Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher Photo: MTV News
"[Ashton's] really like Forrest Gump or something. He's an extraordinary person." — Brittany Murphy
Brittany Murphy's been a busy girl lately, honing her acting chops on a résumé's worth of projects from "8 Mile" and "Spun" to "The 25th Hour" and "Molly Gun." Despite her rigorous schedule, the irrepressibly peppy starlet still found time to smell the roses while making "Just Married."
"[I'm] in a wedding dress, for crying out loud," Murphy said, beaming, on the set of the romantic comedy. "I mean, when do you really have the opportunity to get married vicariously, through work, to, like, the perfect husband for hire?"
"['Just Married'] is a funny movie that you will laugh your b---s off at," said Murphy's "perfect husband-for-hire," Ashton Kutcher. "It's about two 20-somethings who jump into marriage and everybody thinks that they are too young and don't know each other well enough and that they're not in love, and they just might not be. That's what they find out during the movie."
Kutcher ("Dude, Where's My Car?") plays Tom, an aspiring sports writer who marries Sarah (Murphy), a writer from a well-to-do family who may be "a little bit out of [his] league." The newlyweds take off for a honeymoon in Venice, where they are stalked by Christian Kane (TV's "Angel") who plays an ex of Sarah's sent by her family to bust up the marriage.
Whether or not Tom and Sarah work out in the end, the actors who play them grew to admire each other while making the movie.
"I learn something from that girl every day," Kutcher said of Murphy. "She is a pro. ... She just brings it, man. She's really, really awesome. She makes me smile every day. She shows me something about my job every day. She's the best, man. I'll do anything with her, any movie, hands down."
"He's one of the kindest humans I've ever met," Murphy reciprocated. "He's really like Forrest Gump or something. He's an extraordinary person. Once you realize he does one thing amazingly, you're then shocked, and you realize that he does another thing equally as amazingly and then there's another thing after that."
Murphy's no stranger to multitasking. She surfaced most notably as Alicia Silverstone's "project" in 1995's "Clueless" and made a remarkable dramatic turn as a damaged witness in last year's "Don't Say a Word," and has since filled her plate with "Just Married" and a number of other projects.
First there's "8 Mile," Eminem's semi-autobiographical flick, in which she plays a love interest opposite Mr. Mathers' aspiring rapper. The rapper recently dodged reports that he and Murphy had become an offscreen item by playfully singing "I'll never tell," Murphy's signature line from "Don't Say a Word" (see "Eminem Fuels Romance Rumors, Fights Acting Jitters On '8 Mile' Set").
"Marshall is ... he really ... he's one of the most funny, honest, professional, hard-working actors I've ever worked with, if not the most," Murphy said of Eminem. "Such a hard worker, he blows my mind."
"8 Mile" is finished and set to be released in November. "Just Married" is also in the can, as is "Spun," an indie movie by video director Jonas Ackerlund (Metallica, Madonna) co-starring Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore"), John Leguizamo ("Moulin Rouge") and Mena Suvari ("American Beauty").
Murphy is currently in New York working on "The 25th Hour" with filmmaker Spike Lee ("Malcolm X") and a movie called "Molly Gun," where she stars as a socialite who becomes nanny to Dakota Fanning ("I Am Sam") in an effort to impress her boyfriend.
While spending time in the Big Apple, Brittany managed to escape her hectic schedule long enough to do some video shopping for "Movie House" (see "Video Picks: Brittany Murphy").
"I've had really rewarding experiences in different ways," Murphy said. "['Just Married' was] just flat-out fun. ... Just a flat-out good time at work, good time on the job."
