Ashton Kutcher said he used to feel sorry for his disabled twin brother Michael, but has since come to regard him as an equal.
The 44-year-old actor reflected on their sibling relationship during a joint interview the pair did for the new Paramount+ series “The Checkup with Dr. David Agus.” Ashton said he used to feel sorry for his brother and question his own success until his perspective changed.
Michael was born with cerebral palsy and had to undergo multiple medical procedures throughout his life.
“How do I get to be this lucky? And for my brother to be born with cerebral palsy, then have a heart transplant, then have this random blood clot,” the “Jobs” actor said in a teaser clip shared by Entertainment Tonight. “These things where you’re like, ‘Who has to go through that? How do I get to be this lucky?'”
Ashton went on to describe how his viewpoint changed over time.
“There was a moment in all of this where I moved to New York and was starting to get some traction with my career and Mike came out to visit and stay, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Every time you feel sorry for me, you make me less,'” the actor said.
“He said, ‘This is the only life I’ve ever known, so stop feeling sorry for the only thing I have.’ And that then created an entire shift back to where I think we are today, which is straight up equals. That’s it.”
Michael said during a May 2021 interview that he previously had a falling out with his twin.
“I was very angry. Very angry. I remember speaking to him about it,” Michael continued. “I didn’t want to be the face of CP. I never talked about it,” he said of Ashton revealing to the world that he had cerebral palsy in 2003.
Michael calls Ashton by his real name, Chris, and says he stuck up for him during childhood in the face of bullies who called him “every name in the book on the playground.”
“My brother picked a fight with them. He stood up for me. He wanted them to treat me with respect,” Michael said. “And that meant a lot.”
Michael also said Ashton refused to attend sleepovers without him.
“Most of the time they’d say yes, but sometimes they’d say no and Chris would go, ‘Well, then I’m not coming,’” Michael said. “Chris would tell me, ‘I wish I could take all of this off of you — and take it myself.’”