Louis Theroux On Coaxing Elon Musk, His Spotify Podcast & Why He’ll Keep Making Programs For The BBC

deadline.com:

The fourth season of Louis Theroux‘s podcast launches today with a free-wheeling chat between the off-beat British documentary maker and Hollywood star Willem Dafoe.

Famous names Armie Hammer, Jade Thirlwall, Sharon Horgan and Jamie Oliver also appear in this run of The Louis Theroux Podcast, but given Theroux’s propensity for choosing complicated, divisive interview subjects, Deadline wonders if he is still attempting to attract a certain Elon Musk. “I would 100% have him on,” says Theroux, talking from his London home via Zoom late last week. “I remember I half tongue-in-cheek and half for real sent a tweet out — and it was a tweet because it was before X — directed at him, saying, ‘Come on, Elon, come on the podcast.

What are you afraid of?’ I’m sure it got lost in the cascade of his mentions, but he’s that kind of a guy that you never know.” Theroux is known for a disarming style that allows him to connect with controversial and difficult personalities.

With Musk about to become a key advisor to Donald Trump’s White House and meddling in European politics, many now see the X and Tesla owner as someone who embodies either the destroyer or the savior of the Western world. “I find him endlessly interesting,” says Theroux. “He’s obviously been on a political journey.” Theroux and Musk’s common ground probably exists on a slightly different level of discourse. “I’ve read the Walter Isaacson biography and the New York Times article that talked about him being a big fan of comedy,” he says. “I wouldn’t say that I know he’s seen my programs, but if someone said he is a big fan of Weird Weekends, I wouldn’t be surprised.