We’re less than a month away from the release of Jobs, the romantic comedy about Apple cofounder Steve Jobs’s life, and star Ashton Kutcher is already defending himself against the haters.
Last week someone on Quora asked the venture capitalist-lite why he chose the role and he answered. Laying it out in four bullet points, @aplusk explains that it was very difficult to pick up the role but the sweet pay check, rather, the challenges in playing the revered tech titan intrigued him.
His first reason? “I care,” explained Mr. Kutcher, who apparently didn’t apply that ethos to No Strings Attached. “As I read the script I had a knot in my stomach. I imagined actors playing the role and not connecting to the love that went into some of the seemingly irrational decisions that Steve sometimes made.”
In his second point, he said that playing Mr. Jobs initially “terrified” him but he got over that quickly. “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,” he explains.
In the third point, Mr. Kutcher related the film role to his side gig of investing and advising in technology startups. Just like plopping down in an investment in Airtime, taking on unfamiliar characters is a “crash course in the subject matter of the film.” And to make some of that money back, we’re sure.
He ended his acting doctrine with this:
I loved what the film stands for. I think with the state of the global economy inspiring young people to build things is vital. 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.
But he’ll always be the “Dude, where’s my car?” guy to us, so.
(H/T to that Quora newsletter I didn’t delete for once.)
