What would you sacrifice for perfection? Go inside FX’s The Beauty with stars Evan Peters, Rebecca Hall, and Ashton Kutcher.
The global obsession with aesthetic perfection is about to be pushed to its limits in FX’s latest international thriller, The Beauty. Filmed across the stunning vistas of Paris, Venice, and Rome, the series follows FBI agents Cooper Madsen and Jordan Bennett as they investigate a series of gruesome deaths involving international models.
Their investigation leads them to a disturbing discovery: a sexually transmitted virus that transforms hosts into “perfect” versions of themselves – but at a terrifying physical price. With a trailer that has already amassed nearly 190 million views, making it the most-watched in FX history, the show explores a world where a shadowy tech billionaire known as The Corporation has engineered a miracle drug that could alter the future of humanity.
Ahead of the three-episode premiere on Wednesday, January 21st, the star-studded cast sat down for a press conference to discuss the show’s provocative themes. The panel featured executive producers and stars Evan Peters (Cooper Madsen), Rebecca Hall (Jordan Bennett), Anthony Ramos (The Assassin), Jeremy Pope (Jeremy), and Ashton Kutcher (The Corporation). From the pervasive nature of modern cosmetic drugs to the grueling physicality of shooting on the streets of Italy, the cast delved into what it means to hunt for beauty in a society that never feels like enough.
Perfection in the Age of GLP-1s and Aesthetic Advantage
Q: How do you think The Beauty reflects the current cultural landscape?
Rebecca Hall: “In many ways, I think that Ryan Murphy has a nose for the zeitgeist and what is current and what we’re all talking about and how he makes it subversive and provocative and- and even more worth discussing. I think that there’s a lot to be said about it, the sort of chase for perfection and what that means, and also the commodification of beauty, because I think a human beauty is a conceptually complicated thing”.
Ashton Kutcher: “Yeah, I think we’re living in a world where GLP-1s are pervasive. The demand for Ozempic, and Wegovy, and Mounjaro, and all of these drugs, and some of them are for, uh, health complications, others are just for aesthetic outcome. And then we have this increasing demand for cosmetic surgery… And you start to ask questions like is that so wrong?”.
Anthony Ramos: “I mean, just the other day my stylist is like, Hey, we have a photoshoot coming up, you should get a facial. And I get to the facial and he’s like, Yeah, She flushed your face. Right? I was like, What, I was looking puffy before? And he’s like, a little bit”.
Evan Peters: “Yeah, I think there’s also a throughline through a lot of Ryan’s projects, which is that, uh, the thing that makes you you and makes you unique is the thing that makes you interesting and, um, is to be celebrated. So I think that at the end, there’s ome episodes that really hammer that in”.
Jeremy Pope: “I love a piece of art that asks the audience themselves the question, what would you do if there was a drug or something that you could take that would make you feel like the best version of yourself? And I think the show starts off in a very vain, vanity, physical way. But then we talk about a kid that maybe has, you know, a disease or something where they haven’t been able to live their full life, and as a parent or as a person who is observing that, what would you give to see someone step into their beauty and their light?”.
Q: Ashton, do you see “The Corporation” as a villain or someone who thinks he is helping humanity?
Ashton Kutcher: “So I learned a very long time ago you can’t judge your character. I can from 10,000 feet look at the behavior of that character and go, wow, he’s doing some pretty abhorrent things, but when you’re playing the character, you have to play them from the perspective that they believe that they’re doing something right”.
The Frightened Intimacy of Agents Madsen and Bennett
Q: Evan and Rebecca, what is the dynamic like between Jordan and Cooper?
Rebecca Hall: “Well, the dynamic is they work together and they are best friends with benefits. And they both think that there’s nothing more to it, although it’s a complete lie and they’re just refusing to be vulnerable with each other”.
Evan Peters: “Yes, I agree, I totally agree. You’re kind of rooting for one of them to sort of speak up and say, well, wait a minute, I don’t want you to see other people, I just want to see you, you know? I love you”.
The Unlikely Bond Between a Killer and an Outcast
Q: Anthony and Jeremy, what impact do your characters have on each other?
Anthony Ramos: “Well, I think Jeremy reminds The Assassin of himself. I think there’s a level of empathy that The Assassin has for Jeremy’s character that I think that Jeremy brings out of him, that he taps into. The Assassin spends a lot of time by himself, right? He’s a killer. And that’s what he does, and he does it alone”.
Jeremy Pope: “So I think in this moment he gets to meet someone who sees him and appreciates the weirdness that he is and that he’s bringing, you know? So they begin to work as a duo, and they begin to find new ways in this new experience and new life”.
Body Horror vs. Ballet: The Physical Language of Transformation
Q: Can you talk about the intense stunt work and transformations in the series?
Jeremy Pope: “I remember my day of transforming. We thought it was going to go one way, and he had a different vision. So it required me to use my physical body. And it became more of a ballet, if you will. It became about expressing this person feeling their body in their skin and the muscles, and how instead of playing the body horror of it or the pain of it, but there can be beauty in finding this true perfected self”.
Evan Peters: “We had a fun one. We had a fun one. It was great. Super fun. I mean, it was just we had like one run through a little bit to kind of learn the moves. And then on the day just shot it. They had, you know, three different angles that are going at the same time. And just shot the hell out of it and prayed”.
Ashton Kutcher: “Yeah, I can really empathize with you guys in these fighting scenes. I had to shoot a scene where I sat in a jacuzzi, and I ate 27 pieces of pizza in one day.”.
About The Beauty
Partners Drew Foster and Kara Vaughn investigate the Beauty STD causing aesthetic effects but proving lethal; they try to evade corrupt officials and a mercenary targeting them amidst a suspected government conspiracy.
FX’s The Beauty premieres with three episodes on Wednesday, January 21 at 9 p.m. ET on Hulu and 9 p.m. ET/PT on FX, and on Disney+ internationally.
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Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.