Ashton Kutcher is profiled in the new issue of Elle. He’s promoting the upcoming release of jOBS, in which he plays Apple founder Steve Jobs through his rise, fall and redemption. The interview would have been timely, if jOBS was going to be released as planned on April 19th. Instead it’s been pushed back to this summer, with rumors that the poor reviews at Sundance are to blame. We’ve also heard that Ashton wasn’t well-liked on set, since he went “method” in his acting prep, stayed in character and was mean to the crew. The Elle interview confirms Ashton’s method acting, and they also get some decent quotes from him on his career and approach to privacy. Ashton doesn’t directly confirm that he’s dating Mila Kunis (we already know that) but he does talk about her in a roundabout way. He says he wants to keep this relationship private, basically. As opposed to tweeting bikini photos and sweet nothings to her, I guess. Here’s more:

On how people think he’s stupid
People fill in the blanks really fast. They go, ‘Oh my God, he’s on a show and [plays] stupid, so he must be stupid.’ I can’t control that, nor do I try to, nor do I want to. There’s something advantageous about having people underestimate your intellect, insomuch as a lot of things are revealed to you. They assume you don’t know what you’re talking about, then all of a sudden, you do. And the next thing you know, you have information you wouldn’t normally have.

Admits he’s in films for the money
There was a point in time where I was doing movies to be able to afford to live in a certain way. You know, I didn’t really go the starving-artist route. I kind of went and did massive, commercial things. [Two and a Half Men] is a very commercial show. But it’s very fun to do. I’m surrounded by an amazing group of people. And I can be home for dinner.

On privacy
You know, I’ve learned the hard way how valuable privacy is. And I’ve learned that there are a lot of things in your life that really benefit from being private. And relationships are one of them. And I am going to do everything in my power to have this relationship be private.

Alludes to the mistresses who sold him out
When you become well known, you start to have suspicions about people’s intentions that you’re becoming close with. Because I think there’s been an artificial value that’s been put on fame in the world—people don’t want to do something. They just want to be famous. And so I think you develop a natural suspicion of that. And, you know, I have a little bit of naïveté about trusting people—with the notion that if you share and if you give to people, they’ll respect your privacy in turn. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

On if he dated Mila when they were doing That 70s Show
People will fill in the blanks however they want.

On if he’s still friendly with Moore’s daughters
There are some things that are better left private.

On fame
Someone once told me, ‘If anyone wants to be rich and famous, let them be rich first and see if they still want to be famous.’

[From Elle]

Remember what Ashton said just a couple of years ago about how great it was to send twitter and facebook messages to Demi? He wrote an essay that said, in part, “You are declaring your love for everyone to see. Who doesn’t like to be publicly adored?” Then he got busted for cheating with a couple of different women who went public with their stories, and he complained about the media publishing that story and how there was “no gatekeeper of truth” or something. As for what he’s saying this time around, I get the impression that if he was dating another “look at me” woman, like another woman who loved the attention, he would be tweeting photos of them together and sending her little messages again. It strikes me that his change of heart is more about Mila telling him to tone it down rather than any self awareness on his part.

Here are Ashton and Mila at a Laker’s game on 2-12 and out to dinner on 3-14 in London. Mila was there promoting Oz the Great and Powerful. Credit: WENN.com