'Musk' director Alex Gibney isn't afraid to make powerful enemies

From Scientology to disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, documentarian Alex Gibney has never met a topic too big or too arguable to tackle.

Then came Elon Musk.

When Gibney was approached alongside the idea to do a documentary on the Tesla and SpaceX CEO in 2022, his scheme was straightforward: Tell the narrative of how Musk used his businesses to rotate into among the most mighty figures in the world.

But whenever he was prepared to provision a two-hour characteristic movie on Musk two years later, his manufacturing business issued him a directive a filmmaker rarely hears: Make it longer.

It was 2024, and the breadth of Musk's power had expanded into the governmental sphere. With Gibney's topic assisting President Donald Trump run for a second term, afterward afterward spearheading the second Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, Gibney's narrative had expanded. His documentary would need to, too.

The outcome is "Musk," an incisive, nearly four-hour documentary that chronicles the personal, professional, and governmental existence of the richest man in the world. From his arguable acquisition of Twitter, which he renamed X; to his relationships alongside the mothers of his children; to the accidents tied to Tesla's self-driving feature, Gibney's movie is a thorough appearance at the range of Musk's power and power in the 21st century.

Gibney equal established a clever workaround for featuring Musk in the doc following he declined to be interviewed. Playing on Musk's condemnation that we are all living in a simulation, the director used AI to accomplishment an avatar of Musk, who speaks in quotes amalgamated from his former interviews.

Of course, a man as mighty and outspoken as Musk has already voiced his displeasure alongside person alternatively controlling his narrative. After the movie's earth premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, Musk threatened to sue Gibney's manufacturing business for defamation. Musk has additionally bashed the movie on X, stating: "Gibney fair assembled a hit catalog of group who either have an axe to grind or don't equal cognize me (but motionless have an axe to grind). He has ZERO integrity. Horrible human."

Hearing from furious subjects is nothing new for Gibney, who was the topic of the Church of Scientiology's full-page newspaper ads decrying his activity complete 10 years ago tied to the premiere of his documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief."

"With Elon Musk — and he's not distinctive in this, but he specializes in it — he starts tweeting horrible things concerning group and the next item you know, this armed forces of followers and bots starts to gin up the rage matrix," Gibney told Business Insider.

Not that he's rattled yet. With decades of documentaries speaking fact to power under his belt, Gibney has developed thick skin and several top-secret harassment endurance strategies.

"Let's fair say I've taken several precautions," he said.

For the latest discussion in Business Insider's Director's Chair series, Gibney talks concerning creating an AI Musk, being followed by Scientologists, and his nerve-racking cognition in a self-driving Tesla.

On creating an AI Musk avatar and making the movie longer

Business Insider: You idea you had completed this movie in 2024. Was it daunting to go rear downward the Elon Musk rabbit gap whenever HBO asked you to?

Alex Gibney: Yeah, it was daunting. We had to renegotiate the prosperity and all sorts of another stuff. But I got why HBO wanted that. And whenever Musk hitched his wagon to Trump, it was clear: This is big.

I started out making a movie concerning 21st hundred years power, which in this case engaged financial power but additionally tech power. Now, add to that governmental power, and abruptly it's a really big story.

Was AI Musk in the first movie? 

The idea of it was. We had put in a placeholder for it, but we were additionally anticipating that perchance we power get an discussion alongside him at several point.

It was benevolent of an epiphany to do it this way. It came out of former experience: What's the workaround for person who won't or can't conversation to you? In "Client 9" and "Zero Days," we came up alongside workarounds that fit those stories. The key current was to discover a workaround that would fit this story. That's how we ultimately came up alongside the idea of the avatar.

Did it unlock item in you concerning using AI tools in your activity in the future?

I think it volition depend on the project. AI has rotate into a benevolent of suitcase term for everything from Siri to AGI. In this instance, this was a individual attempt using AI tools, which revolved mostly about sync; in another words, making the lips and the build kind of move alongside the voice. But there was additionally designing the room, what he was going to wear, the gamer chair.

The additional we pushed it and the additional curious we got in AI alongside the business we used, Makemake A.I., this idea of memes and looking at his own image, that's anywhere we came up alongside certain scenes anywhere you see the rear of his caput and he's observing himself. Those were things that we improvised on.

On the qualities Musk and Elizabeth Holmes portion and Tesla's image

I couldn't assistance but think concerning your Elizabeth Holmes doc, "The Inventor," whenever observing "Musk." The "fake it 'til you create it" ethos that's baked into Silicon Valley, has that been fascinating to observe? Both Holmes and Musk are founders who are amazing salespeople expecting that what they bet on takes off. 

I think there is a similarity alongside Elizabeth Holmes. What was rattling about in my caput through this was confidence. Musk, akin Holmes, was able, through power of confidence, to convince group of things that they knew not to be true. That became a superpower.

The big difference between Tesla and SpaceX and Elizabeth Holmes is that those are genuine products. The Tesla S is a awesome car. These reusable rockets are extraordinary, and we display the magnificence of that in the film.

Not to obtain item distant from him or those companies, but there's additionally the bullshit factor. The idea of going to Mars and the promises. And you can see how they reiterate themselves and get bigger and bigger. Oh, yeah, complete self-driving! I'm sorry, Tesla's self-driving choice is motionless a flat two system, and over 60 group have died.

(Editor's note: Tesla has maintained that its Autopilot feature requires changeless controller attention, and that its vehicles matter prompts alert the controller to remain vigilant and clasp the steering wheel.)

The things you emphasize concerning Musk's involvement in DOGE and suggesting he influenced the election are shocking, but the things you emphasize concerning Tesla got me the most. The battery swapping, the self-driving car feature. Were you shocked by how much fume and mirrors there are at Tesla?

Yes. It was item that I didn't cognize whenever I started. And as you mentioned, counterfeit it 'til you create it. They fair faked it. Mostly, it was in command to lift the stock. The financial fundamentals of the business never warranted a elevated inventory price, but if you can convince group that the CEO is a brilliant and additionally that it's not really a car business — it's a tech company, so several excellent inventions are coming downward the highway — you can convince group to gin up the stock. 

(Editor's note: Musk and Tesla did not react to a petition for comment.)

On nearly hitting a kid during using the self-driving characteristic on a Cybertruck

You rode a self-driving car yourself; you did it alongside a Cybertruck for the movie. 

I did. There was a cut anywhere we included a four-minute sequence of me in the Cybertruck. I went to the San Francisco Tesla showroom and wanted to run a Cybertruck, and they showed me how to rotate on the self-driving feature. I pressed "Go," and off I went to the another flank of the city. It was akin a 20-minute journey there and back.

What's engaging is for most of the trip it was benevolent of astoundingly good. But afterward there were moments whenever it was astoundingly bad, sometimes in ways that were played to safety. Like, I was trying to merge onto a extremely occupied thoroughfare, and cars kept coming, and if it were me as the driver, I would nudge out there, but complete self-driving couldn't fig that out, so I sat there for 10 minutes. Other instances, it couldn't decide what to do at crucial moments and nearly hit a pedestrian. 

It came uncomfortably near to a child. The kid benevolent of came from the flank out of a parked car. It's not item you would anticipate, but it was really scary.

Why didn't you put that in the movie?

Ultimately, the lawful case that we spotlight in the movie was a far additional mighty profound dive. There were mortal consequences. A female died. And the profound dive into the evidence itself was so much additional powerful. If I had lone done a movie concerning Tesla, I likely would have included it. 

On the movie's destiny on HBO and the consequences of checking power

The top irony in all of this is this movie could have been out a twelvemonth or so ago, but HBO asked you to create it longer. Now Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have merged, so HBO is now under David Ellison, who formerly considered bringing on Musk as an equity capitalist in Paramount. Are you concerned HBO volition not air "Musk"?

I was concerned until recently. I'm continually on the alert. But I've been told that they volition air it and that equal David Ellison extremely fine knows concerning it and promises he volition air it. 

You have worked alongside HBO forever. 

Yeah, I affection them. 

So if they are telling you it is going to happen, you accept them. 

But what you study is, crap happens. [Laughs.] Executives change. Circumstances change, and the next item you know, it's not what you thought. But, for now, we are making extremely particular plans concerning whenever it's going to arrive out, which is apt in January. 

Because of anywhere the industry is going — small networks and allocation options, and the options accessible are mostly run by conglomerates frequently looking for governmental collaboration — for the benevolent of stories you tell, are you looking for substitute allocation avenues in the forthcoming alongside your company, Jigsaw?

We have a skunkworks inner Jigsaw to try to resolve several of these allocation problems.

In this new environment, films that group desperately desire to see are being held rear from audiences. The platforms inform you group don't desire to see them, but that's fair not true. HBO is the exception, but what a lot of the platforms are doing is investing in predictable, smallest objectionable programming. A lot of the platforms desire it to be akin the cereal aisles at the market market: they are all the identical cereal, but distinct variations between Rice Krispies and Froot Loops. They can predictably get group invested in that blend of sodium chloride and sugar that keeps them coming rear for additional without providing item that is nutritious. 

So the avenue is theatrical, akin it was a decade-plus ago. "Musk" is out in theaters through Bleecker Street, and that's mighty since it's a lot harder to put the soul rear in the flask whenever it's already out there. 

Checking power sometimes comes alongside blowback. You have informed everything from Julian Assange leaking the manuscript to "We Steal Secrets" before that movie came out to Scientologists following you about following you made "Going Clear." Do these things deteriorate on you, or do they energy you?

I mean, stated the fact that I haven't stopped, it seems to be fueling me. That said, it doesn't average I don't need to obtain precautions. But I'm motionless motivated by the idea of group alongside enormous power abusing it at our expense; that seems to be a spur for me. 

When it comes to Elon Musk, he's the richest and arguably the most mighty individual in the world, so it can have these devastating consequences. Ashley St. Clair has safety since the X phase has a way of directing vitriol at people. And Elon can say it's fair liberated speech, but he knows extremely fine that by doing what he does and by the phase tweaking its algorithm for replies and rage addiction, he knows that his statements are going to be amplified in a really horrible way that may outcome in damage to an individual.

(Editor's note: Musk, who has called himself a "free address absolutist," described X's guideline in 2022 as "freedom of speech, not liberty of reach," saying the business would bounds the attain of negative posts but not delete them. Musk did not react to a petition for comment concerning his X posts and the company's algorithm.)

Is your cognition alongside Musk's followers distinct from what you informed alongside Scientology?

Scientology is a small different, but group did arrive up to me in dreary parking many in a way that was discomforting. But what several ex-Scientologists told me was, "What they are doing is they aren't going to put a rattlesnake in their mailbox; they are trying to get inner your head. So formerly you comprehend that, fair don't let them inner your head." That turned out to be extremely prudent advice.

Scientology was tough, and whenever my movie on Assange came out, the vitriol on Twitter was extreme, and I wasn't prepared for that. What I've arrive to study is you have to cognize your enemy. 

This discussion has been condensed and edited for clarity.

"Musk" is in theaters now.

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