Steve Jobs didn't think imitation was the sincerest form of flattery—well, at least the biopic version of Steve Jobs didn't think so.
In the new Jobs 15-second trailer posted to Instagram Wednesday, Ashton Kutcher plays the Apple mastermind at the beginning of his career, completely losing his cool after "a blatant rip-off" of the computer he designed is put before him.
Enraged, he paces back and forth in his office, yelling loudly into a landline phone (iPhones weren't around yet!)—presumably at the copycat on the other end. "I will make it my life's mission to see to it that you never make another dollar that I don't first take 90 cents," he shouts furiously.
Kutcher's onscreen portrayal of the late entrepreneur doesn't exactly portray him in the most flattering light, but the actor has the utmost respect for the man he described as "the Leonardo da Vinci of our generation."
On Tuesday's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Kutcher regretfully said he missed out on an opportunity to meet Jobs "about six months before he passed." When news broke that the creative visionary died on Oct. 5, 2011, Kutcher had a very "emotional reaction."
"I realized that all the relationships I have in my life are held together by glue that he laid down," he said. "I'd taken [Jobs] for granted, and taken for granted the contribution that he gave to society."
"So when I got the [Jobs] script," he said, "I wanted to make sure that his legacy was told from someone who admired him."
Jobs opens nationwide on Aug. 16, 2013.