Ashton Kutcher addressed the accusations against his castmate on That '70s Show and The Ranch.
American actor Ashton Kutcher broke his silence and spoke about the abuse accusations against Danny Masterson, with whom he shared a cast in the successful sitcom That '70s Show.
Kutcher and Masterson first met as co-stars on That '70s Show and their friendship continued over the years. They even worked together again on the Netflix series The Ranch.
Masterson was charged in June 2020 with three counts of r@p- for alleged incidents that occurred between 2001 and 2003. His 2022 trial ended in a mistrial in December. Masterson will now face a second trial on the same r@p- charges.
The actor was first accused of assault in 2017 and was later eliminated from the third season of The Ranch. Kutcher continued to star on the show without Masterson for half of Season 3 and for a fourth and final season.
In conversation with GQ, Kutcher assured that he wants Masterson “to be declared innocent of the charges against him.” However, he clarified that he only hopes that Masterson's alleged behavior is not true because he was a great mentor to him throughout his career.
If the allegations against Masterson end up being true, it will be a very different story. "Ultimately, I can't know. I'm not the judge. I'm not the jury. I'm not the district attorney. I'm not the victim. And I'm not the defendant. So in that case, I have no place to comment. "I just don't know if the charges against him are true," Kutcher explained.
Kutcher recalled that Masterson became the leader of the young cast of That '70s Show, as he had already been working for some time before the launch of the Fox series. Masterson kept the cast under control and away from drugs.
'He told us there was one rule: Don't do anything stupid and don't screw this up. Because if you screw it up, you screw it up for everyone,'” Kutcher recalled of the advice Masterson gave him at the time. Reflecting on the current allegations against Masterson, Kutcher said he often thinks about his former castmate's son. "Someday his son will read about this," he lamented.
