Four years after the death of Steve Jobs, Michael Fassbender talks about portraying an icon

Actor Michael Fassbender spent nearly half a year learning about and portraying Steve Jobs, in a performance audiences will finally have the opportunity to see more than four years after the Apple cofounder's passing.

Fassbender talked about what it was like to take the role of Jobs in a Q&A session at the 53rd annual New York Film Festival this weekend, where AppleInsider was in attendance. Fassbender admitted he actually didn't know much about the man's personal life before reading Aaron Sorkin's script for "Steve Jobs."

"Obviously I knew who he was, but I'm not very interested in technology — Â I use it pretty poorly," Fassbender said. "So everything was new to me, to be honest."

The actor was involved in the project from last December until this April, when filming wrapped. During that time period, Jobs was obviously on his mind a great deal.

"You know, I kind of lived with him for those months that we were filming," he said.

Jobs died four years ago today, on Oct. 5, 2011. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook recognized the anniversary with an email to Apple's employees, remembering him as a "dear friend."

Even though the movie only deals with a small portion of Jobs's life, Fassbender said some of his research went well past the three product launches the film encompasses, between the 1984 debut of the first Macintosh to the 1998 unveiling of the iMac.

"I was either reading the script or I was listening to YouTube clips of him, whether it be the speech he gave at Stanford, or interviews from when he was in the NeXT Computer phase of his life," he said.

In preparing to play Jobs, Fassbender also met with people who knew him over the years, including Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, former Apple Chief Executive John Sculley, and original Macintosh development team members Joanna Hoffman and Andy Hertzfeld.

He said the one thing that truly stuck with him from those conversations was the genuine love that people had for Jobs — Â even those who didn't get along with him. He also came away impressed by Jobs's ability to motivate those around him, and to achieve the impossible.

"He believed he could change the universe, and he did," Fassbender said of Jobs.

But there was one last secret to Fassbender's portrayal of Jobs that he revealed to the audience at the festival, earning laughter: "I studied Ashton Kutcher," he said sarcastically.