Right before Ashton Kutcher reported for publicity tour duties for "Guess Who," the New York Post published an article claiming Ashton Kutcher was going to be a father soon. So it came as no surprise that the topic of Kutcher's rumored impending fatherhood was on everyone's mind as he sat down to discuss "Guess Who." Asked whether the rumor is true, Kutcher replied, "Why am I the last person to find out everything? If I am — that I'm going to be a daddy? God. Nobody tells me anything. I need to make a phone call if that's true because I'm the last person to find out everything. You're telling me for the first time. I mean if Demi is pregnant, she's certainly not showing yet. That would be news to me."
That out of the way, here's what Ashton Kutcher had to say about teaming up with Bernie Mac for "Guess Who:"
INTERVIEW WITH ASHTON KUTCHER:
What were the challenges of making that material into something that’s relevant today?
I think that first and foremost we wanted to respect and show reverence towards the original film. Because I think, for me, watching Sidney Poitier in that movie and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Katharine Houghton, that that movie I respected so much, and I respected what it did for the time and what it did for interracial relationships at the time. And so the first thing was, “Can we do this?” At first we were like, “We don't even want to use the title. It's just too much. Let's just take the premise and the heart and the soul and do that,” so the working title of the movie was like “The Dinner Party” because we were afraid. If, for whatever reason, the movie didn't turn out and we didn't think that it carried the same sort of soul as the original, we didn't want to disrespect the original movie.
I think the real trick is finding what is the relevance for that story today. Because it's a different climate. It's still something that I think needs to be addressed — that being that just general racially profiling. I think now this movie works whether it's racially motivated or not. Every kid has to come eventually and meet their significant other's parents. Every parent has to eventually meet their children's pursuer.
Is it true you and Bernie Mac were both working on loose remakes of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” independent of each other?
Yeah. It's kind of like one of those bizarre coincidence-but-not-kind of things. My production company and myself came up with doing a remake of “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner” simultaneously with the idea of having Bernie be the person who plays the father. And simultaneously Bernie came up with the idea to do an adaptation of the movie as well. And Sony was already in the process of wanting to do it as well, so everything kind of lined up at the right time.
How tough was your Tango scene with Bernie Mac?
Bernie destroyed me in the dancing department. I'm not very good. If I'm like line dancing, I do all right with country line dancing. But as soon as I have to move my hips, it's kind of an issue.
Did he give you any pointers?
We rehearsed in a dance studio for — I rehearsed for quite some time. Bernie just kind of came in and did it and left because he already knew how. But I had to put some work in.
Have you ever had a ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” moment in real life?
Ah, I never had anything — I usually do pretty good right off the bat. The first impression thing, my mom worked with me on that when I was a kid so I do all right with that.
What advice did your mom give you?
My mom did a great job of explaining that if you love the other person, that's all the parents really want to see, and that you don't really have to try to impress anyone. And so I did pretty good with that. But I've had my fair share of moments that haven't went well. I had a situation, I was dating a girl, we were in North Carolina visiting her family and it's like 4 in the morning. I'd just met the parents like the day before and it was 4 in the morning and she wrecked her brother's car into like a mailbox. And I was sleeping in bed and it was my fault somehow, so that was kind of an awkward moment.
PAGE 2: Ashton Kutcher on the Dinner Party Scene and Comparing "Guess Who" to "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
