Featuring Ashton Kutcher in the role of Jobs and Josh Gad as Apple’s original tech-head Steve Wozniak, the 60-second snippet (below) shows Jobs talking intensely about a new computer that Wozniak is building that would eventually become the Apple-1.
According to a Gizmodo report, the real Steve Wozniak isn’t at all happy with what he saw. No, it’s not the excessive amount of frizzy hair the movie makers have given him that has riled him so, but the fact that the pair simply never behaved in the way shown in the clip.
Wozniak described the depiction as “not close.”
“We never had such interaction and roles,” the Apple co-founder told Gizmodo. “I’m not even sure what it’s getting at…personalities are very wrong although mine is closer.”
In a later email to Gizmodo, Wozniak, probably having watched the excerpt a few more times, elaborated on his earlier comments:
“Totally wrong. Personalities and where the ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs. They inspired me and were widely spoken at the Homebrew Computer Club [an influential San Francisco-based computer hobbyist group]. Steve came back from Oregon and came to a club meeting and didn’t start talking about this great social impact. His idea was to make a $20 PC board and sell it for $40 to help people at the club build the computer I’d given away. Steve came from selling surplus parts at HalTed he always saw a way to make a quick buck off my designs (this was the 5th time). The lofty talk came much further down the line.”
He ended his email by insisting that he “never looked like a professional,” and that they were just kids at the time.
“Our relationship was so different than what was portrayed. I’m embarrassed but if the movie is fun and entertaining, all the better. Anyone who reads my book iWoz can get a clearer picture.”
While a small number of movie goers will this evening be able to discover for themselves whether jOBS is indeed “fun and entertaining,” most of us will have to wait till April 19 when the much anticipated movie hits theaters across the nation.
