Wilmer Valderrama is opening up like never before in his new memoir,
An American Story: Everyone’s InvitedAn American Story: Everyone’s Invited. Throughout the book, the NCIS star recalled his days working with his That ’70s Show castmates and his experience immigrating from Venezuela to California. Some of the biggest highlights from his memoir delve into specific memories, including a frightening airplane emergency and the apparent “rivalry” that he and co-star Ashton Kutcher shared.
Hollywood Life has rounded up the biggest highlights from Wilmer’s book, below.
The Plane Emergency
At one point in the book, Wilmer recalled a terrifying “shaky” plane ride with some of his That ’70s Show co-stars, including Ashton and Danny Masterson, according to Us Weekly.
“A group of actors and insiders is flying back to Hollywood from New Orleans after the Super Bowl, but nothing is smooth about this flight,” Wilmer explained in the memoir. “A winter storm rages across the skies, and the mood on board is shaky. … Outside is nothing but darkness and sleet. The plane is pitching up, down, side to side. I’m feeling lightheaded. It’s getting hard to breathe.”
Soon, the pilot signaled that they were in for a bumpy ride; Wilmer recalled the oxygen masks dropping from the top.
“Oxygen masks drop from the ceiling, and I wonder if they dropped because the turbulence shook them loose or if it’s something else,” Wilmer wrote in the book. “We fumble with our masks. Something is definitely not right with this plane. … Ashton’s jaw has dropped to his lap.”
After thinking that their plane was “going down,” the actor remembered “struggling to imagine a best-case scenario if [they were to] crash high on a mountainside, and they can’t find us.”
Despite the harrowing ordeal, Wilmer managed to incorporate some wit into the story. In one excerpt, the Grey’s Anatomy alum quipped that if they were stranded in the mountains, “Ashton’s gonna wonder who to eat first. It’s probably gonna be me, because he loves Latin American food.”
Once the plan finally landed, Wilmer pointed out their whole group “let out a cheer, but it feels like a lifetime has just passed” and that it wasn’t a “happy cheer” since they all felt like their lives are at stake.
Johnny Depp’s Advice to Wilmer
Following the terrifying airplane fiasco, Wilmer received some advice from fellow actor Johnny Depp. In a separate excerpt from the memoir, per Us Weekly, the former star of The Ranch noted that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor told him to “focus on one character at a time” and to “bet on yourself” in his career.
Wilmer & Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Friendly Rivalry’
While recollecting his time working on That ’70s Show, playing the character Fez, Wilmer described his and Ashton’s work relationship as a “friendly rivalry.” The co-stars would “see who could get the biggest laughs from the audience on [their] first take,” Wilmer wrote, according to Us Weekly.
Although the two pals delivered goofy performances on the show, Wilmer pointed out that 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.” The two of them would always come to set “extremely prepared” to give it their all, Wilmer added in the book.
An American Story: Everyone’s Invited was released on September 17.