Ashton Kutcher Admits He & Natalie Portman "Basically" Made Same Film as Mila Kunis & Justin Timberlake

Ashton Kutcher has confessed what many have thought about his and Natalie Portman's 2011 rom-com No Strings Attached.

By Corinne Heller Sep 25, 2022 4:20 PMTags

Ashton Kutcher is spilling one of the worst-kept secrets in rom-com history.

The actor recently reunited with his No Strings Attached co-star Natalie Portman for a joint Peloton workout for an episode of his series Our Future Selves, released Sept. 20. During their session, the actor admitted that their 2011 rom-com was pretty darn similar to a certain film starring his now-wife Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, released the same year.

"I think the first time we really started hanging out is when we shot No Strings together," Kutcher said, to which Portman responded, "Who would've thought 20 years later, we'd be on a Peloton together?"

Kutcher then said, "Wait, it's also weird because my wife was shooting basically the same movie, called Friends With Benefits."

Both Ivan Reitman's No Strings Attached and Will Gluck's Friends With Benefits are about a man and a woman who decide to turn their friendship sexual without becoming a romantic couple, realizing later that that's more complicated than they thought.

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Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis: Romance Rewind

Both films were successful. No Strings Attached made a higher profit domestically—$70 million versus $55 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

@onepeloton

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? original sound - Peloton

Curiously, both films earned almost the same amount worldwide—$149 million. Friends With Benefits had a slightly higher budget—$35 million versus $25 million for the other movie.

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On Our Future Selves, Kutcher's interview and marathon training series with Peloton, Portman also raised another curious point to her former co-star. "And Mila and I had just shot Black Swan together. So we were all making out with each other."

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Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, a 2010 ballet thriller, was more than twice as successful at the box office than the rom-coms, making more than $329 million worldwide.

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It also earned Portman her first Oscar.

Turner & Hooch/K-9

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Kalifornia/Natural Born Killers

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Hollywood was obsessed with volcanic eruptions in 1997, as these two disaster films starring Pierce Brosnan and Tommy Lee Jones, respectively, made their way to theaters just two months apart.

Saving Private Ryan/The Thin Red Line

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Antz/A Bug's Life

Animators had insects on the brain in 1998 as Pixar and Dreamworks both told tales of a non-conformist ant who falls in love with an ant princess, leaves the mound and returns a hero.

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The Truman Show/Ed TV

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Entrapment/The Thomas Crown Affair

In 1999, two male actors best known for playing James Bond (Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan, respectively) each starred in his own film about a male art thief becoming entangled with the female insurance investigator pursuing him.

House on Haunted Hill/The Haunting

Both based on source material from 1959, oddly enough, these two films released in 1999 featured people tricked into staying in some spooky homes under false pretenses.

The Matrix/eXistenZ

These sci-fi films released in 1999 featured stories that questioned whether the world was real or an illusion. Both dealt with a virtual reality contained in a computer program, but only one launched an enduring franchise. 

Scary Movie/Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth

Hot off the resurgence of the teen slasher flick in the late '90s, two films spoofing the likes of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer hit theaters in 2000. Only one of them went on to spawn a franchise, for better or worse. (Have you seen Scary Movie 5? We rest our case.)

Chasing Liberty/First Daughter

In 2004, Mandy Moore and Katie Holmes both got to play the rebellious daughter of the President of the United States in romantic comedies.

Red Eye/Flightplan

Rachel McAdams and Jodie Foster each starred in their own 2005 thriller set on an airplane. 

The Prestige/The Illusionist

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Despicable Me/Megamind

Both 2010 animated films focused on a villain (who turned evil following a bad childhood) flirting with the good side as they help to stop an even worse villain.

No Strings Attached/Friends with Benefits

In 2011, romantic comedy fans were treated to not one, but two films about friends who gave casual sex a try, only to find feelings develop. Adding a meta layer to this one is the fact that one starred Ashton Kutcher and the other Mila Kunis, for whom life imitated art the following year.

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Olympus Has Fallen/White House Down

In 2013, terrorist attacks at the White House were the hot topic, with these two films tasking Gerard Butler and Channing Tatum with saving the day. Olympus performed well enough to garner two sequels, while White House Down, released three months later, was a bit of a bomb.

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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Kellan Lutz both got the opportunity to show off their pecs as the mythical Greek hero in 2014.

Spectre/Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation

The 2015 installments of these massive franchises saw their hero (played by Daniel Craig and Tom Cruise, respectively) chase down secret criminal organizations through Austria, Morocco and London while their intelligence agencies were shutting down. Originally planned for release one month after Spectre, Rogue Nation was bumped up five months by Paramount to avoid more direct competition between the two.

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