They may be playing longtime besties in their new Netflix movie, Your Place or Mine, but Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher's real life friendship is decidedly more new.
"We didn't know each other at all," Kutcher, 44, explains in this week's issue of PEOPLE. Adds Witherspoon, 46: "I was worried because we were supposed to play best friends [in the movie], so we started sending videos to each other, like 30 seconds long." According to Kutcher, the videos helped "build" the onscreen couples' connection.
And Witherspoon can still recall the one time she did meet Kutcher, years ago at a party.
"He brought his own beverages," recalls Witherspoon with a laugh. "I thought it was endearing. Like, 'This is a quirky guy!''
Kutcher responds, "It wasn't my cooler! Those were somebody else's beverages!"
Regardless, the veteran actors and parents (Witherspoon has Ava, 23, and Deacon, 19, with ex Ryan Phillippe and Tennessee, 10, with husband Jim Toth; Kutcher is dad to Wyatt, 8 and Dimitri, 6, with wife Mila Kunis) bonded during filming.
"We have so much in common," says Kutcher. "We both like football, we're both really curious people that like understanding things and we're very much family people."
The actors also have a shared appreciation for nostalgia.
"I'm the yearbook girl on set," says Witherspoon. "Like, 'Everybody, get together! We need to remember this moment.'"
Adds Kutcher: "I save a bunch of stuff. My wife is always trying to purge. I'm like, 'No, that's meaningful! It was the first love letter I ever got when I was 12!'"
Witherspoon recalls a scene in which the actors, in a flashback scene, wore clothing from the early 2000s.
"I sent [Mila] a photo and she goes, 'Are these his real clothes, because he never threw away his 90s clothes!'"
Remarks Kutcher with a laugh: "It's true. And I have my entire wardrobe from That 70s Show. I made them give it to me!"
