The audience applauded after Alex Gibney replied to an audience question about whether he’d rather live in “a world without the accomplishments of Elon Musk.”

Elon Musk doc director shuts down TIFF audience member touting ‘accomplishments of’ controversial figure

The audience applauded after Alex Gibney replied to an audience question about whether he’d rather live in “a world without the accomplishments of Elon Musk.”

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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September 14, 2026 9:00 p.m. ET

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Elon Musk. Credit:

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- *Musk* director Alex Gibney replied to an audience member’s question about whether he’d rather live in a world “without the accomplishments of Elon Musk.”

- Gibney said he questions “the phrase ‘the accomplishments of Elon Musk.’”

- The TIFF premiere audience applauded Gibney’s response.

Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney pushed back on a Toronto International Film Festival audience member’s question about the “accomplishments of Elon Musk” following the four-hour premiere of the filmmaker’s buzzy *Musk* doc.

Speaking to a post-screening crowd Monday evening at the city’s Scotiabank Theater, Gibney, 72, fielded a loaded inquiry from a live viewer seated just in front of him.

The unidentified person asked Gibney — whose *Musk* doc focuses a critical lens on the controversial Tesla and SpaceX figure’s life and work — if he’d rather live in “a world without the accomplishments of Elon Musk.”

Gibney laughed before replying, “Well, first of all, I kind of question the phrase, ‘the accomplishments of Elon Musk.’” The audience then applauded Gibney’s quick response.

“Tesla was not founded by Elon Musk. He wasn’t the key inventor. SpaceX also was founded by a lot of powerful and important engineers,” Gibney noted, referencing Tesla’s original co-founders, Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard — the latter of whom sat for an interview that plays near the beginning of *Musk*.

“He did *build* these two potent companies,” Gibney continued. “One of the reasons he did so was because he imbued them with a sense of ambition. That attracted a lot of talented engineers to both companies. Nobody talks about the engineers and the people who run and actually do the work at those companies. It’s all Elon Musk. I think it’s important we recognize that these are companies.”

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The audience again applauded when Gibney finished the thought.

** has reached out to Musk’s representatives at Tesla for comment.

Gibney began the Q&A by repeating an earlier claim that Musk “threatened to sue us” over the project. “So, that should give you some sense of how much — at least so far — the free speech absolutist is encouraging speech that he doesn’t like.”

Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty

*Musk*, a nearly four-hour documentary, charts the 55-year-old’s life from his early days as a child in South Africa through to his acquisition of Twitter (now X), the impact his businesses have on the environment, and his polarizing involvement in the 2024 presidential election cycle, which many believe helped swing the election to Donald Trump

The expansive film also includes interviews with many figures from Musk’s life, including former romantic partners Justine Musk and Ashley St. Clair (both of whom have children with Musk) as well as Musk’s father, Errol Musk.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

Musk previously commented on the documentary via his X platform, where he called the film a “hit piece” about him, though Gibney maintained that Musk hasn’t yet seen the movie, replying, “How would you know?”

*Musk* is in theaters Oct. 9. Watch the movie’s trailer above.

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Source: “EW Documentary”