Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs Gives Los Altos Its Star Turn

They started coming early in the morning, just, you know, taking a morning walk in the neighborhood, down Crist Drive, where the house where Steve Jobs grew up is. Where the first Apple computer was born.

The on-location filming of "jOBS," that stars Ashton Kutcher, began Monday morning in south Los Altos.

And slowly the trickle gathered into a small knot of people, fascinated with the filming of a movie on a quiet Los Altos street. 

And there was that one other thing, of course.

“I’m trying to see Ashton Kutcher,” said Rachel Becker, 14.

She and friends Anne Li, Kayla Ramans and Kirsten Walden stood across the street, looking over at the pale yellow house that only last week had been white with blue trim. It was returned to its original color when Jobs arrived as a 12-year-old, after his parents moved from Mountain View to attend Cupertino Junior High School.

Only Kayla Ramans actually had seen Kutcher, since she lives on Crist Drive and the assistant location manager had been escorting neighbors to the back, where filming was taking place.

"It was good," she said. "He had long hair, dark, and he was wearing a sloppy T-shirt and jeans."

"He was answering the phone and they shot that, like 15 times."

The film starts in 1971, when Jobs was a senior at Homestead High School and the early scenes of the movie will be filmed for three days.

“For us, this is a big deal,” said Jennifer Horine Lopez, who stood on the street with her phone, trying to shoot a picture for her kids, who she said were very excited. “This town I love more than life itself, but it’s Mayberry.”

By 12:30 p.m., with news that there would be some shots in the front of the house, the number of teens and adults alike grew, some on bicycles, the rest on foot (parking was prohibited for many blocks).

A phalanx of classic car owners stood around waiting to place their cars in their roles as vehicular extras. 

“It’s neat experience,” said Neal Ryan, who attended Awalt High School (now named Mountain View High School) and lived in different homes in both Los Altos and Mountain View growing up. “I bought my Fiat from a guy around the corner from here." Ryan read in the Walter Isaacson biography that Steve Jobs almost killed himself in a Fiat 850 Abarth coupe. He wondered if Jobs bought it from the same guy.

Neighbor Shanthi Narayanan and her daughter, Prianka, who live across the street, were escorted to the back to see the filming. They had been contacted two weeks ago by the assistant location manager in preparation for the filming and what it would entail. She has a nodding acquaintance with Marilyn Jobs, Steve Jobs' stepmother, who lives in the home. She's used to the tourists who come from around the world to take a picture of the house. So this location shoot is just part of the same fascination.

"If you love watching films you should be willing to put up with something," she said. "This is a historic thing."