Director Darren Aronofsky, the patron saint of edgy-dark fare like biblical horror film mother!, drugged-out nightmare Requiem for a Dream, and his latest, The Whale—which earned Brendan Fraser the Oscar for Best Actor—is reportedly on board to direct an Elon Musk biopic.
Aronofsky is a highly sought-after creative partner among Hollywood’s elite performers. Even if his films end up trending more toward melodramatic soup than quality stew, they tend to snag awards for lead actors like Fraser and Natalie Portman, who won Best Actress for 2010’s Black Swan. So it stands to reason that playing Musk, the famously absurd billionaire-technocrat, will be one of 2024’s hottest tickets.
Who among our highest-profile leading men should win out? Here are our staff’s top picks.
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Christian Bale
Since his unlikely turn as Dick Cheney in Vice, Christian Bale has proven that he’ll shape-shift in the extreme to suit any role, no matter how little the role seems to suit him. And actually, Bale isn’t even that much of a stretch to play Musk. In fact, he’s kind of perfect. Sure, he’d have to pad himself out, but nowhere near as much as he did to play Cheney. Plus, Musk’s bizarre personality and hint of a South African accent would be an enticing challenge for an edgy chameleon like Bale. — Helen Holmes
Jon Hamm
Real talk: Jon Hamm is far too handsome to play Elon Musk. He did, however, just spend the entire past season of The Morning Show playing a billionaire tech mogul—one who owns a SpaceX-style company called Hyperion and who wants to dig his claws into the media sphere. So, yeah, he basically played Musk. It was a thrill seeing the Mad Men alum explore his villainous side—plus, he plays “rich asshole” quite convincingly—so who’s to say he couldn’t do it again? Hamm’s career is shockingly short on juicy dramatic leading movies roles, so this could be his shot. — Madeline Roth
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon isn’t known for being a prolific actor—take a look at his IMDb acting credits; 99 percent say he simply played himself—but I’m officially challenging him to make a foray into independent film to play Musk. Why? Simply because Fallon looks a whole lot like him, in my opinion. But also because I want X (formerly Twitter, ironically owned by Musk) to blow up when FilmUpdates posts, “Jimmy Fallon has been cast as Elon Musk.” Can you imagine the total clusterfuck that X will become when that news is announced?! I can’t wait. — Fletcher Peters
Brendan Fraser
This pick is mostly for trolling purposes after all the fuss surrounding Fraser’s staggering performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. Fraser and Musk are about the same age, with similarly square-shaped heads. Plus, they’re both a bit awkward, so there’s something! Lest we forget—and boy, have I tried—Fraser took home the Oscar for Aronofsky’s The Whale, so it wouldn’t be that bizarre for the filmmaker to call up Fraser for another starring role. For chaos reasons solely, I’m all for it. — Kyndall Cunningham
Matthew Macfadyen
As one of the hottest method actors working today, Jeremy Strong will no doubt end up on the shortlist for a role as juicy as Musk. But it’s his Succession co-star Matthew Macfadyen who was pitched as a possibility by Breaking Twitter author Ben Mezrich on a recent episode of Kara Swisher’s podcast. If the English actor could master the bland Midwestern accent of Tom Wambsgans, he could certainly nail whatever is happening with Musk’s South African-by-way-of-Silicon Valley inflection. — Matt Wilstein
Elon Musk
I can’t help but feel like Musk will find a way to get himself cast as...himself. It just seems so Elon Musk-y. It would either be a stroke of meta genius, or a massively embarrassing cinematic catastrophe that I would love to see. —Kevin Fallon
