Ashton Kutcher is sharing new details about the shocking season one finale of FX’s body-horror series The Beauty, including a funny monologue that got cut from the episode and the surprising reason he started using his left hand for the role.
The 11-episode first season of Ryan Murphy’s sci-fi thriller ended on March 4, 2026, leaving viewers with a seriously deformed teenager, a billionaire having a change of heart, and an FBI agent stuck in a cocoon . Now Kutcher is pulling back the curtain on what really happened behind the scenes—and what almost made it to screen.
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The Deleted Writer’s Room Scene That Never Aired
During a recent interview, Kutcher revealed that one of his favorite moments from filming never actually made it into the final cut of The Beauty finale .
“There was one where it’s actually not even anything to show, but there was a monologue that was I’m in a writer’s room where I’ve hired some big hot-shot writers to help me write the ad campaign for the Beauty, and it was just funny,” Kutcher explained .
The scene showed his character Byron Forst, the ruthless pharmaceutical billionaire behind the Beauty drug, working with advertising executives to craft the perfect marketing campaign for his dangerous product. Kutcher described the deleted moment as genuinely funny, though it ultimately didn’t fit into the final episode’s darker tone .
While that comedic scene got left on the cutting room floor, Kutcher did single out one monologue that made the final episode as his personal favorite—a living room scene where Byron is essentially pitching something to a family, leaving viewers uncertain about his true intentions .
“My goal in that scene was to actually traverse the viewer,” Kutcher said. “To convince them to take the shot and to get their kid the shot—but also to traverse the viewer, to start to doubt what they think about the character” .
Playing the Ambiguous Villain and That Left-Handed Twist
Kutcher spent a lot of time thinking about how to make Byron feel real rather than just another mustache-twirling bad guy. He wanted audiences to see the humanity underneath the monster.
“I’ve said this before, but I think everyone is someone’s villain,” Kutcher told TV Insider. “Anyone that is so righteous to assume that every thought and idea and action that they’ve had has been noble is wrong. I don’t think anyone’s definitively bad or definitively good” .
The actor revealed that deep underneath every person is some pain that causes them to act the way they do. For him, that was the key to making Byron feel like a real human being rather than a cartoon villain .
One of the most fascinating behind-the-scenes stories involved actor Vincent D’Onofrio, who played a pre-Beauty version of Byron in flashback scenes . When Kutcher learned he would essentially be playing the same character D’Onofrio had already established, he went into full research mode.
“I watched like 50 episodes of Law and Order and Daredevil and everything,” Kutcher said. He was studying D’Onofrio’s performances to pick up on little details when he noticed something crucial—D’Onofrio is left-handed .
Kutcher immediately called the veteran actor to confirm. D’Onofrio’s response? A casual shrug and, “I’m left-handed” .
That discovery forced Kutcher to completely adjust his performance. “I show up, and now I’ve got to shoot guns with my left hand and manipulate bones with my left hand and hold the drink with my left hand,” he explained. He made the switch because he believed audiences would feel that difference, even if they couldn’t pinpoint exactly what seemed off .
Byron’s Change of Heart in The Beauty Finale
The season one finale put Byron through the wringer emotionally. His wife Franny, played by Isabella Rossellini and later Nicola Peltz Beckham, was forcibly given the Beauty drug by her own sons. In protest, she attempted suicide by slitting her own throat rather than live with an unwanted transformation .
That moment became the turning point for Kutcher’s character.
“Those scenes are interesting because there’s no one else in the room, and she is not even conscious,” Kutcher noted. “I think anytime you have an opportunity with a character where there’s no one else in the room, you find out who they really are” .
The actor believes Byron’s grief is genuine. “My gut would say that he genuinely loves her more than he loves himself, admires her more than he admires himself, and is on the brink of losing her” .
After Franny’s suicide attempt, Byron decides to stop shipping the Beauty, offer free boosters to people who already took it, and pay off families devastated by the drug’s gruesome side effects—including the family of Bella, a teenage girl who took an STD version of the Beauty and ended up horrifically deformed .
But not everyone in Byron’s orbit agrees with his change of heart. His sons team up with federal investigators and even Byron’s own assassin to remove him from power, setting up potential conflict for a possible second season .
The Ambiguous Ending and What Comes Next
The finale leaves several characters in limbo. FBI agent Cooper Madsen (played by Evan Peters and later Hudson Barry) accepts an untested antidote that encases him in another cocoon. The season ends with his partners watching him emerge—but viewers never see what crawls out .
Director Michael Uppendahl had some fun with the ambiguity on set. “When we were shooting the scene, I would be walking them through it and I told the actors that he comes out and he appears as different people to get their reactions,” Uppendahl revealed. “At one point, I told him it was Shaquille O’Neal. I don’t think that’s probably the case, but you never know” .
The cast also improvised their reactions to the unknown. Jessica Alexander, who plays Jordan, admitted they were reacting to a stuntman with a sticky note on his hand rather than any actual transformation .
“We kind of joked around that each take, it was like something different,” Jeremy Pope added. “Because I think at one point Jess screamed, and at one point it was just a like gasps. We just gave variations because we don’t know” .
Evan Peters, for his part, thinks the cliffhanger sets up something much bigger. “I feel like it’s what Ryan does best,” Peters told People. “It sets things up beautifully—forget the pun—for a season 2 to explore a world that has The Beauty unleashed on a larger scale” .
FX has not yet renewed The Beauty for a second season, but the creative team clearly has ideas about where the story could go.
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The Real-World Inspiration Behind The Beauty
Kutcher previously revealed that Ryan Murphy pitched him the show by connecting it to something happening in the real world right now—the rise of weight loss drugs like Ozempic .
“I sit down with him, and he starts telling me about this show that is all about a world where the most valuable thing is beauty,” Kutcher recalled during a January interview on Good Morning America. Murphy pointed to the GLP-1 trend and asked a provocative question: “What if it made you like the most beautiful version of yourself? What would you give up to have that?” .
The show explores that question through body horror, satire, and plenty of uncomfortable moments—including a shocking scene where a teenage girl essentially trades sex to get the Beauty as an STD, only to transform into something barely human .
The Beauty season one is now streaming in full on Hulu and Disney+ .
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