14 DAY TRIAL // The JOBS biopic has garnered even more negative reviews after its August 16 debut in cinemas, and while Steve Wozniak had already been disappointed by the trailers, he went and saw it on Friday evening.
One of the three co-founders of Apple Inc. and the brains behind the company’s first computers, Wozniak is probably the best informed reviewer.
Woz may not have been blessed with a tabloid lexicon, which makes his impression of JOBS sound all the more sincere.
“I saw Jobs tonight. I thought the acting throughout was good. I was attentive and entertained but not greatly enough to recommend the movie,” he tells Gizmodo.
Wozniak is not one to bash anything or anyone. He’s careful with people’s feelings, this being one of the reasons why he handed out cash to his colleagues when Jobs wouldn’t.
It’s also the reason why he left Apple in its early days. While he was the total opposite of Jobs at times, that doesn’t mean he didn’t love or know his friend.
So obviously Wozniak is a little bit offended by the movie, but he also doesn’t want to offend Kutcher by saying it directly.
“One friend who is in the movie said he didn't want to watch fiction so he wasn't interested in seeing it,” Wozniak says.
“I suspect a lot of what was wrong with the film came from Ashton's own image of Jobs.”
“Ashton made some disingenuous and wrong statements about me recently (including my supposedly having said that the 'movie' was bad, which was probably Ashton believing pop press headlines) and that I didn't like the movie because I'm paid to consult on another one.”
“These are examples of Ashton still being in character,” Wozniak believes, suggesting that the role of Steve Jobs rubbed off on him. Which it did.
He then sets the record straight regarding the bit about “compromising principles for money.”
“I will add one detail left out of the film,” he notes. “When Apple decided not to reward early friends who helped, I gave them large blocks of my own stock.”
Wozniak also reveals that he had paved the way for another 80 employees to get some stock, “prior to the IPO so they could participate in the wealth,” he says.
The Apple co-founder says he feels bad for many of the people he knows that are portrayed in the film, because the characters are not depicted accurately.
Woz also says the film shows JOBS as an iProducts genius too early in the character’s life. “…this movie portrays him having had those skills in earlier times,” he concludes.