‘Musk’ Director Alex Gibney Confirms Universal Wavered in Planning Overseas Release, Says He Tried to Interview Elon Musk: ‘His Response Was Writing “Gibney Is a Douche”’

By Payton Turkeltaub

Payton Turkeltaub

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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.”

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