In his new book, Wilmer Valderrama recalled a frightening experience that became a turning point in how he approached his life in Hollywood.
“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,” Valderrama, 44, wrote in An American Story: Everyone’s Invited, out Tuesday, September 17. “A winter storm rages across the skies, and the mood on board is shaky.”
Valderrama was “in a small chartered plane” with his That ’70s Show costars Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson, as well as Colin Hanks and a handful of other friends.
“Outside is nothing but darkness and sleet,” he continued. “The plane is pitching up, down, side to side. I’m feeling lightheaded. It’s getting hard to breathe. Oxygen masks drop from the ceiling, and I wonder if they dropped because the turbulence shook them loose or if it’s something else.”
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After asking the pilot — who had already put on “a full Air Force mask, far bigger than ours” — Valderrama and his pals took action.
“We fumble with our masks. Something is definitely not right with this plane,” the actor wrote. “Colin clutches the armrests of his seat with a death grip. Ashton’s jaw has dropped to his lap. … Our plane is going down.”
According to the captain, carbon monoxide was filling the interior of the plane because “an oxygen valve got stuck closed.” The effects were noticeable.
Masterson, 48, told his costars, “I have no feeling in my arm,” prompting Valderrama and Kutcher, 46, to “share one mask” and give Masterson an extra. The pilot informed the passengers that they had to land, but they were “still a long way from home.”
“I’m struggling to imagine a best-case scenario if we crash high on a mountainside and they can’t find us,” Valderrama recalled. “Ashton’s gonna wonder who to eat first. It’s probably gonna be me, because he loves Latin American food.”
After an “incredibly turbulent” landing, the plane reached the ground safely. “We let out a cheer, but it feels like a lifetime has just passed. It’s not a happy cheer,” Valderrama wrote. “It’s a wobbly cheer, like we’re all trying to process what just happened.”
The emergency landing caused the group to be delayed in El Paso, Texas, on their way back to California. While waiting for a new plane to retrieve them, Valderrama called his mom. “I don’t tell her what happened,” he wrote. “I don’t want to worry her. All I say is, ‘I love you.’”
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Valderrama didn’t specify when exactly the incident took place, but he noted that it was “a few years into That ’70s Show,” which debuted in 1998. While the version of the story that made its way to the press at the time was slightly exaggerated, Valderrama hasn’t stopped thinking about what he experienced.
When That ’70s Show concluded in 2006, Valderrama kicked off his “hiatus years,” which gave him time to travel and “process these larger questions” about the future of his career. Eventually, he returned to the industry — but he was particular about the roles he wanted to take on. One of those roles was Dell Gordo in Larry Crowne, which was cowritten and directed by Tom Hanks, who gave him “some of the best lessons about life and professionalism I’d ever witnessed.”
Valderrama also received some advice from Johnny Depp in the wake of the plane incident, when he felt like he was “burning the candle at both ends.” The duo were put in touch through an agent, who set up a meeting with Depp, 61, while he was filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Depp encouraged Valderrama to “focus on one character at a time” and to “bet on yourself” in order to find success.
“[After we talk], I’m thinking, What if my life had ended that day on the plane?” Valderrama wrote. “All of us are going to die someday, and we have to prepare for what’s next. But it’s also important to live here and now.”
An American Story: Everyone’s Invited is available now.
