So, do either of those dashing 1990s heartthrobs look anything like Steve Jobs to you? It may interest you to know that while Noah Wyle (Dr. Carter) has actually played the late Apple CEO before — in 1999’s TNT movie Pirates of Silicon Valley — it’s George Clooney (Dr. Ross) whose name has been mentioned since Sony purchased the rights to Jobs’ biography. Isn’t George Clooney just the guy that every dude wishes would play him in the movie about his life? But okay, we’ll stay open-minded. Leonardo DiCaprio is playing J. Edgar Hoover, after all.
If there is any truly interesting news coming out of the Jobs biopic it’s that Aaron Sorkin might be writing the screenplay, what with his experience writing dramatized versions of real-life technology revolutionaries; he won an Oscar for his screenplay for The Social Network (also a Sony release). And would Sorkin’s snappy dialogue be well-suited for either Clooney or Wyle? Short answer: of course, it would make anyone look more awesome than they might actually be. But how does one choose between one man who looks vaguely like the guy in question and one man who looks nothing like the guy in question?
True, Wyle has played Jobs before, and even seems to be “Jobs-approved” — even though Apple couldn’t even bother to spell his name right at 1999’s Macworld Expo:
Allowing Wyle to reprise his role for the big screen would also be very good news for the actor, whose career has probably not taken the turn he thought it would after all those millions of years on NBC‘s ER. While Wyle has done a lot of made-for-TV movies — like The Librarian — and is currently starring in the series Falling Skies, his career has been mostly fun stuff, culty stuff.
Clooney, on the other hand, has been doing amazing stuff. Oscar stuff. He’s taken on Edward R. Murrow, the Middle East, even the economic downturn (in Up In the Air). He does big things, he does small things, he wins Oscars, Golden Globes, and Emmys. But can he pull off Steve Jobs?
Both Wyle and Clooney are good actors, but they’re very different actors. The only thing that gives Clooney an edge over Wyle — for me — is his clout. People might feel weird watching Clooney as Jobs, and they might feel a different kind of weird watching Wyle play Jobs. Although, it wouldn’t be the first time an actor reprised his role as a public figure for a completely different project; Michael Sheen played former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in no less than three movies: The Deal (2003), The Queen (2006), and The Special Relationship (2010). And the first and last of those movies were made for TV.
Let’s also not forget that there’s also an element of racebending either way, because Jobs’ birth father was Syrian, and both of these current contenders are pretty much totally white.
While Clooney is an indubitably talented and popular guy, I’m going to go for Wyle in this one. I think that might be awesome, especially because really, all we’re going to be doing is scrutinizing Clooney’s wig. And come on, guys — Noah Wyle needs this.
(via TUAW, The Next Web)
