Actor Ashton Kutcher went method in his approach to playing Steve Jobs in the jOBS biopic that debuted at Sundance on Friday. He went so far as to put himself on the fruitarian diet—an all fruit diet that Mr. Jobs employed on and off throughout his life—and ended up having to spend time in the hospital as a consequence.
Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs
Mr. Kutcher took on the role of Steve Jobs in part because the late Apple cofounder was an idol to the actor. In an interview with the AP, Mr. Kutcher said, “I admire this man so much and what he's done. I admire the way he built things. This guy created a tool that we use every day in our life, and he believed in it when nobody else did.”
Mr. Kutcher became wealthy from acting, but he has harnessed part of that wealth through a venture capital firm he formed to invest in technology startups. A-Grade Investments counts Spotify, Airbnb, Foursquare, Fab, Uber, Dwolla and Path among the companies it has a stake in.
In his interview, he said that he continued to work on his technology ventures while making the movie, maintaining his Steve Jobs persona throughout.
“What was nice was when I was preparing for the character, I could still work on product development for technology companies, and I would sort of stay in character, in the mode of the character,” he said. “But I didn't feel like I was compromising the work on the film by working on technology stuff because it was pretty much in the same field.”
He took the method as far as putting himself on the fruitarian diet that Mr. Jobs followed on and off throughout his life. It's a controversial diet that some have speculated may have contributed to the pancreatic cancer that eventually took his life, though there is certainly no proof of that.
It did, however, put Mr. Kutcher in the hospital in the leadup to filming while he was still researching his role.
“I ended up in the hospital two days before we started shooting the movie,” he told the AP. “I was like doubled over in pain, and my pancreas levels were completely out of whack, which was completely terrifying, considering everything.”
Ashton Kutcher will be offering the keynote presentation at Macworld/iWorld on Thursday talking his movie and Steve Jobs. The Mac Observer will be on hand to cover the event.