Detailing their battle with drugs and alcohol, Younger star Nico Tortorella has recalled a moment when Ashton Kutcher ‘yelled’ at them for taking cocaine during a wrap party.
Nico starred in The Beautiful Life, a 2009 series created by Ashton, 41, and loosely based on the star’s time as a model, when 31-year-old Nico – who identifies as non-binary and uses them/they pronouns – went up to Ashton to ask for some hopefully career-affirming advice.
After admitting he’d just been in the toilet doing cocaine, however, they claimed Ashton had some rather constructive words of tough love.
‘Don’t ever put anything up your nose,’ Ashton told Nico, according to their book Space Between.
‘I’d literally just come out of the bathroom from doing a handful of key bumps,’ they continued.
‘Ashton’s a smart dude, and he very quickly realised I was high. He got in my face and started yelling at me, telling me I was flushing my entire career down my nose in front of everyone, including Demi Moore and Bruce Willis.’
Nico – who was recently cast in The Walking Dead spin-off – continued: ‘In my mind I was hyper-calm and in control, telling him this wasn’t the place to have an argument like this, when in actuality my jaw was probably doing the Macarena as I was blaming everyone else.’
Having spoken to Ashton, Nico said his response was a ‘wake-up call’, and had them so worried their outburst may cost them their career.
They said they sent Ashton an apology email, receiving a ‘short’ response and using the whole thing as a massive lesson.
‘It absolutely was a f***ing wake up call. Do I think that he handled it in the best way possible? No, absolutely not,’ they told People adding since then the show was cancelled and Nico has only seen Ashton once since.
While they said the star doesn’t ‘owe’ them anything, they do wish Ashton handled the situation differently.
‘He doesn’t owe me anything at all, I’m not looking for anything from Ashton at this point in my life,’ they said. ‘But come on dude, he was probably my age now when that was happening. If something was going on between me and one of the kids I was working with now, I would handle it so differently.
‘Ashton is an incredible business man and has built a f***ing empire. But, you know, could have used a little bit more help there, bud.’
Metro.co.uk contacted Ashton’s reps for comment.
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