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Clip of Ashton Kutcher as Jobs

Rob Beschizza at 10:17 am Thu, Jan 24, 2013

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  • tylerkaraszewski

    Honestly, it looks pretty OK from that clip.

    • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

      It does, doesn’t it? He is overdoing it, but he *has* it.

  • JohnnyLA

    Did Woz really look like that back then? Wow!

    And I just keep getting this “made-for-tv” vibe from the clip. 

    Not bad acting though from Kutcher.

    • Editz

      Google “Wozniak 70s” and see that he had straight long hair back then.  Looked something like Little Britain’s Lou Todd character.

    • http://www.facebook.com/david.guilbeault David Guilbeault

      Not really…he was kind of John Denver like.  The character in this video seems intended to present Woz in an unfavorable way.  It is not clear the place in Apple’s arc this clip represents, although if they are arguing about whether anyone will buy a computer or not, it must be pre Apple I.  To suggest that Woz would not perceive a market at that time, with the example of IMSAI and ALTAIR before them, I find not believable.  Likewise, OS talk when most hobby computers had bootstrap loaders is out of era; you might have 2K bytes of total memory.  Here is a video of Woz at the end of the Apple II cycle:
      http://youtu.be/ul7NkLGtD84

      • franko

        this is my beef with this, too. it makes woz look like a clueless brainiac, when in fact he CLEARLY understood what they were doing… he just didn’t care for all the schmoozy marketing stuff. he wanted to improve it and make it better because he COULD.

        • Antinous / Moderator

          Gimlification.

      • JohnnyLA

        Nice! I haven’t seen this before. I love his mannerisms and gestures when he was really explaining the details. 

    • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

      Yeah and did Woz actually talk the idea down in that way? If he didn’t I would argue the movie is selling him short.

      • Bobsyeruncle

        No he did not. Woz was REALLY enthusiastic about computers. He wanted to give ‘em away. Jobs talked him into charging $666.66. That actor did NOT convey Woz’s personality at all.

  • k0an

    Wow, Ashton made no effort to change his goofy voice.  You can’t even call this acting.  He’s just reciting lines as himself.  This is going to get a Razzie.

    • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

      Really? I got the Jobs in his voice immediately.

      • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

        Not quite nasal enough.

        • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

          Ah it’s definitely not spot on, and it starts stronger than it ends; but you can hear it.

      • Damian Barajas

         For about a second I hear it, but then I see his dead eyes, his damned uncomprehending dead eyes, and suddenly kelso takes his place. Maybe its unfair of me, but he really doesn’t do anything different than what he´s done in anything else I´ve seen him in.

        • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

          I know what you mean; but the same could be said for a lot of actors (there’s a term for it, applies to directors too – totally escapes me) – but I think it stands out more as a negative in a biopic.

  • dmc10

    I’m so used to him playing ‘duuuuuude’ characters, I just have a hard time buying it. I’m not a Jobs fan, but he was obviously smart, Kutcher just can’t sell the young genius thing for me.

    • http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

      But he plays such a character on Two a-   oh.  Right.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Mr. Kutcher was majoring in biochemical engineering before he went into acting. He’s also a fairly prolific producer (of dubious entertainment). I would guess that he’s pretty smart.

      • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

        but he played stupid characters! he can’t be smart! can’t beeee!

      • dmc10

        And…? He choses to play dumb stoner characters, which most people associate him with, so my point still stands.

      • http://vertigo25.tumblr.com/ vertigo25

        Um… so? What you major in doesn’t exactly make you a “young genius.” Plus, according to Ye Olde Wikipedia, he *planned* on majoring in biochemical engineering. He spent most of his time partying and dropped out when he won a modeling contest.

        Anyhoo… even aside from the insipid characters he’s played, I’ve never witnessed anything from him that made me think he was anything more than average in intelligence (and mediocre in talent).

        • Antinous / Moderator

          What you major in doesn’t exactly make you a “young genius.”

          Were you aware that quotation marks are meant to be used for quotations?

          • http://vertigo25.tumblr.com/ vertigo25

            Quite. I was quoting the comment *you* were replying to.

  • k0an

    I think “made for tv” would have been a better decision for this.

  • Kenmrph

    Speaking of made-for-tv, I recently re-watched Pirates of Silicon Valley.  Not too bad for that type of production, I thought, and pretty good casting.  

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEyrivrjAuU

  • http://twitter.com/kazoshay kazoshay

    one annoying shit head playing another one, it’s a match made in heaven….

  • http://www.facebook.com/pabloghg Pablo Herrera Garay

    Sincerely, Noah is a thousand times better in this role

    • BookGuy

       Agreed a thousand times.

    • ironix

      Noah Wyle captured Jobs perfectly. Seeing Kutcher in this clip made me feel ill…

  • http://www.footballandmusic.co.uk Webbie

    “Dude, where’s my OS ?”

  • http://monolithcreative.com thekinginyellow

    I’m waiting for Red to pop up behind Kelso and call Woz a Dumb Ass.

    • oasisob1

      As soon as the movie’s out, someone should mash the two up to make this happen.

  • Claudio Bonifazi

    He is overacting so much that I got annoyed and stopped the video after 30 seconds

  • signsofrain

    I think this could work. I’ll take the BBS Documentary over the story of Apple any day, but I’d still buy an overpriced theatre ticket to this, if only to see how Woz is portrayed. 

  • oasisob1

    I’m not even going to watch the clip. The still is horrifying enough. Unicorn chaser, please.

  • euansmith

    Wow, Ashton Kutcher playing one of histories greatest monsters!

  • EeyoreX

    I, for one, am happy to see they’re finally rebooting Seinfeld. You totally get why they chose to make it a prequel set in the eighties as soon as you see those over the top hairdos on George, and to some lesser extent on Jerry. Looking forward to seeing Matthew Modines take on Kramer.

  • Lauchlin

    I remember when the comments here used to be insightful and entertaining instead of Gawker with extra snark.  

    I was initially skeptical about this casting choice, but I think this clip has sold me on it.

  • D3

    Looks pretty dumbed-down and simplistic to me, as biopics usually are. Doesn’t look like they understand Wozniak very well, based on this scene.

  • penguinchris

    Perhaps they did the whole composite character thing to keep things simple, so we’re seeing Woz combined with someone else, which is why it seems so off to people like us who are familiar with him.

    • http://www.facebook.com/david.guilbeault David Guilbeault

      If this is so it undervalues Wozniak’s contribution to Apple’s and Jobs’ success. The prevailing attitude seems to be that whatever product Jobs attached himself to would have enjoyed a similar success, but Woz’s Apple ][ really was a standout at the time for a number of reasons. Open architecture and colour display, for example. The S100 bus equipment had the open architecture and the hearts of many of the more technical, but was harder to implement. Woz’s creation captured the hobby market and Dan Bricklin’s Visicalc got the business market for Apple. Or so I recall…

  • http://www.facebook.com/will.dunham.79 Will Dunham

    He’s making no effort to deviate from his Kutcher/Kelso upper Midwest accent.  ”You can see what yer werkin’ oan while yer werkin’ oan it!”