Jim Balsillie sets the record straight on ‘BlackBerry’ movie

TORONTO –

Jim Balsillie is having his Hollywood second.

It was virtually inevitable the Waterloo, Ont., businessman would sooner or later be portrayed in movie for his position within the world success of the BlackBerry smartphone.

And but Balsillie by no means predicted how unusual it could be to see it occur, particularly since his cinematic model is sort of unrecognizable to him.

The new Canadian darkish comedy “BlackBerry” takes no prisoners within the government suite, nevertheless it’s particularly ruthless to Balsillie. He’s performed by “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Glenn Howerton as an agitated dwell wire liable to violent outbursts and foul-mouthed tirades as he plows down the highway to success.

“When I first saw it, I was confused for about five minutes,” Balsillie acknowledged throughout an interview in a Toronto board room.

“And then I thought, ‘OK, we’re being roasted here. This is a satire.”‘

Being portrayed as a tyrant does not hassle him a lot. He sees it as truthful sport.

“They’re taking an element of truth, who I am, and they’re playing with it,” he mentioned.

“I’m aggressive. I’m competitive. I’m ambitious. I own that.”

What’s nonetheless unclear is whether or not moviegoers can be as rapidly attuned to the joke.

When “BlackBerry” arrives in cinemas on May 12, viewers who’re vaguely acquainted with the corporate’s origin story would possibly discover it tough to sift out the reality. They additionally would possibly surprise if there’s greater than a sliver of realness in Howerton’s over-the-top portrayal of Balsillie.

The realness buried within the “BlackBerry” film has fascinated a section of the previous staff at Research In Motion, the corporate that later renamed itself after the smartphone it created.

One-time worker Matthias Wandel, who operates a well-liked YouTube channel, devoted an 18-minute video to dissecting the movie’s trailer, breaking down what’s actual and what is not. His clip has been seen greater than 45,000 occasions in little over two weeks.

Historical accuracy hasn’t involved “BlackBerry” director Matt Johnson or the movie’s different creators, who got down to inform their very own wildly unhinged story. But with a movie constructed on a basis of reality — and set in some model of Waterloo nonetheless recent in individuals’s reminiscences — it is comprehensible there’s room for confusion.

Already, Balsillie has been inundated with interview requests looking for his response to the film. And so, over the previous few weeks, the 62-year-old has navigated showbiz with out a map, staying quiet and cautious to not trample on the artistic freedom of the creators.

He will attend the Toronto premiere on the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday and plans to stroll the purple carpet in a present of assist. But he is leaving the Q&A portion of the post-screening to the moviemakers, skirting any risk that he may fall right into a reality vs. fiction debate in a public area.

Balsillie, who lately based the non-profit Centre for Digital Rights, sees “BlackBerry” as a chance to have some enjoyable, even whereas he is being poked enjoyable at. His mates do not appear to thoughts an opportunity to prod him both.

Earlier within the day, two business buddies within the know-how sector gifted him a purple and orange cap with “superstar” written throughout it. They jokingly requested him for his autograph, he mentioned, one thing he is extra accustomed to placing on a authorized doc.

Other key BlackBerry gamers portrayed within the film have not been so eager to play alongside. RIM co-founder Doug Fregin and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis do not plan to attend the premiere and have not sat for a non-public screening, in accordance with Elevation Pictures.

Still, regardless of Balsillie’s prepared participation, he would not thoughts setting just a few issues straight about his time at RIM, the place he served as co-CEO.

In explicit, he takes concern with how big-screen Balsillie turns into embroiled in inventory fraud. That by no means occurred, he identified.

It’s seemingly a reference to a real-life scandal the place he and different prime executives had been fined for inventory choice backdating, a apply meant to complement staff holding inventory choices.

In 2009, the RIM leaders reached settlements with regulators, together with the Ontario Securities Commission who referred to as the executives negligent in overseeing the choices backdating, however mentioned they didn’t commit fraud. They paid tens of millions of {dollars} in fines.

“If you think growing a $20-billion company is designing illegal tax scams and raging f-bombs there’s nothing I can do to help you,” Balsillie mentioned.

“BlackBerry” additionally reveals Balsillie as he races round making an attempt to purchase a hockey staff. It occurs on the similar time his firm is struggling a serious community outage.

The scenes are recreations of Balsillie’s failed bid to carry a National Hockey League staff to Hamilton, although the movie’s drama implies that Balsillie was distracted by his personal priorities, contributing to the corporate’s downfall. Critics mentioned as a lot on the time.

More than a decade later, Balsillie does not imagine his NHL bid was ever a distraction. He mentioned he attended two conferences in three years, hardly a hindrance when in comparison with different private aspect tasks.

“For 10 years I did long-course triathlons,” he added.

“I trained two hours a day and spent 100 times more time on that than I did hockey. But nobody ever wrote an article on that … When you are prosperous you have lots of different initiatives, everybody does.”

Among his different quibbles, he needs the filmmakers took extra care in recreating his workplace. There was by no means a wall of tribal masks, as within the film, however he did grasp a winged picket frog from the ceiling.

As he tells it, for 20 years Balsillie would level to the outsized frog when anyone got here to him with an excuse for why a deadline could not be met. The previous adage goes, if a frog had wings he would not bump his butt when he hops. And that is what Balsillie would inform them, declaring which you could’t remedy issues with instruments you do not have.

Balsillie treasures that picket frog, pulling it out of a material bag and reassembling its wing span as he shares the reminiscence. But the filmmakers by no means approached him concerning the prop.

“They could’ve roasted me coast-to-coast on the darn frog,” he mentioned.

It’s a small element, however significant to Balsillie, who describes himself as “maniacal for facts.” He’s much less assured about how he critiques films.

With the fictional BlackBerry story, he hopes audiences can put aside their historic information and expertise the experience. A extra correct historic retelling may all the time take form later.

Two documentary producers — one Canadian and one other from the United Kingdom — already appear to be on that monitor. They lately contacted Balsillie in hopes of convincing him to share his reminiscences. He mentioned he is nonetheless weighing his choices.

If “BlackBerry” stokes extra curiosity within the origins of the tech firm, it is seemingly others could poke their heads into the previous. For now, Balsillie is ok letting this outlandish model have its time.

“They’re having a lark with us,” he mentioned. “Lighten up, everybody. It’s a movie.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed April 20, 2023.