Elizabeth Holmes Has One More Thing To Sell: Herself
Elizabeth Holmes Has One More Thing To Sell: Herself
Eric Neuhaus Thu, September 24, 2026 at 5:49 PM UTC
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Elizabeth Holmes Has One More Thing To Sell: Herself
As the creator and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated 2024 Netflix documentary Bitconned, I spent years thinking about what happens when cameras follow someone convicted of fraud as he tells his own story.
That film's central subject, Ray Trapani, was remarkably candid about the cryptocurrency scheme he helped create. He was funny, charismatic, self-aware, and, at times, seemingly proud of how easily he persuaded people to trust him. His willingness to admit what he had done made him appear more credible. But it also raised a harder question: Was he taking responsibility, or simply finding another way to control the story?
That question returned while I watched the trailer for You Can See Everything, the new documentary about Elizabeth Holmes from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.
Thirty-four days before Holmes was due to report to federal prison (a sentence she will complete early in 2027), she invited the filmmakers into the home she shared with her partner, Billy Evans, and their children. The obvious assumption is that she wanted to replace the familiar image of the black-turtlenecked Theranos founder with something more sympathetic: a partner, a mother, and a human being facing separation from her family.
But the trailer makes clear that Fielder is not granting her an unquestioned platform. He asks whether she worries about having him there around the clock. When he follows with, “What if I see something that makes you look bad?” Holmes smiles but does not answer (at least, it appears that way as of now — I haven’t seen the entire film yet).
Later, Fielder tells her he has “a weird feeling there’s some things I’m not seeing.” Holmes replies, “It’s because I don’t have anything to hide.”
The trailer presents Fielder's skepticism as practically another character in the film — which isn't surprising, given his known style. In his HBO series The Rehearsal, Fielder used elaborate simulations and uncomfortable conversations to explore the difference between how people present themselves and how they actually behave. That makes Holmes’ decision to keep Fielder inside her home more revealing. Perhaps she didn't expect an easy portrait, but believed she could withstand the scrutiny.
Holmes built Theranos by persuading powerful and accomplished people that their doubts were misplaced. She convinced investors, board members, and business partners to trust not only her technology, but also her certainty. By inviting a skeptical filmmaker into her life, Holmes may be trying to prove to audiences or herself that she can still win people over with the truth, or what she thinks is worth believing. Holmes may still think facing tough questions on record will make her version of the story more believable. When The Wall Street Journal began exposing problems at Theranos in 2015, she responded through television interviews and public appearances, using tough questions as proof that she was a misunderstood innovator.
Fielder asks Evans whether he feared Holmes might be scamming him. Evans says yes, then asks what she could have gained from him. “Well, isn’t your family rich?” Fielder replies. Evans answers that there are “a lot of different levels of wealth.” Later, when asked whether he has ever suspected Holmes of lying to him, Evans answers, “No. Never.”
That certainty may tell us more than another denial from Holmes could. Successful deceptions rarely depend on one charismatic person alone. They need people who defend them, dismiss contradictions, and become too invested to question the story.
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The Theranos story is an extraordinary example. The technology could not reliably accomplish what the company claimed, but its larger story was even more seductive: A brilliant young woman would disrupt an entrenched industry and make healthcare less painful.
Now Holmes is selling something more intimate. In the trailer, she's at home holding a baby, interacting with Evans and crying over the prospect of leaving her family. Near the end, a tear moves down her face as she says, “It took me a really long time to be OK with letting someone see me cry.”
The emotion may be genuine. But genuine emotion is not the same thing as accountability.
A person can love her children and fear prison while still refusing to accept responsibility for the harm she caused. Documentary access lets us sit with that contradiction. Its danger is that audiences may mistake vulnerability for honesty.
The title You Can See Everything feels almost like a dare. The cameras enter the house. Holmes cries. Evans answers questions. Fielder openly voices his doubts. Yet can we really see everything?
Holmes may not have invited the filmmakers in because she calculated that she could fool them. Her motive may be more complicated: She may believe that if they remain long enough and look closely enough, they will eventually see the truth exactly as she sees it.
The unsettling question, then, is no longer simply whether Holmes is manipulating the documentary. Fielder clearly understands that possibility. The deeper question is whether Holmes knows she is shaping the truth or genuinely believes the story she is telling.
Perhaps the most convincing salespeople are those who believe their own story so deeply that they see every challenge as a misunderstanding.
Holmes once persuaded some of America’s most influential people to invest in a future that did not exist. Now she is asking an audience to invest in her understanding of what happened to her. Whether she succeeds may depend less on what the camera reveals than on what each of us is prepared to believe.
The post Elizabeth Holmes Has One More Thing To Sell: Herself appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
