Director Alex Gibney says getting Errol Musk to take part in his documentary “Musk” required just calling him up. In a question-and-answer session published on Friday, October 16, Gibney said Errol agreed at once and that a crew went to his home. The interview lasted about four hours, and only part of it is in the film.
What Gibney said
The film runs 3 hours and 45 minutes, and Gibney said the full Errol interview might be worth showing more of someday. He said he cut one passage short, in which Errol recalled shooting intruders, because Errol recalled it “in a very fond way, which was distressing.”
What Errol says in the film
We covered what Errol says on screen, including his closing warning to viewers, in Errol Musk Tells Musk Film Viewers: Do Not Bet Against Elon. Elon Musk did not take part in the film, and he has called it a hit piece, as we covered in Gibney’s Musk Film Goes Nationwide After Ad Fights and Insults.
How the film was made
Gibney says production began in 2022, that the team used an independent fact-checker and that lawyers reviewed every frame. He says the film was ostensibly finished by spring 2024, and that after the July 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump he considered releasing it as it was, but HBO asked him to keep following the story. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 8, opened in select U.S. theaters on October 9 and expanded nationwide on October 16.
Our take: what stays out of a film shapes what viewers think of its subjects. Gibney’s account of the editing is his own, and we have not seen the unused footage.
