Jony Ive blasts Steve Jobs films stating he ‘does not recognise’ character portrayals
Apple’s design chief Jony Ive has torn into a spate of films purporting to lift the lid on the real Steve Jobs, accusing the filmmakers of failing to take account of the context and pressures of the time in their depictions of Apple’s late co-founder.
Ive’s hackles have been raised by Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs and Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs: the Man in the Machine which have depicted the Apple icon as a cutthroat businessman who could be ruthless to his own employees.
In Jobs defence Ive states that while he may have exhibited some of these characteristics that didn’t take account of the bigger picture of his single-minded vision. Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco Ive said: "It doesn’t mean that you're an asshole. It doesn’t mean that your hobby is arguing.”
Whilst admitting he hadn’t actually watched the movies in question Ive added: “There are sons and daughters and widows and very close friends that are completely bemused and completely upset.
“We’re remembering and celebrating Steve Jobs' life and at the same time there is this perfectly timed movie and I don’t recognize this person." Ive went onto warn that Jobs was having his "…identify described, defined by a whole bunch of other people and I think that’s a bit of a struggle personally."
Ive’s attack follows criticism from Apple’s present CEO Tim Cook who called the films ‘opportunistic’.