Concerns About Surveillance During Filming
Filmmaker Nathan Fielder has revealed that he and his documentary crew suspected Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans of secretly monitoring them during the making of You Can See Everything, a film chronicling Holmes' final 34 days before beginning her federal prison sentence in May 2023.
During an October 6 panel discussion in Los Angeles moderated by Bill Hader, Fielder and co-director Lance Oppenheim described an atmosphere of increasing tension and suspicion while filming at Holmes' San Diego property. Fielder stayed in a guest house on the premises, and at one point, the crew became concerned it might be under surveillance.
"We were also worried... I don't know if it's worth saying. We were worried the guest house was bugged," Fielder admitted during the conversation. The concern arose in part because Evans had disclosed to the filmmakers that he routinely counter-recorded Holmes' media interviews to ensure accuracy.
The production team purchased a device designed to detect listening equipment, but according to Fielder, "it just beeped constantly" and proved "totally useless." Oppenheim characterized the experience as being inside "a conspiracy thriller of our own," adding that the situation "put us in a paranoid state of mind at times."
Ultimately, the filmmakers found no concrete evidence that the guest house was actually under surveillance, attributing their concerns to the unusual circumstances of the documentary production.
The Unlikely Documentary Partnership
The origin of the project itself was unconventional. Holmes initiated contact with film studio A24 to make a documentary about her life, and the studio agreed to allow Fielder and Oppenheim to proceed without guaranteeing they would complete a finished film. Fielder, creator of Comedy Central's Nathan For You and HBO's The Rehearsal, noted that Holmes and Evans seemed only vaguely familiar with his previous work.
"I never received a great explanation why you would want to spend your last month of freedom in a decade with this guy," Fielder said, drawing laughter from the audience. "Even with no cameras. I'm not the most — I like to see myself as a nice person overall, but still, I wouldn't choose me."
Evans, heir to Evans Hotels, a San Diego family business founded by his grandparents in 1953, met Holmes in 2017 at a charity event when he was 25. The couple became engaged in August 2018 and have two children together: a son, William Holmes Evans, born in July 2021, and a daughter, Invicta, born in February 2023.
Emotional Complexity and Ongoing Tensions
Fielder described the filming experience as emotionally challenging, particularly with Holmes and Evans' children present. He said he repeatedly offered to terminate the project if the couple felt uncomfortable. "I did say to them almost every day when tensions would flare, I was like, 'Honestly, if you want us to go, we will go. We will pull the plug right now and it's totally fine,'" Fielder recalled.
"They were always like, 'No, no, we want to keep going.' Even when it would get tense. It was strange," he added.
The documentary captures a particularly revealing moment when Holmes appears unable to recognize how statements she presented as truth could be perceived as lies. Following that scene, the crew retreated to the guest house to discuss what they had witnessed, which is when their concerns about potential surveillance arose.
Oppenheim noted that different crew members came away with "different opinions" about their experience with Holmes and Evans. Communication with the couple deteriorated as the filmmakers completed post-production. "Communication broke down, basically," Fielder said, explaining that Evans "started trying to exert a level of control over the process that made it very hard to engage with him, and it was uncomfortable for us and also A24 and everyone."
As of the panel discussion, neither Holmes nor Evans had seen the completed documentary.
The Theranos Conviction
Holmes' prison sentence stems from her conviction on January 3, 2022 on four counts of fraud and conspiracy: one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud relating to defrauding investors of more than $140 million. She was sentenced on November 18, 2022 to 11 years and 3 months in federal prison, later reduced to 10 years and 3 months in March 2026 by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila.
Holmes began serving her sentence on May 30, 2023 at Federal Prison Camp Bryan, a minimum-security women's facility in Bryan, Texas.
The former Theranos CEO had dropped out of Stanford University at age 19 in 2003 to found her blood-testing startup, which claimed its devices could perform a wide range of diagnostic tests using just a few drops of blood from a finger prick. At its peak, Theranos was valued at more than $9 billion and attracted prominent investors including Rupert Murdoch, the Walton family, and Betsy DeVos. The company's board included former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, as well as former Defense Secretary James Mattis.
The company's claims unraveled after The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou published investigations in 2015 revealing that Theranos' technology did not work as advertised and could produce faulty results. The company dissolved in September 2018.
You Can See Everything is currently playing in theaters.
