JoshuaG
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2011–2025
3:11 · 908K views · Feb 10, 2006
A short clip from Macworld 1999 in which actor Noah Wyle, who played Steve Jobs in Pirates of Silicon Valley, appears on stage as Jobs at the start of the keynote. Jobs then joins in.
HN cites it as a funny piece of Apple history and as evidence of Jobs's showmanship and good humor about his portrayal.
4 comments from Hacker News
I don't think mellosouls means that those portrayals left Jobs aside. I think they mean we should put the 2013 movie, Jobs , aside (hence their italics). (Wise, though I personally think Kutcher did a good job with what he was given.) Jobs very famously liked (or at least whimsically came to terms with) Noah Wyle's amazing portrayal of him in Pirates Of Silicon Valley, getting Wyle to repeat his performance on stage at a a Macworld keynote. this video At the time, people thought that was Jobs doing damage control because Pirates made him look like an asshole. At this point looking back, it seems more like part of his self-reflective pivot to what came next. Either way I am not sure it needs more treatment and more demonisation, but they were all pretty lucky with the care that went into their portrayals in Pirates Of Silicon Valley.
While it's certainly not one of the finest movies ever made, it is the finest movie ever made about Apple, and a must-see for anyone in tech. Noah Wyle was perfectly cast as Steve Jobs. In fact, Wyle participated in an amusing Apple prank at MacWorld 1999: this video
Not to sound like a fanboy (thought that might be a lost cause), this reminds me of how good a showman Steve Jobs is - as seen in the 1999 Macworld Expo with Noah Wyle (in very similar circumstances - Wyle had played Jobs in 'Pirates of Silicon Valley'). this video
Jobs must have liked it somewhat though, otherwise he wouldn't have had Noah Wyle reprise the role in an Apple keynote: this video