When Steve Jobs died on Oct. 5, 2011, many New York tech industry VIPs learned about his death inside the New York Stock Exchange during the Silicon Alley 100, an event teeming with professionals inspired by the Apple founder.
The guests — myself included — discussed his career, health and sad demise at 56. Talk soon turned to how his life would be portrayed in books and movies.
Flash forward nearly two years, and the public has its first big-screen portrayal in Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher as the title character.
Days before the movie's Aug. 16 release, Kutcher rang the NYSE opening bell — right near where we had stood debating the day a movie like his would appear. But the reception wasn't too hot. Tech luminaries such as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, along with critics, weren't too pleased with the indie film's representation. Some gnawed at Kutcher's acting chops.
In an interview with Mashable before his NYSE appearance, Kutcher admitted he was prepared for a critical reception from film critics and moviegoers — but emphasized the solid groundwork he had laid to depict the well-known entrepreneur.
"I consumed what Steve consumed — the books he read, the food he ate and the things from the people he admired", Kutcher told Mashable at New York's Waldorf Astoria.
For months, Kutcher absorbed Jobs' accent, mannerisms, behaviors, products and failures. He scoured the Internet for YouTube videos and Soundcloud files, and watched Jobs interviews and documentaries.
Adherence to Jobs' fruit-only diet landed the 35 year-old actor in the hospital just days before filming started. The fruitarian diet messed up his pancreas, which was "terrifying," Kutcher remembered.
Ashton Kutcher, above, primarily play as young Steve Jobs (from 1971 to 1991) in Open Road Films' biopic.
Kutcher felt the role was a dream challenge, one which he said comes around once in an actor's career — and a far cry from his roles on That '70s Show or Dude, Where's My Car? He met with Jobs' friends and colleagues, gleaning tidbits from former Apple software executive Avie Tevanian, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and computer scientist Alan Kay.
The time and cash Kutcher put in the startup world helped him secure encounters with Jobs' acquaintances. Kutcher is an investor for Airbnb, Dwolla, Foursquare, Path, Skype and other companies. The time spent with those startups gave him a feel for the kind of emotions and risks Jobs faced when launching Apple Computer in the 1970s.
"Steve was an entrepreneur," Kutcher says. "I hope this movie inspires people to be entrepreneurs, build things, fail big and change the world."
The Jobs movie begins with Kutcher as an older Jobs (see side-by-side comparison of the actor and Jobs below), when he revealed the iPod music player to a small audience in 2001.
Ashton Kutcher posted this side-by-side comparison on Twitter. Kutcher is on the left, while Steve Jobs is on the right.
The iPod scene in Jobs mimics the iPod announcement from 2001, but the majority of Open Road Films's biopic chronicles Jobs' life from 1971 to 1991.
See also: 'Jobs' Movie Doesn't Work [REVIEW]
Kutcher pushed his entrepreneurial mentality — some describe it as him channeling his inner Steve Jobs — in his recent viral speech from the Teen Choice Awards, where he won the Ultimate Choice award akin to a lifetime achievement honor.
"Steve Jobs said when you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way that it is and that your life is to live your life inside the world and try not to get in too much trouble and maybe get an education and get a job and make some money and have a family," Kutcher said in the speech (watch below).
"But life can be a lot broader than that when you realize one simple thing, and that is that everything around us that we call life was made up by people that are no smarter than you. And you can build your own things, you can build your own life that other people can live in. So build a life, don't live one — build one."
Despite the hefty preparation and continued inspirational phrases from Kutcher, the Jobs biopic is garnering stinging criticism. Wozniak reviewed the movie unfavorably in a long comment left on Gizmodo's Jobs review on Friday: "I suspect a lot of what was wrong with the film came from Ashton's own image of Jobs," he wrote.
Wozniak is a consultant on Sony Pictures' rival Jobs movie based on Walter Isaacson's biography, which will be penned by The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin. He said that either movie would have paid him to consult, but that he was "turned off by the Jobs script."
Open Road, the studio behind Jobs, notes that it fictionalized or invented "certain characters, characterizations, incidents, locations and dialogue" for dramatic purposes. The movie is "not intended to reflect on any actual character, history, product or entity."
Kutcher and Josh Gad, who played Wozniak, have been defending their depictions:
When Jobs retired as Apple CEO in 2011, Mark Hulme was inspired to produce Jobs with screenplay writer Matt Whiteley and eventual director Joshua Michael Stern. Whiteley brought on early Apple employee Daniel Kottke and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as consultants.
Hulme and Whiteley began the project before Jobs died of of pancreatic cancer. Stern joined the crew in 2012. They decided to focus on Jobs' years in his 20s through his 40s.
"That's a period most people don't know about," Stern said in a statement. "Very few people knew who this man really was. He was larger-than-life, utterly single-minded and often mercurial. So the challenge was to let the story play out without speculating about the reasons for his actions."
A finished screenplay in hand, Stern and Hulme delivered the script to Kutcher's agent. Kutcher signed on. The actor says saw some of himself in Steve.
"I had this bizarre emotional reaction and I didn't know what it was," he said. "I was like, 'Wow, why am I so shook up about this?' And I started thinking about all the ways my life was affected by this guy and began learning about him anywhere and everywhere I could."
Have you seen Jobs? What did you like or dislike about the film? Share your review in the comments section below.
Images: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images; Open Road Films; Twitter, Ashton Kutcher
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