Mila Kunis has entered the chat. The “Luckiest Girl Alive” actor shared her two cents on those viral photos of Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon – y’know, the highly memed, widely tweeted shots of the “Your Place or Mine” costars stiffly posing together on the red carpet, completely devoid of their onscreen chemistry. Kunis unsurprisingly agrees with the rest of the world: they look quite uncomfortable.
“[Mila] even emailed us last night. She goes, ‘You guys look so awkward on the red carpet together,'” Witherspoon revealed on Feb. 6 while discussing the Netflix film on the “Today” show. She continued, “When you know a girlfriend so much, it was just fun to get to know her significant other ’cause I’ve loved her for so long.”
The mother of three added that she and Kutcher “had to learn to be friends” to make their onscreen bond feel believable, so they spent time getting to know each other before filming began. “About a month ahead of time, we started talking every day and sending little FaceTime videos,” she said. “I was like, ‘These are my dogs, these are my kids.’ And my kids would tease him about his football team.”
The memes about Witherspoon and Kutcher first began circulating after a Jan. 30 photocall where they stood side by side yet just so slightly apart, seemingly unsure what to do with their hands. Three days later, the costars were at it again for the “Your Place or Mine” world premiere, where they struck similarly uneasy-looking red carpet poses.
The tweets quickly rolled in. “I’m losing my mind, they look like siblings forced by their mom to take a photo,” one Twitter user wrote in response, while another quipped, “I choose to believe the Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon romcom is about to be so spicy they needed to look like they hated each other for the press tour to avoid drama.”
It’s worth noting that Kutcher and Witherspoon have also enjoyed far less awkward moments while promoting their rom-com, but those have received less recognition. Read ahead to see standout photos from their joint press tour, artfully arranged from most to least awkward, and watch “Your Place or Mine” when it hits Netflix on Feb. 10.