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A resurfaced clip of a young Ashton Kutcher discussing Hilary Duff and the Olsen twins has left people deeply uncomfortable, with viewers criticizing comments he made about the actresses when they were teenagers.
Kutcher, now 48, was 25 when the footage was recorded in 2003. At the time, he was already a familiar face thanks to That '70s Show and his MTV prank series Punk'd, which had launched earlier that year.
One of the show's early episodes featured then-15-year-old Hilary Duff, who was already famous for playing the lead role in Lizzie McGuire.
The episode began with Duff apparently taking a routine driving lesson. However, things quickly spiraled when her instructor got out at a stop sign and confronted another motorist, hitting the vehicle with a baseball bat and throwing a smoothie at the driver.
The situation escalated when the other motorist followed them and the two men became involved in a physical confrontation. An accomplice then jumped into Duff's learner car and drove away with it.
Duff was left distraught when her instructor blamed her for what had happened, even telling her that she would have to pay for a replacement vehicle because she “works in the movies.”
She was eventually relieved when Kutcher appeared and revealed that the entire ordeal had been staged for Punk'd, a TV show.
However, it was Kutcher's introduction to the segment that has now prompted the strongest reaction.
Speaking directly to the camera, he said: “Hilary Duff is in Lizzie McGuire. She also has an album out, she's going to be in a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen, and she's one of the girls that we're all waiting for to turn 18. Along with the Olsen twins.”
Duff was just 15 at the time, while Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had recently turned 17.
Kutcher and Duff had also worked together on Cheaper by the Dozen, although the film had not yet been released when the Punk'd episode was filmed.
The resurfaced footage has triggered a wave of criticism online, with one X user highlighting the age difference and writing:
“25-year-old Ashton Kutcher talking about 15-year-old Hilary Duff in 2003: ‘She's one of the girls that we're all waiting for to turn 18.’”
Another commenter argued that the incident reflected a much wider problem with celebrity culture at the time.
“It is really wild that people had free reign to be public nonces until 2015 without any reprieve,” they wrote, pointing to the way teenage celebrities were discussed in some music, television and media coverage.
