Ike Barinholtz had initial reservations about playing Elon Musk in Artificial

Ike Barinholtz had reservations about playing tech billionaire Elon Musk in Artificial when the call first came in.

The Studio actor will play the Tesla and SpaceX boss alongside Andrew Garfield, Monica Barbaro and Yura Borisov in Luca Guadagnino's biographical comedy-drama about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

During a recent appearance on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, Barinholtz admitted that he originally told his team he wasn't interested in playing Musk.

"I got a call, they're like, 'Hey, they're making this movie and would like to talk to you about Elon.' And at first, I was like, 'I'm not interested. I don't want anything to do with that f**king guy,'" he recalled.

However, the Running Point star soon changed his mind when he learned it would be directed by "beautiful storyteller" Guadagnino.

"But then they were like, 'It's Luca Guadagnino' and I'm a huge fan. I've been a fan for a very long time," he continued. "I was like, 'Let me talk to Luca and we'll see.' And I talked to him and he's so charming.

"I met with him and told him my reservation and he said, 'Well, it's not about you, it's about you finding what makes him think he is human.' Which I think is a very smart way (of thinking) - he's not about whether you think is (human), it's about whether or not he thinks he is."

The Mindy Project star added that he watched "tons" of YouTube videos to prepare to play Musk and speak with his South African accent, likening the research process to "injecting poison into my brain".

Barinholtz also divulged that he and his co-stars spent a week rehearsing at a villa outside of Turin, Italy last year before filming in the region, as well as San Francisco. Filming wrapped in October and the project is currently without a release date.

The star-studded cast also includes Mark Rylance, Jason Schwartzman, Billie Lourd, Cooper Hoffman and Zosia Mamet.