By JUDY SLOANE

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD,CA-What would you sacrifice for perfection? That’s the question asked by creator/writer Ryan Murphy for his new FX’s drama The Beauty. And the fact that the trailer has had nearly 190 million views, it seems like the audience wants to know the answer.

When supermodels begin dying in gruesome and mysterious ways, FBI Agents Cooper Madison (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) are sent to Paris to solve the case. In their investigation, they discover a virus that transforms ordinary people into visions of perfection, but with deadly consequences. This leads them to ‘The Corporation’ (Ashton Kutcher), a tech billionaire who has secretly created a drug called ‘The Beauty,’ and he will go to any lengths to protect his trillion-dollar business, going so far as to unleash his lethal enforcer, “The Assassin” (Anthony Ramos).

The cast came together to talk about The Beauty, which premieres with three episodes on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, on FX and Hulu.

Q: How do you think The Beauty reflects the current cultural landscape?

Ashton Kutcher: We have this increasing demand for cosmetic surgery, and people augmenting themselves in order to achieve a look, a feel or a vibe that they think will give them some sort of advantage, or maybe it will just make them happy. You amalgamate all of that into one thing and it’s a shot, and it’s called ‘The Beauty.’ The question is, what are you willing to sacrifice for that? What risks are you willing to take? And I think that that’s incredibly poignant.

Anthony Ramos: Society tells us what we should look like on the outside a lot of times. It’s a part of our culture in a big way. And I think that this show talks about that on a deep level.

Rebecca Hall: I think that Ryan Murphy has a nose for the zeitgeist and what is current and what we’re all talking about. And he makes it subversive and provocative and even more worth discussing. There’s a lot to be said about it, the chase for perfection and what that means, and also the commodification of beauty.

Evan Peters: There’s also a throughline through a lot of Ryan’s projects, which is that the thing that makes you unique is the thing that makes you interesting and is to be celebrated. At the end, there’s some episodes that really hammer that in and I think that [there’s] nobody better than Ryan to spread that message.

Q: Ashton, do you see ‘The Corporation’ as a villain or as someone who genuinely thinks he’s helping humanity?

Ashton Kutcher: I learned a very long time ago you can’t judge your character.  When you’re playing the character, you have to play them from the perspective that they believe that they’re doing something right, or that there’s some benevolent necessity to their action. I have to look at the character as someone who goes, wait, this will help people live better, happier, more fulfilled lives. And that if there is a bastardized version of this drug on the market that is hurting people, I have to contain that before it becomes a problem. You can look at it through that lens and go no, he thinks he’s doing the right thing. Or I can from 10,000 feet look at the behavior of that character and go, wow, he’s doing some pretty abhorrent things, it’s not okay to kill people.

Q: Evan, after playing so many villains, especially in the Ryan Murphy universe, what’s it like being on the good side?

Evan Peters: It’s a relief. When he pitched it to me, he said, “There’s going to be some great action sequences. And there’s a complicated romance with Jordan, played by Rebecca Hall,” which was very exciting to play. He said he just wanted me to be normal, to try to be myself, which was difficult.

Q: Evan and Rebecca. What is the dynamic like between Jordan and Cooper?

Rebecca Hall: They work together and they are best friends with benefits.  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. And so there’s a lot of unspoken nonsense and they should just get on with it.

Evan Peters: Yes, I totally agree. You’re rooting for one of them to speak up and say, well, wait a minute, I don’t want you to see other people, I just want to see you. I love you.

Rebecca Hall: They’re both very prideful types that are frightened of emotional intimacy.

Evan Peters: Yeah. I think also, as characters, that Cooper’s a bit straight edge, and Jordan is very fun and funny. I think they balance each other out.

Rebecca Hall: I think that’s true, yeah.

Evan Peters: I think that you brought a lot of levity to Cooper’s life. [He] is just [a] very serious guy.

Rebecca Hall: Blimey. Poor Cooper.

Q: Evan and Anthony, can you talk about the stunt work in the series and the most memorable, intense sequence you worked on?

Anthony Ramos: Evan [and I] learned [a] fight [in one] day, that was intense.

Evan Peters: We had one run through to learn the moves. And then on the day just shot it. They had three different angles that were going at the same time, and shot the hell out of it.

Anthony Ramos: Yeah, we probably did [it] one time before we got to set. But not only that, we [were] re-relearning this fight as we went, shooting it in pieces, but then also being like, “Hey, let’s add this extra, cool acting moment.”

Evan Peters: A shoutout to our stunts team. Mark Fichera and Jason Mello, who choreographed all these incredibly long, detailed fight sequences.

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.