How ‘strangers’ Reese and Ashton build chemistry for new Netflix film

Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher play unlikely best friends who swap houses and lives for a week in their new Netflix movie, ‘Your Place or Mine.’ NETFLIX PHOTOS

Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher — who both started their acting careers in the '90s and who are only one year apart in age — could have easily been close contemporaries or even the best of friends if they crossed paths in the small world of Hollywood. But it turns out that before working on their new Netflix movie, “Your Place or Mine,” they haven't personally known each other.

“We didn't know each other,” said Kutcher said during the movie's global media conference.

“But we fully had met one time at a party, and it was weird,” Witherspoon added.

Kutcher is the stylish brand consultant Peter who thrives on to change in New York City.

In the story, Debbie (Witherspoon) and Peter (Kutcher) have been best friends for 20 years even though they are total opposites.

Practical, risk-averse accountant Debbie craves routine and stability with her son Jack (Wesley Kimmel) in Los Angeles; Stylish brand consultant Peter thrives on change in New York City.

When they swap houses and lives for a week, they learn they haven't told each other everything after all and discover what they think they want might not be what they really need.

In hindsight, their real life relationship — or lack thereof — could easily accommodate their characters as in their new movie, they had a brief shared screen time and only needed to shoot a few scenes physically together.

And so, during filming Witherspoon described that “one side of the coverage was done before the other person even began to shoot their side of the coverage.”

Witherspoon is Debbie, the practical, risk-averse accountant who craves routine and stability with her son in Los Angeles.

The caveat is that in the story, they are long distance friends for 20 years who solidified their relationship through constant calls and video messages. As such, they still have to make the audience believe that they have known each other for so long, which couldn't be farther from the truth.

“About a month before, I was like, 'I don't know this guy, and we're supposed to be best friends for 20 years.' So we started sending each other videos every day,” Witherspoon said.

“Every day, we would send back and forth videos of how's your day going? What's going on? What's happening with you? What are you afraid of? Like, hold on, if you had pancakes, would it be syrup or hot chocolate? All of it,” Kutcher added.

Witherspoon shared they enjoyed the activity of getting to know each other and would even get their kids and dogs on those videos.

“By the time we started shooting it, we were sort of used to communicating this way, it felt natural,” Kutcher revealed.

Written, directed and produced by Aline Brosh McKenna (“The Devil Wears Prada,” “27 Dresses”), the film also stars Jesse Williams, Zoë Chao, Steve Zahn, Tig Notaro, Griffin Matthews, Rachel Bloom, Shiri Appleby, and Vella Lovell.

“Your Place or Mine” releases globally on Netflix on February 10, Friday.