Ashton Kutcher Once Shared He Regretted Meeting Steve Jobs Before His Death
Ashton Kutcher had the opportunity to play Steve Jobs in a film based on the tech mogul’s life. Before his casting, however, Kutcher almost met Jobs himself when he was alive.
But Kutcher couldn’t spend quality time with Jobs in the end, which he soon regretted.
Ashton Kutcher was terrified of playing Steve Jobs
Kutcher was immediately drawn to the film Jobs as soon as he read the script. This was fortunate for the film’s producer, Mark Hulme, who couldn’t imagine anyone else more ideal for the film than Kutcher.
“Since our film covers the early years of Apple, when Jobs was in his 20’s, we needed an actor who could carry not only the youthfulness of Jobs at the time but also the psychological complexity. Because of that, and Ashton’s physical similarities to Jobs, he’s perfect for our film,” Hulme once said in an interview with Neowin.
For Kutcher, however, playing Steve Jobs was more than just a movie role. The former Punk’d host was a personal fan of Jobs, and knew others personally who worked close with the visionary. This gave Kutcher extra incentive do to the biopic justice.
“I almost felt compelled to defensively play the role,” Kutcher said in a 2013 interview with The Verge. “I want to make sure it’s protected. Even if I screw it up and totally bomb it, I love that guy. I love that guy. I’d rather have someone that cared about him screw it up than someone who didn’t.”
Still, with so much tremendous pressure on him, Kutcher was admittedly nervous about the project.
“It terrified me, and most of the great things I’ve been able to accomplish in my life were things that terrified me,” he said.
Ashton Kutcher had a chance to meet Steve Jobs before he died
Before Jobs’ passing, Kutcher was offered a meeting with the businessman he’d soon be portraying. But circumstances wouldn’t allow their meeting to take place.
“I had an opportunity to meet him about six months before he passed away and I was working that day and couldn’t go,” Kutcher once said on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (via Contact Music). “In hindsight, I look back and think, ‘I had an opportunity to meet the Leonardo da Vinci of our generation.’ And I missed it.”
Kutcher confided the lost opportunity was partially the reason why he starred in Jobs.
“That really affected my decision to take on the role. The day that he died, for me it was almost like, I hear people talking about they knew where they were the day Kennedy died. For me, I’ll never forget the moment I heard he died,” he added.
Ashton Kutcher worked harder on ‘Jobs’ than anything else he’s ever worked on
Given so much was riding on Kutcher’s performance, the actor went through a lengthy preparation process for the role. This included studying audio recordings of Jobs himself to learn how to emulate his speech patterns.
“I dedicated myself in a way I hadn’t dedicated myself to a role before. I spent three months preparing, watched hundreds of hours of footage and had a 20-hour audio file that I listened to in my car or when I went to sleep to capture the way he talked; his cadence and intonations,” Kutcher said in a 2013 interview with France 24. “I also worked with an acting coach, and met with people that he knew to get as much information as I could.”
With there being actual footage of Jobs, Kutcher felt it would be easier for audiences to measure Kutcher’s performances with Jobs’ behavior. Which made Kutcher even more careful about doing the role right.
“So I definitely worked harder on it than I’ve worked on anything else,” Kutcher said.
