On Friday the Jobs trailer hit the internet , and the question on everyone’s minds was, “Will this biopic show a well-rounded portrait of Steve Jobs?” Of course, the second question following that was, “Is Ashton Kutcher the man for the job?”
Fans of Steve Jobs, or even the computer itself, wasn’t alone in those questions. Steve Wozniak, known simply as Woz to the industry is the Co-founder of Apple, and upon seeing the trailer for the Jobs biopic, he had some concern.
Wozniak, who developed Apple with Steve Jobs, had concerns that the film would portray Jobs, who died in 2011 from cancer, as a “saint.” During an interview with Gizmodo , he touched a bit upon how Jobs was thrown out of his own company.
“I have a little bug in me that says that this movie will portray Steve as a saint who was ignored, rather than one of the key people who led Apple through failure after failure,” said Wozniak.
After being fired from Apple computers, Steve Jobs came back in 1996 after the company purchased NeXT. Of Steve Jobs’ trajectory Woz said:
“Jobs came back as the saint and god we now recognize and did then head the creation of other products as great as the Apple. We truly could have used the later Jobs in earlier years at Apple, is what I feel.”
The Steve Jobs biopic simple titled Jobs , will see Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs from his early 20s founding the start up company, to his ousting, and later to his resurgence as an inspiration and icon to the industry. Speaking about portraying Jobs, Kutcher said the experience was, “Honestly one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever tried to do in my life. It was kind of like throwing myself into this gauntlet of, I know, massive amounts of criticism because somebody’s going to go ‘Well, it wasn’t exactly.”
This isn’t the first time Steve Wozniak has talked about his worries for the upcoming Jobs film. He responded to a clip released in January of Kutcher playing Steve opposite Josh Gad, who portrays Wozniak. Of the clip, Wozniak said the scene was “Not close. Totally wrong. We never had such interaction and roles. I’m not even sure what it’s getting at, personalities are very wrong although mine is closer.”
Publicist for the Jobs film, Amanda Lundberg responded to criticism from Wozniak stating:
“The film is not a documentary, nor is it meant to be a blow by blow, word for word account of all conversations and events. The filmmakers have tremendous admiration and respect for Wozniak and all those that are portrayed in the film, and did extensive research in an effort to make an entertaining accurate film that captures the essence and story of Steve Jobs and those that built Apple with him.”
Jobs is now scheduled to hit theaters on August 16.