Nathan Fielder’s Film Follows Elizabeth Holmes Before Prison, Behind Bars
Nathan Fielder’s three-hour film follows Elizabeth Holmes before she enters prison, then uses an actor to recreate conversations while she serves her sentence. The project marks Holmes’ first time speaking to the press since 2016 and tests the boundary between documentary and performance.
Nathan Fielder’s three-hour film You Can See Everything follows Elizabeth Holmes in the 34 days before she entered prison and reconstructs conversations from her time behind bars. Can you see everything in a documentary built around staged scenes? The film keeps that question unsettled.
Co-directed by Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the project begins at Holmes and her partner Billy Evans’ rented beach house in Southern California. Cameras in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen create the impression of near-total access to their private life.
The film marks Holmes’ first time speaking to the press since 2016. She and Evans pitched the documentary to production company A24; Fielder joined the project later.
Holmes before prison
The first part follows Holmes during her final 34 days before entering prison. It presents both the public image of the Theranos founder and scenes of her as a new mother, including moments with her newborn, Ivy.
Holmes was 19 when she founded Theranos, which promised a portable machine able to run hundreds of tests from a finger-prick blood sample. The company did not deliver on those promises.
In 2022, Holmes was convicted of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy and sentenced to 11 years in prison. She maintains her innocence.
“I’m always being real,” Holmes tells Fielder. When challenged about her claims for Theranos, she says, “I was just trying to communicate the best I could.”
The film follows Fielder as he tries to reconcile Holmes’ account with the conflicting versions of her presented over time. Its central tension is whether her apparent sincerity is genuine or another performance.
An actor takes Holmes’ place
The second part is set in 2025, when Holmes is serving her sentence in a minimum-security federal prison in Texas and is largely unavailable to the filmmakers. Fielder hires an actor to stand in for her during re-enactments of their conversations.
Those scenes shift the film further from straightforward documentary. Fielder and the actor revisit Holmes’ behavior and possible motivations, while the staged exchanges blur the boundary between recorded events and recreation.
Fielder has questioned why Holmes agreed to let him into her private life before prison. “I’m not the most, like, comforting,” he says.
