Apple co-founder slams scene from new biopic about Steven Jobs as ‘totally wrong’

Apple co-founder and tech guru Steve Wozniak does not seem impressed with the new biopic about Steve Job’s life. On the eve of the film’s premiere at Sundance Film Festival, Wozniak said that the creators behind iJobs got a pivotal scene ‘totally wrong.’

In the clip released Thursday, Jobs, portrayed by Ashton Kutcher, tries to convince Wozniak, played by John Gad, that consumers would be interested in buying personal computers if only they were available.

The skeptical Wozniak, sporting long curly hair and beard, appears doubtful. ‘Nobody wants to buy a computer…nobody,’ he tells Jobs.

However, Wozniak claims that in real life, the roles in the argument were actually reversed, CBS News reported.

‘Totally wrong. Personalities and where the ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs,’ Wozniak said in an email to Gizmodo. ‘We never had such interaction and roles…personalities are very wrong although mine is closer.

‘I never looked like a professional. We were both kids. Our relationship was so different from what was portrayed. I’m embarrassed, but if the movie is fun and entertaining, all the better,’ he said.

According to the 63-year-old Apple co-founder, the idea of designing a PC came from his time in Homebrew Computer Club for electronics hobbyists in Silicon Valley, long before Jobs came aboard.
Wozniak went on to say that the fact that the scene between Kutcher and Gad never happened in reality is not what’s really bothering him.

‘It’s ok to make up a dramatic scene, but is much better if it sort of happened and had the meaning portrayed,’ he wrote.

Gad told Reuters that the filmmakers had tried to reach out to him to get his input on jOBS, but that Wozniak was ‘participating in another project about Steve Jobs.’

Wozniak is tied to a movie based on Walter Isaacson’s official biography Steve Jobs, being developed by screen writer Aaron Sorkin of The Social Network fame.

No release date or casting has been announced. Kutcher, 34, said he hoped Wozniak would look more kindly on the movie when he had seen the whole two hours.

Much of the action takes place in the early 1980s, and Jobs’ ideologies for the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers, which ended up performing poorly for the company and led to Jobs being fired.

Kutcher’s Jobs is seen as the rock star of the tech world, admired but misunderstood in his early days as he constantly tried to think outside of the box and bring a notion of “cool” to his brand.

The audience on Friday warmly applauded the film following the screening. It will be released nationwide on April 19, marking the 37th anniversary of the founding of Apple Computers.