Since opening last week, You Can See Everything has become a cinematic event, an early Oscar contender, and the season’s most-discussed movie. But Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s descent into the spellbinding madness of Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes had an ace up its sleeve: a casting coup of such otherworldly power that not even Kevin Feige and a thousand directors’ chairs could’ve orchestrated it. Halfway through the film, co-director and star Fielder shows his footage to Elizabeth Holmes’ Emmy-winning other half, The Dropout star Amanda Seyfried. If their jaws weren’t firmly stuck to the movie theater floor from the “Who’s on First?” scene, many probably would’ve said, “How did he do that?” The answer is a simple one. Fielder called to his Curse co-star Emma Stone.
In Vulture‘s new profile on Oppenheim, the co-director revealed he and Fielder struggled to get anyone in Holmes’ orbit to speak on camera about her. However, Fielder did know Stone, and she knew Seyfried, who got as deep into Holmes’ head as anyone could while preparing for The Dropout. So Stone reached out, and after a preliminary call and on the condition that she wasn’t being “punked,” Seyfried agreed to watch Fielder’s footage on camera, leading to one of the film’s best scenes and ideas. Seyfried’s surprising, knee-jerk desire to play Holmes again allowed Fielder to bring reality-distorting concepts from The Rehearsal into the movie while finding a tantalizing stand-in for Holmes after she leaves the film. Recreating scenes between Fielder and Holmes from Fielder’s memory, Seyfried opened the film up to a greater debate about truth in documentary and how well we really know any documentary’s subjects and creators. Not to mention, what a treat to have Seyfried participate in a mini-Dropout sequel buried inside a Rehearsal spin-off. It’s like that Seinfeld reunion nestled inside a Curb Your Enthusiasm season, except led by two of the world’s most bizarrely transfixing manipulators.
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