Actor Ashton Kutcher in a recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno spoke about passing on an opportunity to meet Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, whom he likened to “the Leonardo da Vinci of our generation”. As you know, Kutcher channels Jobs in the upcoming bio pic titled jOBS.
And as the studio’s promo machine kicked into high gear ahead of the upcoming August release, Kutcher sat down with The Verge editor Joshua Topolsky to share his thoughts on the technology landscape, his portrayal of Apple’s co-founder, investing in tech startups, re-tweeting versus RT-ing and lots more…
Here’s the clip.
Preparing for the role, the actor researched extensively Jobs’s aesthetic taste and tapped a 15-hour compilation of Jobs’s speaking voice, including “candid recordings” that captured his habits outside of public life.
There were two versions of him, and I got this from a lot of friends of his that I talked to.
There was the guy who went on stage and presented things, and then there was the guy who was in the boardroom, who was working on a product, who was having an intimate conversation.
And I tried to find little snippets of stuff where he wasn’t aware that he was being recorded or speeches that he didn’t think anyone was going to hear, so I could get a little more of who he honestly was.
I also love Kutcher college professor’s favorite line that “scientists discover problems, engineers solve them”.
“I think people need to build things,” the actor said. “I think that’s what the world needs. I wanted to tell a story about a guy who did that.”
Here’s the official and rather psychedelic movie poster.
MacRumors attended a promotional screening of jOBS in San Francisco last night, where the actor made interesting remarks about loyalty:
I think Steve was extraordinarily loyal to people he felt were loyal to him. And I don’t think that he had a historical relationship in his life that he felt that – that he trusted other people’s loyalty so I think he was sparing with his.
Last week, Kutcher in a Quora post reflected on why he chose to play Jobs while touching on his entrepreneurial spirit and love for technology.
The idea of playing the role terrified me. I’ve found that the greatest rewards I’ve received in my life have come from jumping at the opportunities to take on things that scare me.
The chance to portray someone who not only lived but who is still very relevant and alive in the zeitgeist seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime challenge.
It may come as a surprise to Kutcher haters that he’s a social media forerunner and an investor/advisor in early stage technology companies.
As part of his preparations for the role, the actor got to mingle with Steve’s peers.
I wanted to remind entrepreneurs that Steve Jobs wasn’t always “Steve Jobs”, that he struggled, that he failed, and that he rigorously persevered to build something great to improve other people’s lives.
Here’s the official movie trailer, if you haven’t seen it already.
For instance, he’s part of Quora’s management, did serve briefly as Creative Director of VoIP startup Ooma, invested in Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb, Path and Fab.com and co-founded the venture capital fund A-Grade Investments.
As if that weren’t enough, Kutcher landed himself a seat on the board of advisors of Vox Media, parent company of The Verge.
JOBS opens in theaters nationwide on August 16.