Steve Wozniak: 'A Lot of Things Wrong' With Jobs Movie

it's not often you get to see yourself portrayed in a movie so what does Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak think of the jobs film he is with me now here in the studio thank you so much for stopping by you saw the midnight showing last night I'm sure you were really interested to see what was going to be on screen what did you think well I figured whatever it was I probably disappointed I have high high hopes and I didn't want to talk to press so I went to midnight showing so I could be alone and and what I thought well you know what I had one of the most entertaining nights of my life last night because I saw a branding Carlisle concert before the movie oh okay well what about the movie the movie was mild in my mind it was I thought the acting was great for the roles they were assigned I don't think the movie covered the subjects when you cover when you make a movie about something that's real in life you can never get it like really the personalities right because you don't know how to read about a lot of the the smaller personalities you cannot get it right but the concept of each scene what it implies should be right and there were a lot of things wrong that I knew for myself with Steve Jobs and other people's relationship with Steve Jobs in those days it was not like that when Astrid referred to opens have been a great attribution to Apple that was correct and openstep was when Steve Jobs came back mature enough to execute and know what was good and what was valuable and could sell and make the company something they did not bring Apple to a higher valuation than they'd ever got to with the Apple to the only product we had making money for the first 10 years the entire time frame of the movie was only was really the Apple 2 you know and and so the Steve Jobs the movie covers a whole period that doesn't fit what Aston's talking about the iPod was Steve Jobs as Apple 2 that was a great great product and it was due to that that incredible focus and care about the consumer and getting the right product and that was great and that was equal to the Apple 2 in value in dollars as well as you know its meaning to the world of course we had to go open and open it up to Windows we didn't say you have to have a Macintosh to use iTunes for example so what do you think was the biggest mistake in the movie what was the most misleading thing about it I think it was really Ashton has too much of this this fan thing like a cult leader and oh my gosh Steve Jobs has always been the great top people and could not see that he was he had a lot of flaws in knowing how to run things and execute and make products that were worthwhile during his fine men so you're saying the movie over glorified sure yeah he didn't talk about a lot of things when Steve was was it made it look like he's forced out of the company for no good reason and it doesn't get into what the reasons really were they didn't talk to any any of the people on it you know what was really going on in the company that was bad at the time and you know you have to realize that Steve kept trying to make his own computer my Apple 2 took two by the way he didn't take me to a homebrew Computer Club you know I had been there there were people in the club that had my computer that I've helped them build that were using it I've given it out for free to everyone before Steve even knew it existed so this was these kind of things are all phony like he's the one directing all of the wisdom and intelligence and it was really coming from other people he was a good filter for it is better in these fine frames he failed with the Apple three he failed with ELISA he failed with the Macintosh people don't know from that movie how deeply the Macintosh failed how deeply our stock slid down have we had to regroup quickly and read and build a Macintosh market over three years while we had huge revenues from the Apple 2 and how Steve was trying to kill the Apple 2 in a lot of ways and do very unfair unrealistic things to it that's not known there are obviously so many twists and turns to the Apple story that I think would be impossible to get in a two hour movie let's talk about Aston's portrayal of Steve did he get that right I actually liked his portrayal of it and I felt it was a good choice to pick somebody who was into technology you know it's just he didn't understand he wasn't there living those times or I think it would have been a lot of things would have been portrayed very differently and I don't know it was the producer I think Astron was probably in a producer role as well in coming out with how Steve should treat other people what did he do right like like that was very hot there were very good intelligent people that were that were did not deserve the demeaning character that he put on a Mike Markkula who funded us he was Steve's mentor he was the one that taught Steve how to run and build a company it wasn't vice-versa you know wasn't like Steve's working the deals on this guy who's been around the block for you know a lot of times Jen over glorifying Steve Jobs or has the world over in the toilet in the time frame that people are interested in the early days of the company yes he's over glorifying him and not getting to the truth and it's based upon the great Steve Jobs that came back mature capable of executing that means actually accomplishing visions Steve had great vision of things like the Macintosh by the way in the movie they showed Steve like so important and jef raskin running our Macintosh group has been kind of nothing Jef raskins the one who took us to Xerox PARC Center he's the one that had been you know taught classical music in universities as well as was a technician he brought human versus technology human over technology in the Apple and into the world and he was treated like so Shapley in the movie no I didn't like seeing a lot of people I know not get the respect they deserve in their relationship of really giving Steve Jobs the goods what about Josh God's portrayal of you it's not on when you get to see your house playing in the way I think the way the routine the role was written there were a lot of things in there never happened me leaving Steve Jobs you know and saying something but but I think he played it very well yeah I think he acted well I was glad they chose a good actor as a matter of fact most of the actors in there I thought did a very good acting job and that means a lot to me when I see a movie it just something about it wasn't a story of one strong conflict and suspense you're waiting for the end that really got to me that made me you know want to recommend it more than mild entertainment ok and I did laugh at places on boy I'd boy did I laugh when they made a joke about I was carrying my own weight because I was skidding back in those days but I laughed because I liked good jokes it's good humor I even laughed when I told some polish jokes well good I'm glad there are some light-hearted moments in the movie Steve you have been talking nonstop through the break about this you are so fired up about it you think that the movie got a lot of things wrong and yet Ashton Kutcher has said you didn't consult on this movie why not you were offering they offered to have you come in it would salt with them and tell them more about what really happened but you decided not to why not sure I got an early script I read it my wife read it and we were kind of abhorred by it and if somebody else has started a creative process of designing something writing a script you don't come in and oh push them out and I'd be this way there's no way you can correctly a hard job secondly I just did not like certain things in that script at all some because they were so wrong from the truth why not nothing they're wrong why not tell them I have a very busy life and it came at a very busy time in my life when I traveled the world giving speeches hardly ever home so I also had a busy time but there they want to pay money and so did the Sorkin film right so you're consulting on Aaron Sorkin's film which has not has not bought idols it's in probably I'm consulting and you know what there's as far as I know there's no script written in other words they will take the input the input from the firsthand sources and create a script from it rather than first hand towards coming in can you modify our script a little here and there that wouldn't work that was I don't know is that magic you know you know what you know what some I saw a trailer about the Astra Kutcher film and it was so wrong and backwards of Steve directing something towards me when it was really the opposite in real life and you know what my comment about that and he headline said that I said the movie was crappy I never said that once because I don't say it till I see it and and so Ashton Kutcher said that I was saying the movie was lousy because I was being paid by the other one you know what I don't do things my principles aren't affected by money in the movie you'll see that there were a whole bunch of people who helped us start this company hung around the garage and all those people got Steve drawed in the movie Steve Jobs it was really not Steve Jobs himself said they don't get any stock and we have to talk get all of it so you know what I did I took my stock and I gave them huge blocks I'm right you gave people your own stock we knew that story really well what words you have for Ashton Kutcher what would you like to say to him you know what I'm really easy to get a hold of he could Atkins he could have called me and consulted over the phone anytime I got from Daniel Kottke who's a star in the film and a consultant I got the email address of his management company to email him to tell him I had not said that the movie was lousy because I hadn't seen it you know and I never got an email back so so what was Steve Jobs really like how visionary was Steve Jobs he was he always took the role of you have to somehow think higher level thoughts and put this eret mystique on which is vision and it's got to be integer vision accurate he was not that good at executing in other words coming up with a vision that was makeable into today a product that people wanted enough that a company could be to make a profit on it he wasn't until he returned then he was more stable and exercised and into the operations of a company and with he understood well he was a visionary before no he was a visionary with with the Macintosh machine this was the future you know what there were a whole bunch of us that were the visionaries jef raskin who took us there and fill a Kansan and we all saw it and said oh my once you have this you'll never go back how can we make it in a price it can sell the Lisa costs twenty thousand of today's dollars ten thousand dollars then it's shown in the movie that's too much for a personal computer if you wait a few years the prices come down and now it's affordable and we kind of gave Microsoft the idea to do it once it was affordable Eve do you think Steve Jobs gets too much too much credit oh no I never try to think that no well sometimes in some areas he gets credit for what other people deserve but you know what no he actually um he actually seems to be um I don't know maybe he was trying to orchestrate being everything seems to come from him when it came from large groups of people he acknowledges everyone really he was always very friendly and nice to me so I'd say no I think he's the greatest technology leader of our of our lives I think he did a lot to improve my life and your life and deserves that credit yet you say Ashton Kutcher got a lot of things wrong that's for the early stage that's when Steve Jobs came back to Apple from that point on yes he knew how to execute how to run a company and how to make products that people wanted and that we're good and it was still some time before he had that big success with the the iPod and it was going open so I know so I I really admire Steve Jobs I just don't think the movie is is accurate the way it portrays his relationship with others in the break I asked you if you read Walter Isaacson's book and you said you hadn't you don't read Apple books why not I read them in early days and they always had the early start of Apple so wrong so missing the important facts I mean if you want to see how to be a young technologist and come up with ideas to build products that will change the world read my book I was that's one of them it may not apply to this day and era but it'll give you a lot better idea I think the real secret is having good technologists who are very skilled and can create new great things and up on all the latest parts and abilities to use them and think out ways that have never been done before like me and have somebody like Steve Jobs who wants to have a business and wants to drive a business and make the phone calls and do the paperwork and get other people interested and bring them on board and speak to the public so that was a really good combination so you are consulting Ron Terrence are Apple to is half Steve Jobs I mean he was in heavily involved in driving it to the public and giving it a reason for being and marketing and a lot of that stuff right I want to talk about Aaron Sorkin's movie because you are involved at that movie so far how is that going what can you tell us about the project and what sort of input you've given them and what have they asked you yeah I can't remember but I I talked openly when they ask questions I give them filling as far as they want to go and I'll meet as many times as they want and I'm just at their service I do not know if I'll see the script before the movie I will not comment on the movie until I see the movie I just I don't know if it's gonna if I'm going to feel I go to a movie and you know even if I hate the story and it's untrue I could still be very entertained I wasn't entertained by the Kutcher s Jobs movie but I could have been very entertained if it's interesting I'm following I want to see where it goes and what I love pirates of Silicon Valley that way I don't know really you know yeah it was a shitty movie should the rest of us see the movie should the rest of you see the movie I can't answer I don't give people direction in life I'm not one of the people who says I know what you should do and you should do it my way or something like that I'm close to the movie so it was good for me to see it I felt good seeing people I knew they weren't portrayed like they really are but I know the real people and you've talked to other Apple employees what have they said so far um well some of them one said one said he wasn't going to watch the movie because he didn't want to see a fiction he knew from questions that they've been asking him about things that were going to be in the movie that never happened and there were so many of those so we've been talking a lot recently about innovation at Apple today and there are critics out there who are saying innovation at Apple is in trouble do you agree with that I don't agree with that because you have to give things a long time to really really be seen you'd have to say innovations not alive with Apple compared to other companies now first of all the hot products that Steve Jobs really got behind inspired focused on and produced like the iPod and the iPhone the iPad those kinds of breakthroughs don't happen every year so I give Apple some time to come up with something so new and major that's out there it's hard to think you know of what new what categories are left how much time do we give them how much time do we give them mm-hmm you know I'm glad I'm not a businessman I'm a technologist you know it's very I but I appreciate the very the difficulty that businesspeople have in bringing products to the market that it takes a lot of time and and just to build a market and you know there's two categories one is a the the prolongation of the iPhone where does it go from here what are the new steps how could an iPhone look different act different be different have different user interfaces are there different input and output methodologies that will come along those are usually the changes that we call revolutionary that apples are you know big head-on and they usually do it by keeping things secret I don't know what Apple is doing because it is secret right and that's good for Apple so let's one last question let's talk about a guy who is a businessman and a technologist Larry Ellison recently said that we saw Apple with Steve Jobs go up and then go down without Steve Jobs then we saw it go up when he came back and now he says it's going back down does it keep going down is it going down um I don't think of it that way I think that Apple throughout all time even long before Apple's real horrible times when everybody said they might go broke and the press got against us the stock would go would go in half in a few you know a few weeks are not just about the stock I'm talking about the decline of innovation yes and people will always blame it on lack of innovation when things are are are down turning in terms of the company valuation and gotta look out and do things and it's it's it's still there's time to tell this I wouldn't I wouldn't judge Apple as being out of the innovation sphere yet I see a lot of things going on in the world and I always want Apple to be the leader but sometimes Apple has the bigger surprise than anyone all right well time will tell Steve Wozniak Apple co-founder so great to hear straight from you what what you thought of the movie what you think of Apple today always great to have you here on Bloomberg West thanks for stopping by it was nice to talk to you

Channel: Bloomberg Originals

Views: 876,582

Keywords: Bloomberg, Steve Jobs (Computer Designer), Steve Wozniak (Author), Film (Invention), Jobs (Film), Ashton Kutcher (SNL Actor), hollywood, enterainment, tim cook, john sculley, tech, apple, stocks

Id: v6ciNXc_4OQ

Length: 15min 42sec (942 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2013