In his new documentary, Nathan Fielder convinces Elizabeth Holmes to watch the Hulu series based on her life. It doesn’t go well.
*WARNING: Spoilers ahead for You Can See Everything.*
You Can See Everything follows disgraced Theranos founder Holmes, her partner Billy Evans, and their two young children in the weeks leading up to her prison stay. Holmes was convicted in January 2022 on four counts of fraud and conspiracy for lying about the capabilities of her biotech company’s blood testing technology and conning investors out of millions of dollars. She was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.
The documentary — filmed in secret over the course of three years and co-directed by Fielder and Primetime’s Lance Oppenheim — landed in theaters Friday.
Holmes revealed during the course of filming that she had never seen The Dropout, Hulu’s miniseries adaptation of the Theranos’ founder’s rise and fall. According to Hulu, the series explores “what caused the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, once heralded as ‘the next Steve Jobs,’ to lose everything in the blink of an eye.”
In the series, Holmes is depicted by Amanda Seyfried, who won an Emmy for her portrayal.
Fielder convinces Holmes and Evans to watch it, setting up a laptop in the couple’s bed and joining them for the screening. The documentary cuts between the miniseries and Holmes’s emotionless face as she continues to watch.
Eventually, after watching several scenes — including the infamous sequence in which Holmes yells “Get the f***ing money!” at Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison (played by Hart Bochner) — Holmes starts to freak out and breaks down in tears. She lies back on the bed and asks Fielder to turn it off, which he does.
The documentary then shows Evans consoling a crying Holmes, stroking her hair as the two lay in bed.
Seyfried appears in the documentary to reenact several conversations Fielder had with Holmes but didn’t or couldn’t record.
In one instance, where Seyfried and Fielder are visiting Evans after Holmes has surrendered herself to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, Holmes and Seyfried briefly speak on the phone, marking their first conversation.
Seyfried didn’t speak to Holmes prior to portraying her in The Dropout. She said during a 2022 appearance on Good Morning America: “Being able to absorb the footage and mimic somebody and try to embody somebody that actually... there’s a template out there, is very exciting.”
Seyfried concluded: “I hate to say that because it’s a real person with real consequences and a real life – and I wish her well – I just, as an actor, very specifically, it was thrilling.”
The Independent has contacted Holmes’s lawyer and Evans for comment.
You Can See Everything is in U.S. theaters now.
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