Wilmer Valderrama Had ‘Friendly Rivalry’ with Ashton Kutcher on ‘That 70s Show’

Wilmer Valderrama is reminiscing on his That ‘70s Show days with Ashton Kutcher. 

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the NCIS actor, 44, released his memoir, An American Story: Everyone’s Invited. In the book, Valderrama, who played Fez, opened up about auditioning for the sitcom, and what it was like working with Kutcher, 46, once he landed the role, per Us Weekly.

“Ashton was far more intelligent in real life than the character he played, and he was far more serious about the craft of acting than it appeared,” Valderrama admitted of the Punk’d alum, who became known to fans as Michael Kelso, the jock of the show. 

According to Valderrama, the thing he and Kutcher had in common was that Kutcher “always came to set extremely prepared.”

“He and I soon developed a friendly rivalry to see who could get the biggest laughs from the audience on the first take,” Valderrama wrote, adding that that’s when “the laugh is always bigger.”

“If you mess up on the first take and try for a huge laugh on the second, the joke never lands as powerfully. If you need to do a third or fourth take, you might as well forget it,” he said.

The duo eventually began going by the “two-takers” because they would “always try to land the first perfectly, then do the second take just for fun.”

Valderrama also confessed that he initially didn’t put much thought into That ‘70s Show, which was originally titled Teenage Wasteland. 

“I didn’t put much stock into the show at first. I vowed to give it my all, just like everything else. But after you’ve been auditioning for a few years without much success, you learn not to get your hopes up,” Valderrama wrote.

In addition to Valderrama and Kutcher, the series also starred Topher Grace (Eric Forman), Laura Prepon (Donna Pinciotti), Mila Kunis (Jackie Burkhart), Danny Masterson (Steven Hyde), Debra Jo Rupp (Kitty Forman), Kurtwood Smith (Red Forman), Tanya Roberts (Midge Pinciotti), Don Stark (Bob Pinciotti), Lisa Robin Kelly (Laurie Forman) and Tommy Chong (Leo Chingkwake). That ’70s Show ran for 8 seasons from 1998 to 2006.

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In January 2023, Netflix launched the That ’70s Show spin-off, That ’90s Show. 

Though some of the original cast returned to Wisconsin, at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco in June, Valderrama told PEOPLE why he was not part of the new series. 

“There’s no time!” he exclusively told PEOPLE.

“We’re pushing 20 episodes a season [on NCIS], but at the same time, it’s the kids’ jobs,” he added, referring to the new cast members of the spin-off.

The reboot stars Callie Haverda as Leia Forman, the daughter of Eric Forman and Donna Pinciotti, as well as Max Donovan, Ashley Aufderheide, Sam Morelos, Reyn Doi and Mace Coronel.

“This is their show now, and I think it was important that we came and pay respect to their show and have fun with the legacy of what we did,” Valderrama continued. “At the same time, it was really about, you know, now seeing them take it over.”

That ’70s Show is available to stream on Peacock.