Actor Ashton Kutcher is interviewed as he attends a special screening of “JOBS” hosted by The Wall Street Journal at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013, in New York. AP
NEW YORK — After embodying Steve Jobs in his new movie, Ashton Kutcher came to admire how the Apple Computer founder was able to balance his public and personal lives.
“He was better at it than I am,” the 35-year old actor said.
“This business has a propensity to force you to be more public than you probably want to be,” Kutcher acknowledged of show business.
He should know. The actor has seen his share of tabloid headlines after his very public breakup with actress Demi Moore, and his current relationship with his former “That 70s Show” co-star Mila Kunis has also been widely publicized.
But Kutcher says he’s getting better at it.
“I think I’ve learned how to restrict that public image and over the years I’m starting to understand the value of privacy,” he said.
In the film, he plays the techno prophet, who along with Steve “Woz” Wozniak ignited the personal computer revolution.
Jobs died two years ago after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56.
Kutcher said that researching the role he found there was a “Steve that Steve didn’t always want to show.”
He also cited that the most important aspect of playing such a public figure was to understand that the version of Jobs we know best came much later.
“The guy with the glasses and the jeans and black turtleneck and the New Balance shoes giving a keynote speech to present some new, great, next, amazing product … He wasn’t always that guy. He actually evolved into that person in the same way that I’m not the same today at 35 as I was at 25, and I was at 15,” Kutcher said.
Kutcher made the comments at the New York premiere of his new film, “Jobs.” The film opens on Aug. 16.