Ike Barinholtz will play Elon Musk in Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film “Artificial,” and on Wednesday night, the actor explained his prep for the role. But, Jimmy Kimmel had a guess first: “Ketamine?”
Barinholtz stopped by the ABC talk show in support of his new podcast “Funny You Ask,” and fresh off an Actor Award win for the cast of “The Studio” on Sunday night. While there, Kimmel looked ahead to what’s next for Barinholtz, and asked how he’s prepping for the role of the tech billionaire. When Kimmel guessed that ketamine was in play, Barinholtz rolled right with it.
“I was in a K-hole for about six weeks,” he joked, nodding his head. “I just watched a lot of him. But it was almost like, remember ‘A Clockwork Orange?’ When they got Malcolm McDowell, and they got the things in his eyes, and he’s doing this? And he’s watching like, animals being murdered.”
“It was like that, but it was just, like, Elon Musk on Bill Maher,” Barinholtz continued, prying his own eyes open. “And I’m like ‘Ahhhhh!’”
Kimmel was also curious as to how Barinholtz even came to the role to begin with, and whether Musk knows Barinholtz will play him. The actor is pretty sure he does, considering how online Musk is, but joked that “we’re going to find out when I’m sent to the prison penal colony on the moon.”
Barinholtz also explained why he took the role, joking that he’s “such a fan” of the billionaire.
“And it’s funny, it’s not the rockets that crash, or the cars that have bumper stickers that say ‘I hate the man who made this car.’ I just respect his comedy,” he joked. “I think he’s just a deeply funny person.”
You can watch Ike Barinholtz’s full appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in the video above.
