‘Everyone here wants to have sex with Nathan Fielder’

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains spoilers for “You Can See Everything.”

Since Joanie Montgomery saw Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary “ You Can See Everything ” last weekend, there has been one moment she can’t get out of her mind: a shot of Fielder wearing briefs and swimming in the ocean with his subject, Elizabeth Holmes. “It was very intimate, and he looked really beautiful,” said Montgomery, a 33-year-old Philadelphia-based drag artist who performs as Diva Baby . “I need him so bad. I don’t know what else to say.”

Fielder and Oppenheim’s word-of-mouth sensation has taken pop culture by storm, earning millions at the box office, winning near-universal critical praise and generating a ton of press coverage, as well as Oscar buzz. And yet, one of the more surprising and surreal things to emerge from the film’s release — at least to those who found Fielder’s gangly presence to be entirely awkward and strange, in keeping with his prior work — has been the vocal contingent of viewers who came out thinking he’s a certified stud.

“I was blown away by the film, but also now feel deeply affectionate towards Nathan Fielder,” said Dallas, a 28-year-old writer in New York, who asked, like others in this story, to be referred to by just her first name. “I walked out of the theater being like, ‘I have competition because I want to have sex with Nathan Fielder and everyone here wants to have sex with Nathan Fielder.’”

Nathan Fielder’s movie on Elizabeth Holmes absolutely lives up to the hype

Across social media , others who’ve seen “You Can See Everything” have spoken of their subsequent desire to, well, see everything of Fielder. On TikTok , women have praised him for being “assertive while calm…confident without bravado” and for seeming “snuggleable.” Others have said that any straight men confused by the reactions to Fielder are proving they will never truly understand the complexities of the female gaze .

“There’s a lot of stuff going on in the background of his mind. Like, there’s this whole control panel room, carefully thinking of what to say,” said Sophia, a 20-year-old University of Toronto student. “I think that’s definitely very attractive.”

This film is not the first time Fielder has been declared something of a sex symbol. When he released “The Rehearsal” in 2022 on HBO, New York magazine’s The Cut wrote about Fielder’s “strange sex appeal,” noting his specific mix of intellect, vulnerability and control. At the same time, the Daily Beast reported on the Fielder fandom , with devotees praising his voice, competence and willingness to debase himself for the camera. “There is something attractive about a person whose appeal is so raw, so innate, so against expectation, that we have to spend time figuring out what it is,” wrote Marianne Eloise.

But while T-shirts with Fielder’s face on them have been available for several years now , the unique cultural moment that “You Can See Everything” is enjoying has unlocked a legion of new fervent fans. That includes Dallas, who said she came into her Wednesday night screening without any real feelings for Fielder, but left with a new object of affection. “The movie is all extreme close-up shots of everyone’s face for three hours straight, and so it was almost this illusion of what it would feel like to like be close to him or be in the room with him,” she said. “I found myself really loving that feeling.”

In addition to the way the film is shot, viewers have described a palpable sexual tension or chemistry underscoring the movie (and even its short teaser trailer ) between the film’s main subjects: Fielder, Holmes , her romantic partner Billy Evans and the actor Amanda Seyfried . The movie is replete with long moments of silence, intense stares and gentle teasing and probing among the four that can feel particularly electric to some viewers. In one sequence, Evans showers nude for Fielder and his crew. In another, Seyfried and Fielder converse intimately by a fireplace.

‘You Can See Everything’ becomes one of the biggest documentary releases in decades

“I didn’t really get to sink into the other themes of ‘who’s playing who’ because I just wanted them all to kiss,” Montgomery said. She noted a sequence in which Fielder comes to stay at the home of Holmes and Evans, only to learn there is no mattress out for him. To her, that felt almost like a suggestion that the documentarian join the couple in their own bed — something he actually does at one point as they all watch Seyfried as Holmes in “The Dropout.” “It was hard for me not to picture them all naked,” said Montgomery.

“His interactions with Elizabeth are just very attractive,” Sophia said. “They’re basically having sex without physically touching each other, if that makes any sense. It’s just the way that they talk to each other, their chemistry.”

A24/Courtesy Everett Collection

Fielder is not conventionally attractive, concedes Breca, a 26-year-old bisexual man in Pennsylvania, but the filmmaker’s salt-and-pepper hair and stubble did something for Breca nonetheless. “He’s always looked middle-aged, even when he was younger, so he’s kind of grown into that, which I think made him seem more attractive,” Breca said.

Co-director Oppenheim would agree. “I’d always tell him, ‘You look so handsome in this.’ And I was just like, ‘I love being this close on your face. I’m so tight on your face right now and you look amazing,’” Oppenheim told GQ . “And he’d be like, ‘Dude, you could see my blackheads and my zits and stuff.’ I’d be like, ‘You look great. I actually think it makes you look better.’ He’s a very unconventionally hyper-masculine man.”

There are also unique parts of Fielder’s personality — or, at least, the persona he portrays on camera — that make him catnip for some. Montgomery, for example, said she was attracted to his “borderline autistic je ne sais quoi ,” while Dallas said it was his “beautiful artistic sensibility” and success.

But, in the age of the Manosphere and manipulative pick-up artists, others have suggested the sexiest thing about Fielder in “You Can See Everything” may be much simpler : he appears to be actively listening to the women in the film. “We’re so emotionally touch-starved collectively that someone who can ask a question and pay attention to the answer is like manna from heaven,” read one such post on X. “Every woman is sexually attracted to Nathan Fielder right now because he made a movie in which he listens to people talking.”

Has Nathan Fielder met his match with Elizabeth Holmes?

Not everyone is on board the Fielder train, though, with some finding him too awkward or arguing his fans are simply into seducing someone nerdier than them. But “You Can See Everything” has, at the very least, improved Fielder’s sex symbol status given his last major production, the 2023-2024 TV series “The Curse,” saw him playing a character with a micropenis.

Through representatives at A24, Fielder (perhaps understandably) didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story, although he has hinted in the past he wants to inspire lust in his audiences. In 2022, Fielder told the comedian Kate Berlant, perhaps just a tad facetiously, “I can say that my number one goal whenever I’m performing is to get sex.”

That should be music to the ears for new fans like Dallas, who said she broke her rule about speaking to the press for this story. “I’m making an exception because I would love for Nathan Fielder to read this and reach out to me personally and go from there,” she said. “I’m in love.”

编者按：本文包含《你能看到一切》的剧透。

自从乔妮·蒙哥马利上周末看了内森·菲尔德和兰斯·奥本海姆的纪录片《你什么都看得到》之后，有一个镜头就一直萦绕在她心头：菲尔德穿着内裤，和他的拍摄对象伊丽莎白·霍姆斯在海里游泳。“那画面非常亲密，他看起来真的很帅，”33岁的蒙哥马利说道。她是一位住在费城的变装皇后，艺名是“Diva Baby”。“我太需要他了。我不知道还能说什么。”

菲尔德和奥本海姆凭借口碑迅速走红，这部影片在流行文化领域掀起了一股热潮，票房收入数百万美元，几乎赢得了所有影评人的赞誉，并引发了大量的媒体报道，甚至还获得了奥斯卡奖的提名。然而，影片上映后最令人惊讶和匪夷所思的事情之一——至少对于那些觉得菲尔德略显笨拙的形象（与他之前的作品一脉相承）显得十分尴尬怪异的观众来说——是那些看完电影后认为他简直帅到爆的观众。

“这部电影让我震撼不已，而且我现在对内森·菲尔德充满了好感，”28岁的纽约作家达拉斯说道。和本文中的其他人一样，她要求只用自己的名字称呼。“我走出影院时心想，‘我有竞争对手了，因为我想和内森·菲尔德上床，而这里每个人都想和内森·菲尔德上床。’”

内森·菲尔德执导的伊丽莎白·霍姆斯传记电影绝对名不虚传。

在社交媒体上，看过《你能看到一切》的人纷纷表示，他们之后很想……嗯，看看菲尔德的一切。在TikTok上，女性们称赞他“沉着冷静却又坚定自信……自信而不张扬”，而且看起来“很想拥抱”。还有人说，任何对菲尔德的反应感到困惑的直男，都证明他们永远无法真正理解女性凝视的复杂性。

“他脑子里有很多事情在酝酿。就像有个控制面板一样，他一直在仔细思考该说什么，”20岁的多伦多大学学生索菲亚说。“我觉得这绝对很有魅力。”

这部电影并非菲尔德第一次被誉为性感偶像。2022年，他在HBO推出纪录片《排练》（The Rehearsal）时，《纽约》杂志旗下的The Cut网站撰文称菲尔德“有一种奇特的性感魅力”，并指出他身上兼具智慧、脆弱和自律的独特气质。与此同时，《每日野兽》（Daily Beast）也报道了菲尔德的粉丝群体，他们的拥趸们盛赞他的嗓音、演技以及他愿意在镜头前展现自我、不拘一格的一面。“有些人的魅力如此原始、如此自然、如此出乎意料，以至于我们需要花时间去探究它究竟有何吸引力，”玛丽安·埃洛伊斯写道。

虽然印有菲尔德头像的T恤衫已经上市好几年了，但《你能看到一切》这部电影所经历的独特文化时刻，却为它俘获了一大批新的狂热粉丝。达拉斯就是其中之一，她说自己周三晚上去看电影的时候对菲尔德并没有什么特别的感觉，但看完之后却对他产生了新的好感。“这部电影连续三个小时都是每个人脸部的特写镜头，这几乎让我产生了一种错觉，仿佛能感受到和他近在咫尺，或者和他待在同一个房间里，”她说，“我发现自己真的很喜欢这种感觉。”

除了影片的拍摄手法，观众还注意到影片（甚至包括其简短的预告片）中，几位主角——菲尔德、霍姆斯、她的伴侣比利·埃文斯以及演员阿曼达·塞弗里德——之间弥漫着一种显而易见的性张力或化学反应。影片中充满了长时间的沉默、充满张力的凝视以及四人之间微妙的调情和试探，这些都让一些观众感到格外兴奋。在一个场景中，埃文斯为菲尔德和他的剧组人员裸体淋浴。在另一个场景中，塞弗里德和菲尔德在壁炉旁亲密地交谈。

《你能看到一切》成为近几十年来最卖座的纪录片之一。

“我根本没时间去琢磨‘谁扮演谁’之类的其他主题，因为我只想让他们都亲吻，”蒙哥马利说道。她注意到其中一个片段，菲尔德来到霍姆斯和埃文斯家暂住，却发现没有床垫给他。在她看来，这几乎是在暗示这位纪录片导演应该和这对夫妇一起睡——事实上，在他们一起观看阿曼达·塞弗里德饰演的霍姆斯主演的电影《辍学生》时，他确实这么做了。“我很难不去想象他们都赤身裸体的样子，”蒙哥马利说道。

索菲亚说：“他和伊丽莎白的互动非常吸引人。他们基本上是在做爱，但又没有身体接触，这么说你能理解吗？这完全是他们彼此交谈的方式，他们之间的化学反应。”

A24/由埃弗雷特收藏公司提供

布雷卡承认，菲尔德并非传统意义上的帅哥，这位26岁的宾夕法尼亚州双性恋男子说道，但这位电影制作人灰白的头发和胡茬却让他觉得别有一番韵味。“他看起来一直像中年人，即使在他年轻的时候也是如此，所以他现在更符合这种气质了，我认为这反而让他更有魅力，”布雷卡说道。

联合导演奥本海姆对此表示赞同。“我总是跟他说，‘你穿这身真帅。’然后我就说，‘我喜欢这么近距离地拍你的脸。我现在离你的脸好近，你看起来棒极了，’”奥本海姆告诉《GQ》杂志。“他会说，‘老兄，你都看到我的黑头和痘痘了。’我会说，‘你看起来很棒。我觉得这样反而让你更好看了。’他是一个非常另类的、极具男子气概的男人。”

菲尔德的个性中也有一些独特的特质——或者至少是他镜头前塑造的形象——让他对某些人有着难以抗拒的吸引力。例如，蒙哥马利说她被他“近乎自闭症般的难以言喻的特质”所吸引，而达拉斯则说是他“优美的艺术气质”和成功所打动她。

但是，在男性主导的文化和操控型搭讪艺术家盛行的时代，有人认为菲尔德在《一切尽收眼底》中最性感的地方或许很简单：他似乎在认真倾听片中女性的对话。“我们集体都如此渴望情感上的接触，所以能够提出问题并认真倾听答案的人简直就是天赐良机，”X 网站上的一篇帖子写道。“现在每个女人都对内森·菲尔德充满性吸引力，因为他拍了一部电影，在电影里他认真倾听人们的谈话。”

内森·菲尔德是否遇到了对手伊丽莎白·霍姆斯？

不过，并非所有人都对菲尔德抱有好感，有些人觉得他太过笨拙，或者认为他的粉丝只是想勾引一个比自己更书呆子气的人。但至少，《你什么都看得见》这部电影提升了菲尔德的性感偶像地位，因为他上一部主要作品——2023-2024年的电视剧《诅咒》——中饰演了一个患有小阴茎的角色。

通过A24的代表，菲尔德（或许可以理解）没有回应就此事发表评论的请求，尽管他过去曾暗示过他想激发观众的欲望。2022年，菲尔德曾半开玩笑地告诉喜剧演员凯特·伯兰特：“我可以说，我表演的首要目标就是获得性满足。”

对于像达拉斯这样的新粉丝来说，这无疑是个好消息。达拉斯表示，她为了这个故事打破了自己不接受媒体采访的原则。“我破例是因为我希望内森·菲尔德能看到这篇文章，并亲自联系我，然后我们再进一步交流，”她说。“我恋爱了。”