Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder‘s newly released documentary You Can See Everything gets up close and awkwardly, even creepily personal with disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her husband Billy Evans. It’s mindbending, strange, and breaking more than brains: It’s breaking box office records. It’s also generating Oscar buzz.
But the genre-shattering documentary would’ve never happened without one cold email that was sent circa six years ago and connected the two filmmakers behind the engrossing hit. In a recent Vulture interview, Oppenheim revealed that he’s apparently a master of the cold email.
While he’d reach out to filmmakers in the past as a teenager—long before he’d become a seasoned director—he used the same strategy to connect with comedian Nathan Fielder back in 2020. At the time, Fielder was best known for his offbeat and often cringe-inducing approach to “helping” grow small businesses in his comedy series Nathan for You before his HBO hit The Rehearsal. As for Oppenheim, his biggest project had been the documentary Some Kind of Heaven, which examined life at The Villages, the Florida retirement community.
When Oppenheim told Vulture that when he heard that Fielder only made it through 60% of the doc, he reached out to playfully let him know there was another 40% of the film he missed. Fielder replied warmly that day, letting him know that he actually enjoyed several aspects of the film and couldn’t remember why he stopped a little more than halfway along.
From there, the two became friends and started plotting their eventual collaboration. After attending an LA magic show together, where Elizabeth Holmes’ name was brought up, Oppenheim revealed to Fielder that he’d heard the tech founder had just approached the film company A24 about producing a documentary about her life. Given Holmes has been somewhat of a recluse since her 2022 sentencing in her much-publicized fraud case, rarely giving interviews or allowing the public to see into her life, the possibility of the project intrigued the new friends.
Less than two weeks later, they started filming Holmes and her family in Del Mar beach rental 34 days before the founder would report to prison.
The power of the cold email
The filmmakers’ first exchange showcases how powerful cold emailing can be.
In Oppenheim’s case, he didn’t even have a project in mind just yet. He simply knew he wanted to connect with Fielder, whose work he admired. So, he wrote a message without any firm expectations for the future.
Of course, let’s not pretend that Hollywood connections are the same as those in any other industry—they aren’t. While You Can See Everything has already become both men’s most successful work, they were already respected artists in the field. But regardless of industry, cold emailing can be a smart and savvy approach to networking, job applications and getting projects rolling. That first point of contact is crucial, whether you’re trying to land a dream gig, or simply want to connect with someone you admire.
And yet? People avoid doing it all the time. It can feel awkward, risky, uncomfortable, pushy.
But taking a couple minutes to send one is far from a futile effort. It shows initiative and genuine interest, and is a way to stand out from the crowd when it comes to something like job applications. And they work: data shows that personalized cold emails get 1,200% more replies than automated messages.
Keep that in mind when you send a cold email yourself. Just like Oppenheim reached out with a personal anecdote when hoping to connect with Fielder, those looking to build a working relationship with anyone should do the same: If you know something about the person, have met them before, or share a similar view or experience, lean into that. (And definitely don’t rely on AI here.)
The fact is, while you’re unlikely to get a response to every cold email you send, a well-crafted note that explains why you might be someone’s greatest asset, is hard to ignore. Aside from the potential for gains, the downside to cold emailing is not that bad, either. After all, the worst thing that can happen is that your message goes unanswered.
A small price to pay for a potentially huge—and historic—payoff.
