going to be coming out that I am producing, which I can't actually announce yet.

Note: Cameron sent a note to press members explaining that she was absent from the press day and was with her family due to the recent and sudden death of her dad. Ashton told us that he had spoken to them to give his condolences.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.