Ashton Kutcher's career is made up of movies that have been critically panned -- and he knows it.
“I know exactly what films I’ve done that f***ing suck donkey,” the actor admits in the March 2013 issue of Esquire. “And I know the ones that are good, that people like. And I know it not because of the box office, because the box office is not going to tell you the truth. I know it because I have friends that don't hold back. They don't depend on me for money or employment. They're just friends. Friends tell the truth."
Kutcher is lucky to have such honest friends, but the box office doesn't appear to tell the truth about how the "Dude, Where's My Car" star keeps landing roles.
To date, Kutcher's highest rated movie is the 2011 film "No Strings Attached," which earned a "49 percent fresh," according to Rotten Tomatoes. His highest grossing movie was 2003's "Cheaper By The Dozen," which brought an acceptable $138 million worldwide.
Most of Kutcher's movies gross anywhere between $45 million to $84 million.
As Esquire puts it, "he's a movie star who has yet to make a movie worth remembering," but that could change with his upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, "jOBS," due out April 19.
"Jobs was an extraordinary guy, but a very ordinary guy in many ways," he told the magazine of the late Apple founder. "There was this one speech that I found where he said, 'So when you grow up, if you spend your life trying not to bounce into walls, just inheriting what you get, you gotta know your life can be a lot broader than that. Once you realize one simple thing: Everything around you that you call life was made by people who are no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.'"
Kutcher added: "And I heard that and I knew exactly what the niche for making the movie was, what the social need for making the movie was. For people seeking purpose. I remember growing up and looking at the world and going, Okay, how do I live in this? instead of How do I create it? How do I build it? How do I make something? And the empowerment of these ideas, I think they make an important story."
Though the few reviews the film has received have been mixed, Kutcher seems to have more faith in the project than some of his past work.
“I think it turned out really well,” he told the magazine, perhaps hoping the film will speak for itself.
