Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon Swap Lives in First Look at Rom-Com Your Place or Mine : We 'Had Fun'
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Netflix Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher in Your Place or Mine (2023)
Rom-com royalty joins forces for a life-swapping reality check in Your Place or Mine.
PEOPLE has an exclusive look at the upcoming romantic comedy, written by Aline Brosh McKenna (27 Dresses, The Devil Wears Prada, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and serving as her big-screen directorial debut.
Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher lead the cast as Debbie and Peter, "best friends and total opposites" who learn a valuable life lesson from a little change of scenery.
"She craves routine with her son in L.A.; he thrives on change in N.Y.," reads an official Netflix logline. "When they swap houses and lives for a week, they discover what they think they want might not be what they really need."
Speaking with PEOPLE about Your Place or Mine, Kutcher, 44, says signing up for the film was an "easy" decision, as he "finally got the opportunity" to collaborate with Witherspoon, 46, and McKenna, 55, "two women I have wanted to work with for years."
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JoJo Whilden / Netflix Ashton Kutcher in Your Place or Mine (2023)
The film also stars Jesse Williams, Zoë Chao, Wesley Kimmel, Griffin Matthews, Rachel Bloom, Shiri Appleby, Vella Lovell, Tig Notaro and Steve Zahn.
It's co-produced by McKenna, Jason Bateman, Michael Costigan, Lauren Neustadter and Witherspoon, the latter of whom Kutcher says working with "is like hanging out with a best friend."
"We just had fun!" he raves of their time on set. "I can talk to Reese about anything — acting, business, kids, media, football. She's always game."
And Witherspoon couldn't agree more, telling PEOPLE of Kutcher, "I think he's so funny. We have a very similar sense of humor and timing."
As for what drew her to the movie, the Academy Award winner says, "The most appealing part of this project was the script."
"Aline's writing is so buoyant, hysterically funny and easy to relate to," Witherspoon explains. "When I read the part of Debbie, I immediately felt like she was an old friend I had known forever. Feeling vulnerable about getting older, wanting to reach for her dreams but always playing it safe so she doesn't get hurt."
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She also raves about her "love" for "the relationship between Peter and Debbie: best friends who share everything from inside jokes to their biggest dreams. They are both complex people who have to learn that love means opening your heart and taking chances. That's never easy."
For the actress — who's mom to daughter Ava Phillippe, 23, and sons Deacon Phillippe, 19, and Tennessee, 10 — Your Place or Mine feels like "kind of a love letter to single moms everywhere."
"Even if your life didn't perfectly work out the way you envisioned, there's hope and there's joy, and love can still be found," she adds.
In the film, Peter takes on an unfamiliar parenting adventure with Debbie's son. Asked what he personally found most unexpected about caring for kids when he became a parent, Kutcher (dad to daughter Wyatt, 8, and son Dimitri, 6) tells PEOPLE, "When you first become a dad, your job is to keep the kids alive — keep them fed and all that."
"As they grow, your job becomes to keep them from killing themselves, because kids have no sense of fear and would step right off the Grand Canyon. It's terrifying," he adds.
Erin Simkin / Netflix Wesley Kimmel and Reese Witherspoon (R) in Your Place or Mine (2023)
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McKenna tells PEOPLE that Your Place or Mine is loosely based on a real-life experience she had, and is "about two people who've been friends for 25 years since the night they hooked up just once." In the present day, Debbie and Peter "exchange their lives for a week, and by living in each other's shoes, get to know each other a lot better."
"It's about love and getting out of your own way to find love and having the courage to take the leap to find it, and it's meant to be written about people who have lived some and know who they are," she explains. "And [about] that chance that they're taking to bridge the gap with each other and how they're going to do that, given all the things they've undergone in the years since they've first met. I'm hoping that really resonates with people, and makes them feel good in a time when I think we're all looking for things that will make us feel great."
Asked what went into envisioning the two leads, Witherspoon — famous for roles in rom-coms like Sweet Home Alabama and Legally Blonde — "is one of the best ever," the director raves.
As for Kutcher (Just Married, No Strings Attached), McKenna says that, like Witherspoon, she has known him "for a long time" and that he "walks that incredible line of [being] comedically so gifted, but [he] also can really be very grounded and very specific and real in his choices."
"And also, Ashton really loves female actors, and is one of those male actors who is not at all intimidated by the idea of having an equally powerful costar," she adds.
Your Place or Mine is streaming Feb. 10, 2023, on Netflix.
