Spoiler warning for anyone who is completely clueless about The Beauty and hasn't watched any episodes airing on FX or via Hulu subscription or Disney+ subscription.
Of all the Ryan Murphy-produced TV shows showcasing obsessions with physical looks and lust, The Beauty may very well feature the most blatantly vapid and conceited characters. Seeing it in live-action makes the comic book source material all the more palpable (and pulpy, per the viscera), but it the horror-tinged thriller all THAT far from our current reality? Star Ashton Kutcher doesn’t think so in the slightest.
As the attractive billionaire Byron Frost, or the moniker The Corporation, Kutcher is absolutely killing it playing a poster child (or grown ass man) for the show’s central STD that grants its “sufferers” gorgeous faces, chiseled physiques and all the fixins. When CinemaBlend spoke with the actor (alongside co-stars Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope), I asked if he thought there was a situation where it would actually be justifiable to opt in on getting the Beauty, and he pointed out that we’ve been heading down that road for years. In his words:
Well, I think there are like, micro versions of this happening in the world, all over the place, all the time, right in front of our very eyes, right? Every time you see somebody who has braces on their teeth or Invisalign, they're doing cosmetic surgery to themselves. They're cosmetically changing their teeth.
I can't tell if it's a good or a bad thing that nobody needs to have sex in order to get Invisalign, but it's probably a good thing.
Kutcher continued pointing out a wide range of examples of cosmetic changes becoming the norm, saying:
Every time you see somebody who shaves their mustache a certain way and just leaves the beard, they're saying something with their physical that's a cosmetic change. Right? Every time you see somebody who has a haircut, or somebody who is putting on eye makeup, or somebody who's taking Ozempic or Mounjaro, or somebody who... There's so many cosmetic augmentations that people are doing all the time right before our very eyes.
As seen in the video up top, I was jokingly taken aback by his comments, seeing as how I am one of those people who shaves off my mustache while letting the rest of my facial hair go wild. To be fair, though, I don't think my mug would pass Beauty-related muster, regardless of whether I had a mustache or not. Maybe if the show was called The Derpus...
Ashton Kutcher wrapped up his assessment by pointing to another highly controversial, DNA-altering practice that has raised concerns over the years. As he put it:
Then now we have gene-editing entering the equation, where we go, 'Wait, but maybe you don't want to have this disease that's not permanent,' that could be changed through a genetic engineering. There are these cosmetic enhancements that are happening right before our very eyes. And so the question of, like, Would you do? So is kind of like with the question is just like, 'How much would you do?'
At this point, one of the biggest ways reality stands apart from the world of The Beauty’s central disease is that most of the cosmetic changes made in the real world don’t cause massive amounts of sudden involuntary pain that literally alter the entire configuration of a person’s body. Not that I think such pain and goopy messes would be a major hindrance from those interested in catching it, though the murderous rages and head explosions might sway some.
Check out the trailer for Episode 6 below, and those missing Rebecca Hall should check out what she told me about that game-changing twist in Episode 2.
The Beauty will continue its gory trek across the planet every Wednesday night on FX and Hulu at 9:00 p.m. ET. And don't forget about Ryan Murphy's other new show hitting the 2026 TV schedule, Love Story, which debuts on FX on Thursday, February 12.
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