Barinholtz Calls His Musk in 'Artificial' 'Ridiculous' — SkimNews
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- Ike Barinholtz portrays OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk in Luca Guadagnino's Neon film 'Artificial,' telling Discussing Film his performance is 'menacing' but 'a little ridiculous'
- 'Artificial' premieres Christmas Day in US theaters and dramatizes the November 2023 firing and five-day rehiring of Sam Altman by OpenAI's board of directors
- Andrew Garfield stars as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, with Barinholtz saying he played Musk in scenes 'behind the curtain' during the era Musk was 'looked at as the next Tony Stark'
- Barinholtz noted the menace was meant to feel real 'to the people in the room' even as the character 'does seem a little ridiculous' from 37,000 feet up — a self-aware framing of Musk's power dynamics
- Simon Rich penned the screenplay, and the ensemble cast includes Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro, Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Chris O'Dowd, Mark Rylance, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Koch, and Billie Lourd
Why it matters: Guadagnino's prestige treatment of the November 2023 OpenAI boardroom crisis — with Andrew Garfield as Altman and Barinholtz's self-aware Musk — translates a real corporate coup into a film that openly acknowledges how Musk's power looks terrifying up close and absurd from a distance, a tonal choice that shapes how viewers will metabolize the Altman ouster.
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