Kutcher: Playing Jobs Was 'A Thin Wire to Walk On'

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Stars hit the red carpet Tuesday for the Hollywood premiere of the highly-anticipated Jobs, the Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs biopic.

In the film, Kutcher portrays the mega-mogul from his early days developing Apple computers as a small start-up out of a friend's house, through the tumultuous days when he was fired from his own company, and finally when he was hired back, and brought Apple into the cultural zeitgeist by re-establishing the company's role in the technological revolution.

PICS: Stars On Set

But playing the tech icon was more than just a job for Kutcher. According to the actor, Steve Jobs was one of his heroes, and Kutcher went to great lengths to get the character just right. His efforts even landed him in the hospital when Kutcher tried to live on Jobs' 'fruitarian' diet plan.

"I think the toughest thing was understanding the brilliance of someone like Steve Jobs, and trying to emulate that," said Kutcher, when asked what he thought was the hardest part about playing the luminary.

"Steve Jobs is an icon, in and of himself," Kutcher added. "I think a lot of people know who I am, and have an impression of me. I think that those two things are very far apart. So the pressure that I put on myself to actually make the people that knew Steve and cared about Steve and admired Steve, to make those people proud, and also give an honest portray of who he was… I think it was a thin wire to walk on."

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Although, like Kutcher, everyone in Jobs had the unenviable task of portraying someone who really existed, and in some cases were still alive. Josh Gad, for example, plays Steve Wozniak, the co-creator of Apple computers. Gad said that there was enormous pressure playing an icon like Wozniak.

"You're not only trying to do justice to someone who is living and breathing and has their own opinion about how you're portraying them, you're trying to do justice to a person… who is very much a pop cultural phenomenon, somebody who means so much to so many people," said Gad. "You want to honor that legacy as best as you can."

Check out the video for more from the stars about Jobs and the challenges of playing real people.

Jobs opens in theaters August 16.