THE DOGEFATHER

Is Christoph Waltz Playing Elon Musk on ‘Only Murders in the Building’?

The similarities are all right there…

Only Murders in the Building is back with a whole new season of mystery, comedy, and cozy fall vibes. This season takes the trio back to the titular building, The Arconia, to focus on solving one of the building’s many secrets, along with a murder or two.

The fifth season premiered with three episodes that dropped on Sept. 9, and then we will have to survive on one a week until the finale. In the three episodes, we got our first glimpse of the big bad of this season, and no, it isn’t the mob. It’s what Martin Short’s Oliver called “the new mob of New York”: billionaire CEOs.

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Cue the guest stars: Renée Zellweger plays a chilly entrepreneurial designer and hotel magnate, who Steve Martin’s Charles calls, “A human incarnation of a Nancy Meyers Kitchen” (Martin would know, having collaborated with Meyers several times). Logan Lerman plays a casual cool cryptobro-looking dude with family money from a pharmaceutical magnate, and Christoph Waltz plays…Elon Musk.

While Waltz’s character, tech billionaire and “longevity enthusiast” Sebastian “Bash” Steed, may not be explicitly based on Musk, the similarities are striking. He has a vague accent (Waltz is Austrian and German but speaks English and French fluently as well, while Musk was born in South Africa and is of Pennsylvania Dutch and British ancestry).

Waltz is approximately Musk’s age (approximate means Waltz is 68 to Musk’s 54, but the ketamine adds a few years). Steed is said to be worth $53 billion and Musk is worth…okay well as of this second the internet says he’s worth $430 billion which is a big difference but you get the idea. Rich.

When they see Bash Steed for the first time, Oliver says, “It’s the one who invented the one thing!” which is how most of us felt about Musk’s many “accomplishments” before he cozied up to (and then broke up with) or current president. Musk has invented, started, or bought across many industries, from space exploration to payment platforms to cars to social media to our entire government (allegedly).

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Both Steed and Musk are techy guys, complete with creepy surveillance abilities and even creepier children in tow (you’ll have to wait ‘til episode seven for that one, but enjoy the scary ghost child in the opening credits).

Waltz got on our collective radar for his Oscar-winning turn as the smiling Nazi in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 alternate history film, Inglourious Bastards. His gleefully evil performance and the ones that came after have given him cred as Hollywood’s favorite bad guy. In fact, he’s played a character that’s meant to make you think of Musk in 2023’s The Consultant.

Waltz has played a Bond villain, while Musk looks like one in real life (I’ve seen him once in the waxy flesh). Another odd connection is that the kids’ movie currently in theaters, Bad Guys 2, features villains based on both Musk and Waltz’s Inglourious Bastards character. Do you think the actor, who in all press seems to be kind and non-evil, minds being associated with villains, or, as it appears, does he revel in playing these fun roles?

Waltz’s billionaire Steed is less…for lack of better word…bats--t than Musk. You won’t see any evocative gestures or chainsaws in his hands. Having the character be more of a wink than an obvious copy of Musk is a smart storytelling device. Between all three, OMITB‘s billionaire bad guys walk a precarious line. To ignore the politics of it all would be tone deaf, but to make the season all about hating billionaires would take away the main characters’ humor and steal from their stories.

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Characters name drop all those ‘lil things we hate about billionaires (going to space, doge coin, generational wealth), but they don’t EXPLICITLY make it political or name actual names. For that, the new season succeeds. Charles says, “As the city has changed, so too do those in power. The mafia as we once knew them, may be no more, but the idea of many losing in order for an elite few to win, has never been more true.” This sentiment can be applied wider than the New York of OMITB.

Letting the audience wink along with the main characters about the similarities between Waltz’s characters and Musk, as well as the current state of our world, without making us confront THE HORRORS that surround us in reality makes for a nice balance between escapism and reality. It is, afterall, meant to be a comfort show.

Laura Wheatman HillFreelance Writer

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