Elon Musk Furious Against Filmmaker and Mother of His Child as ‘Musk’ Premieres at Venice

Elon Musk launched a furious public offensive against Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney as Musk premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The billionaire fired off numerous posts and replies on X attacking both the documentary and its director, turning the film’s high-profile debut into another public battle involving one of the world’s most powerful technology executives.

Musk reserved some of his harshest language for Gibney and the people interviewed for the documentary. «Gibney just assembled a hit list of people who either have an axe to grind or don’t even know me (but still have an axe to grind),» Musk wrote, accusing the filmmaker of selecting participants already predisposed against him.

The criticism quickly became personal. Musk said Gibney «lacks any integrity whatsoever,» called him a «bitter old man who lost the plot long ago» and described him as a «horrible human.» In another particularly vicious response, Musk declared, «Dogsh-t is worth more respect than Gibney,» while continuing to dismiss the documentary as a deliberate «hit piece.»

Despite his anger over the finished documentary, Musk did not sit down with Gibney for an interview. The filmmaker said he had hoped Musk would participate directly and initially approached the project with some admiration for him. «Ultimately he didn’t want to talk to me,» Gibney said, leaving the production to find another way of incorporating Musk’s voice.

The filmmakers instead created a computer-generated representation of Musk that appears throughout the documentary. Crucially, the digital Musk does not deliver fabricated statements: it uses words the billionaire has actually said publicly. Gibney said the technique helped explore the contrast between the «reality of what he’s done and unreality of his narrative» while reflecting Musk’s fascination with simulated realities.

One of the film’s most controversial sequences involves private messages between Musk and Ashley St. Clair shortly before Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory. NPR reported independently obtaining and authenticating the October 6 exchange. Musk allegedly wrote, «tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix,» after expressing growing confidence about the approaching presidential election.

When St. Clair questioned what Musk meant, the conversation reportedly turned to «‘Lasers’ from space.» Musk allegedly added, «I have over 10 thousand lasers in space right now.» The documentary raises questions about the cryptic exchange, but the authenticated messages themselves provide no evidence that Musk, Starlink or its satellites manipulated votes during the 2024 presidential election.

Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro has strongly objected to any suggestion connecting Starlink with election interference, arguing that its satellites were never involved in vote tabulation and that the «lasers» referred to communication links between satellites. Spiro threatened legal action over the documentary, while Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions defended the film as fact-based journalism protected by the First Amendment.

The controversy became more personal when St. Clair said she had been offered «the opportunity not to speak for $40 million.» Musk rejected the allegation, writing, «She was never offered that and has a history of making false claims.» Some of St. Clair’s previous claims have been accompanied by reported communications and legal filings, although that does not independently verify her $40 million allegation.

St. Clair has also alleged that Musk once discussed wanting «a legion of children before the civil war» and accused him of using X to deepen social divisions. She responded mockingly to the possibility of Musk successfully suing Gibney, declaring, «They are more likely to colonize Mars than win a defamation case against Alex Gibney.»

Musk premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival outside the main competition and runs 225 minutes, plus an intermission. Musk has already mocked it for committing «the fatal sin of being boring for 4 hours.» Bleecker Street is scheduled to release the documentary in U.S. theaters on October 16, 2026, while no confirmed streaming premiere has been announced.