Almost two years ago, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Although he died at the height of his success, Jobs legacy lives on – not just in the worldwide distribution of his products but in the cultural zeitgeist. It is only natural that Hollywood is jumping at the opportunity to immortalize Mr. Jobs on film.
While there are many Steve Jobs biopic scripts percolating through Hollywood (including one written by Aaron Sorkin), the first to come to theaters is Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher in the titular role. Jobs focuses more on the innovator’s professional life, as opposed to his personal life. Therefore, the featured relationship in this film is not between Jobs and a woman, but is between Jobs and his love of technology, innovation, and especially Apple. In fact, all of the conflict in the movie comes from Jobs’ rise and fall (and eventual rise again) with the company. Jobs can almost be seen as a prequel, illustrating Steve Jobs’ road to the iPod, full of as much turmoil as there was inevitable triumph.
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to conduct a roundtable interview with Director Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote) and Josh Gad (The Book of Mormon), who plays Apple’s other founder Steve Wozniak “the Woz”. We talked about everything from Kutcher’s “Steve Jobs walk”, to the resemblance of the cast to their real life counterparts. It was also interesting to talk about Jobs’ enigmatic life. As Stern says in our interview, Jobs was a man that valued his private life, so there was little truthful information to go on for this film. Instead, Stern chose to focus on Jobs’ professional life and business relationships.
Both Gad and Stern were incredibly interesting to talk to. They gave a fantastic interview, full of humor (Gad enjoyed that our interview space looked like the well prison from The Dark Knight Rises) and interesting information about the entire film-making process. Check out the audio of the interview below and don’t forget to see Jobs, opening this Friday (August 16) nationwide.
