The days of lovable, bumbling Michael Kelso are long gone. Ashton Kutcher took home the Ultimate Choice Award at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday, Aug. 11, and the actor showed a very different, very mature side of himself in his lengthy, heartfelt acceptance speech.
Dressed down in a baseball cap, grey T-shirt, flannel and jeans, the Jobs actor initially seemed poised to deliver his usual smart-aleck remarks.
"Okay, let's be brutally honest — this is the old guy award," he joked as the audience cheered. "This is like the grandpa award, and after this, I get to go to the geriatric ward."
The 35-year-old actor's tone then took a turn for the serious as he made one startling revelation and three pieces of life advice in his nearly 5-minute speech. His confused fans continued to hoot and holler throughout.
"I feel like a fraud," he began. "My name is actually not even Ashton. Ashton is my middle name. My first name's Chris."
Kutcher then advised the largely-teen audience about three things he'd learned growing up and getting into the industry — first, that "opportunity looks a lot like work," second, that the "sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart," and third, to "build a life," not to live one.
"I've never had a job in my life that I was better than," he said as the audience simmered down to listen. "I was always lucky just to have a job. And every job I had was a stepping stone I had to my next job and I never quit my job until I had my next job."
"Life can be a lot broader … when you realize one simple thing: And that is that everything around us that we call life was made up by people who were no smarter than you," he continued. "And you can build your own life that other people can live in. So build a life. Don't live one. Build one. Find your opportunity, and always be sexy."
