Ashton Kutcher as the Apple founder.
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Ashton Kutcher’s preparation for his film jOBS, in which he plays Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, was extensive and … painful?
At the Sundance Film Festival, Kutcher told The Associated Press that he adopted Job’s fruitarian diet for the role. “I ended up in the hospital two days before we started shooting the movie,” the 34 year-old actor said, added that his “pancreas levels were completely out of whack.”
He added: “It was really terrifying … considering everything,” referring to the fact that Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in 2011. That being said, there is no evidence that a fruit diet leads to pancreatic cancer, and the American Cancer Society states that diet high in fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of the disease.
VIDEO: First Clip of Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs Features a Nerdy Freakout
Along with the change in diet, Kutcher also watched “hundreds of hours of footage” and speeches from the tech genius. The That 70s Show alum often cites Jobs as a personal hero, sharing his passion for digital technologies. Kutcher has made prominent investments in Skype and Foursquare and is becoming a respected investor in Silicon Valley.
Kutcher said that playing the tech genius “was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever tried to do in my life.”
jOBS, the closing-night film at Sundance, follows Jobs’ early life and career, documenting his meteoric rise from college dropout to tech god. The film focuses on his development of the Macintosh personal computer and, later, the iPod.
The movie, which also stars Josh Gad (1600 Penn, The Book of Mormon) as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, opens in theaters April 19 via Open Road.
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