The You Can See Everything secrets are finally coming out, and Christopher Abbott is opening up about his surprise role in Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim‘s hit documentary.
The actor — currently garnering acclaim for East of Eden and booked as Professor X in Marvel’s upcoming X-Men reboot — appears alongside Amanda Seyfried in several parts of the film, portraying Elizabeth Holmes’ husband Billy Evans while Seyfried plays Holmes. The pair are brought in to recreate the filmmakers’ interactions with the couple, both in moments that occurred off camera and after Holmes was sent to prison and unable to film.
At a FYC event for East of Eden on Friday, Abbott told The Hollywood Reporter that Fielder and Oppenheim “just called me and asked me to come mess around. I got to see some of the footage they had shot before I did it, so it was a very quick run-and-gun thing, for me at least. I’ve been a fan of both of them for a long time so I kind of said yes before they even told me what they wanted to do.”
As for his take on the real Billy Evans, Abbott said he’s “heard about some of the craziness” but “I didn’t really know of him until they showed me the footage. I just thought it was a very interesting character to try to — I didn’t dive deep. I had just enough time to maybe try to do some version of mimicry or find little nuances. He’s an interesting subject.”
He also kept the appearance very hush-hush, as East of Eden co-showrunner Zoe Kazan — who is longtime friends with Abbott and was on the show’s press tour with him as the doc was starting to generate buzz — had no idea he was in the film.
“I’ve known Chris since we were in our early 20s coming up in the New York theater, and I went to see You Can See Everything with two people who’ve also known Chris for a long time, really well. And the three of us screamed in the theater when he came on screen, none of us knew,” Kazan said. “We sent him selfies with the poster afterwards. But I was really shocked.”
You Can See Everything has gone on to break box office records and generate lots of Oscar buzz, which Abbott noted is “amazing, especially for that type of film. Documentaries don’t get that type of attention,” but chalked it up to that “not only was the subject sort of juicy and accessible, they’re both really good filmmakers so they made it very cinematic.”
