Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and More ’70s Show Stars Wrote Letters Defending Danny Masterson Prior to Sentencing

Andy Swift
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Danny Masterson’s former TV costars Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are among more than 50 individuals who submitted letters in defense of the actor, prior to him being sentenced to 30 years in prison following a conviction for sexual assault.

The letters, all addressed to Judge Charlaine Olmedo, were obtained by journalist Tony Ortega, who shared several of them via Substack. Ortega regularly reports on issues involving Scientology, of which Masterson is a prominent member.

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Kutcher and Kunis both co-starred opposite Masterson on That ’70s Show, which ran from 1998 to 2006 on Fox, while Kutcher also shared the screen with him on Netflix’s The Ranch from 2016 to 2017. Masterson was fired from The Ranch in 2017 after he was accused of raping four women in the early 2000s, but he and Kutcher remained close. Kutcher even brought Masterson out for applause at the show’s final taping in 2019.

“As a friend, Danny has been nothing but a positive influence on me,” Kutcher’s letter reads. “He’s an extraordinarily honest and intentional human being.” Kutcher professes that Masterson has “consistently been an excellent” role model, attributing his drug-free lifestyle to their friendship. “Any time that we were to meet someone or interact with someone who was on drugs, or did drugs, he made it clear that that wouldn’t be a good person to be friends with. And for me, that was an implication that if I were to do drugs, he wouldn’t want to be friends with me, which is something I never would want to risk or jeopardize.”

Kunis also focuses on Masterson’s “unwavering commitment to discouraging the use of drugs” in her letter of support, in which she describes him as an “amazing friend, confidant and, above all, an outstanding older brother figure.” She ends her letter by saying, “I wholeheartedly vouch for Danny Masterson’s exceptional character and the tremendous positive influence he has had on me and the people around him.”

But Kutcher and Kunis aren’t Masterson’s only famous costars showing him their support. Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith — who played Kitty and Red Forman on That ’70s Show, and recently reprised their roles for Netflix’s That ’90s Show — both wrote letters to the judge, as did Ranch creator Jim Patterson.

Masterson’s sentence was issued Thursday in Los Angeles. The actor had been found guilty of two counts of forcible rape on May 31, after a previous attempt to prosecute him ended in a mistrial. The jury in Masterson’s retrial was deadlocked on a third rape charge and did not reach a verdict.

Masterson was charged with three counts of rape by force or fear in June 2020, regarding separate incidents of sexual assault against three women that allegedly occurred at his home between 2001 and 2003. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges in 2021.

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