Steve Jobs biopic movie stars close BFI London Film Festival

Actress Kate Winslet and movie director Danny Boyle have brought the curtain down on the 2015 BFI London Film Festival with their new film about technology innovator Steve Jobs.

Michael Fassbender, who stars as the late Apple co-creator, called the closing night gala an “honour” as he graced the red carpet in London’s Leicester Square alongside co-stars Jeff Daniels, Katherine Waterston and Michael Stuhlbarg as well as the film’s screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

Boyle, whose films Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours previously closed the festival, said it is “amazing” to be given the honours again.

He said: “It’s extraordinary. We edited the film nearby, I walked across this square every morning so it’s lovely to be here.

“The London Film Festival is very important. We are a great producer of film but we don’t have anything other than this big film festival so it’s wonderful to support it.”

The film, which is based on Walter Isaacson’s biography about the technology innovator as well as from interviews conducted by Sorkin, spans a period of 14 years between 1984 and 1998, focusing on three major launches – the Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT Cube in 1988 and the iMac in 1998.

Winslet, who won an Oscar for her performance in The Reader, portrays Jobs’s colleague Joanna Hoffman, a member of the original Mac team and the NeXT team.

She said she “loved” the 80s outfits in the first act, which saw her unrecognisable in big glasses and shoulder pads.

She said: “I absolutely loved it. The clothes of the 80s, such an extraordinary period, were just fantastic.”

Winslet, 40, got to meet the real Hoffman in person. “She was amazing. She’s so warm and generous in the stories she shared with me and her friendship with Steve was what captivated me the most,” she recalled.

“She really loved and respected him. Michael and I found a lot of her stories very useful because the physicality between the two of us was affected by the things she shared.”

Earlier, the Reader star turned the air blue when she discussed learning her lines from Sorkin’s dialogue-driven 185-page script at the film’s press conference.

“I started reading and realised people talk for a long time. How the f**k? When I got to page 54, they were still talking,” she said.

“I thought, ‘Holy s**t’. The pressure comes in not forgetting your lines. As an actor you learn your f***ing lines.”

She apologised for her outburst saying: “Sorry, I’m at home and I feel comfy.”

Jobs’s widow Laurene Powell has not given Boyle’s film her approval although Steve Wozniak – who was Jobs’s business partner – consulted on the movie.

Fassbender, best known for his roles in the new X-Men movies and collaborations with Steve McQueen, said he had “hesitations” about playing Jobs because of the family’s thoughts on the big-screen drama.

“It did make me hesitate. I was worried about how their late father, husband and friend will be portrayed and that weighed on my conscience,” he said.

“There was a responsibility for sure. But I have to get on with my job. This wasn’t a biopic, it was a dramatisation so all the clues I needed was in the script.

“I approached it with utmost respect for Jobs and his family and by no means did not set out to betray them. If they do see it, I hope they are not hurt by it because that’s not my intention.”

Steve Jobs opens in UK cinemas on November 13th.

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