6 days ago
David Gauvey Herbert Reveals ‘Ren Faire' Director Lance Oppenheim's Disarming Methods
On June 5, the IndieWire Honors Spring 2025 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for some of the most impressive and engaging work of this TV season. Curated and selected by IndieWire's editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the creators, artisans, and performers behind television well worth toasting. In the days leading up to the event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their peers.
Ahead, journalist and 'Ren Faire' executive producer David Gauvey Herbert shares the story of his first meeting with Magnify Award winner Lance Oppenheim, and what he observed working alongside him on their critically acclaimed HBO three-part docu-drama.
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Several years ago, after a brief Zoom courtship, I met Lance at Frank's Wine Bar in Carroll Gardens and ordered him his first-ever martini. The waitress considered carding him, but then took me, I think, for a responsible, much older brother.
'Oh wowww,' he said upon tasting the cold gin, but in a pitch better suited to a young couple entering a roomy master bathroom on 'House Hunters.' I was taken with his charms and talent, and I soon pitched him on a succession crisis at America's largest Renaissance festival, just outside Houston, Texas.
But on set, with prospective subjects, this endearing young ingenue became a bumbling neurotic. It was maddening to watch. He overshared about his ex-girlfriend, his Florida home, his internet addictions. 'Put these people at ease!' I wanted to yell. 'Stop acting like you're in therapy.'
But I was coming from print magazines, and I hadn't yet encountered the Lance Method. This wasn't journalism, it was jiu jitsu. He pressed and pulled until he found a way to drop you onto his sweaty mat, and forced you to surrender to his impish charisma and good nature. A popcorn vendor would enter a three-minute conversation with Lance, and then blink to find he'd just finished a three-year collaboration.
Lance ran the set with this same inverted logic. The crew wasn't a crew. It was a writer's room, a chaotic docu-democracy that resulted in long days, frayed nerves — and a profound devotion to the work. They labored through 110-degree heat, a scurvy-inducing lack of fresh produce, and an Airbnb owner who responded to complaints about a fishy fridge by showing up with a rifle. Lance's ability to foster this collective fellowship — bordering on collective insanity — would have served him well in Jonestown. We're lucky to have him in Hollywood instead.
I may have introduced him to martinis and, later, his wife, but Lance returns favors. He's criminally generous with his Rolodex. But mostly, he nudges me to think bigger.
It was 1 a.m. and still a million degrees in Grimes County, Texas. I was grousing about the time, the many hours we'd put in that day, my feet. 'If we're not pushing past our limits,' he asked, 'then what are we doing?'
In an industry that can walk in endless circles of mediocrity, Lance has his compass set in a different direction. I'm grateful to have marched alongside him.
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