Alex Gibney, director of the 3-hour-and-45-minute Elon Musk-centered documentary “Musk,” discussed the lengths he went to to interview the tech billionaire for the film and why he believes Universal Pictures hesitated to plan an international release in a new interview with The New York Times.
Although Musk does not appear in the film (though Gibney did create an avatar of him to simulate interviews in the doc), the director said it wasn’t for lack of trying, explaining that he and producer Jessie Deeter “reached out.” “Deeter knew him from two previous films. She had his cellphone number. She had an email address,” said Gibney. “She wrote sometimes folksy, sometimes detailed notes about how much we wanted his perspective. His response was writing ‘Gibney is a douche’ on Twitter.”
Ahead of the film’s release, Musk called it a “hit piece” and said “dogshit is worth more respect.” He added that Gibney “has ZERO integrity” and is a “horrible human.”
Gibney also noted that he “approached a lot of friends of his and business colleagues, and a lot of them said, ‘I can’t talk to you because Elon won’t give you permission.’” He cited Ashley St. Clair, Musk’s former girlfriend and the mother of his 14th child, and Justine Musk, his first wife, as major gets for the documentary.
And while it was reported last month that “Musk” would indeed get an international release despite legal threats from the SpaceX founder, Gibney confirmed with a “Yes” that the studio wavered on those release plans when the interviewer asked if that was the case. When questioned about what happened, Gibney responded: “Were they concerned that in this political environment, a film about the world’s richest man was problematic? Maybe, but you have to ask them.”
The paper noted that Universal declined to comment beyond what the company said in a previous statement: “We’ve always been committed to releasing this film, and our plans haven’t changed.”
“Musk” seeks to make sense of the world’s richest man and the outsized influence he has on the world, diving deep into his shift to MAGA supporter, controversies surrounding his Occupy Mars mission and Tesla’s self-driving cars and his contentious relationships with several of the mothers of his 14 children.
The documentary opened in theaters on Friday from Bleecker Street and generated $68,900 from four locations (an average of $17,225 per screen)