Alex Gibney's 'Musk' Simulates an Interview With a CGI Avatar
When a documentary subject won't sit for an interview, the filmmaker has to decide what goes in the gap. In 'Musk,' Alex Gibney's answer was for the production team to simulate an interview with Elon Musk using a CGI avatar. Gibney discussed that choice on IndieWire's Screen Talk podcast, along with who the film had to leave out. Both are telling choices in the same direction: an interview the film never obtained, and people the film had to set aside — the material that isn't there becomes part of the construction rather than a hole in it. A reconstruction can be the most candid option available when the camera can't get into the room. What a simulated interview doesn't give an audience is anything to check the performance against: no hesitation, no eye contact, nothing that belonged to the person being portrayed. The result is an interview-shaped scene with no interviewee behind it.
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A likeness does the work a real subject's silence would otherwise do. It lets the film press its case with nobody in the room able to refuse a question or correct an answer.
The film was already choosing who to leave out; a simulation just puts one of those choices on screen where it can be seen, instead of leaving it buried in the edit.