Actor Ashton Kutcher reveals what's missing in drama business: hometown, genuine quality; & his "daunting" experience in NYC

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People in Iowa have a different, genuine quality and a self-sufficient humility

What do you miss about growing up and living in the Midwest?
The biggest thing I miss in Iowa is my mom. She still lives there, and I don't get to see her as often as I'd like. I miss the certain smell in Iowa when it's about to rain. I miss how quiet it is. I miss having neighbors that I know and that I like. The thing I probably miss most of all is that people in Iowa have a different, genuine quality and a self-sufficient humility, a desire to do things for themselves and not complain. I miss being around people that don't complain. I'm in the drama business, and there are a lot of dramatic people that seem to be not very happy with where they are.
Does it bother you to be called Mr. Demi Moore?
No. Why would it? People have called me much worse.
Do you still have all those trucker hats?
Yeah. I've got a giant box of them in storage. I probably have like 500 or 600 hats that people have sent me.

one man can have a voice as loud as a media network

Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a Twitter contest and Larry King accepted. The challenge by Kutcher was that if he reached 1 million Twitter followers first, he would buy 10,000 mosquito bed nets and donate them for World Malaria Day at the end of April. If he lost he would still donate 1,000. CNN agreed to the same rules. At 2:13 a.m. ET April 17th, Kutcher’s Twitter account surpassed 1 million followers. CNN was at 998,239. The media network hit the 1 million mark at 2:42 a.m. ET, some 29 minutes later. CNN maintains 45 Twitter accounts. Kutcher was vying against their breaking news feed only. Kutcher, known as aplusk on the Twitter site, said of his victory, “This is David versus Goliath. This just shows how people want to get info. It is about us. It means that one man can have a voice as loud as a media network.”

"I realized they didn’t want to hear your opinions," He said coming to New York from Iowa was a “daunting” experience.

“It was a completely alien experience,” explained Kutcher. “I think that that’s why ... it makes really interesting fodder for a show like this, because it’s such a foreign world ... I didn’t even know that guys modeled. I thought the Marlboro Man was a real cowboy.” “You’re surrounded by some of the most beautiful people you’ve ever seen and then some of the most eccentric people that you’ve ever seen, in the artists and the designers and the photographers,” said Kutcher. “So that fish-out-of-water story is completely out of water. It’s a fish-in-the-desert story. And I think that it’s created such a great landscape for the story-line for this show,” said Kutcher of his modeling career, “You stand around and have your picture taken. They don’t really want to hear your ideas. They don’t really want to know what you think. And you can’t be funny. I was always trying to like be funny and they were like ‘be sexy.’ How do you do that? I don’t know what that is ... I just wanted to be an actor and once I became an actor I realized they didn’t want to hear your opinions [either].”

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Photos courtesy of hollywoodoutbreak.com, bittenandbound.com, and chron.com

Original Source: Time, Bitten & Bound, Buffalo News