Nathan Fielder has admitted he is still unsure what he experienced during the making of his documentary about Elizabeth Holmes.
Fielder, 43, made the confession at a Q&A following a screening earlier this month for “You Can See Everything,” the A24 documentary he co-directed with Lance Oppenheim about the disgraced Theranos founder. The film has grossed more than $45 million at the box office and is being discussed as a potential Oscar contender, but its production was marked by an unusual intimacy between filmmakers and subject.
Sources familiar with the production said that Fielder appeared to develop more than a passing fondness for Holmes during filming. “I think Nathan fell in love with Lizzie,” said a well-placed movie source. “I think he totally fell for her.”
“Nathan knows how he feels about Elizabeth. Whether he shares his feelings in public is yet to be seen,” added another source close to the production.
Fielder and Oppenheim moved into the small rental home in Del Mar, Calif., that Holmes, 42, shared with her longtime partner Billy Evans, 34, and their two young children, William, now 5, and Invicta, now 3, for 34 days leading up to Holmes’ surrender to prison in May 2023. The crew played guitar for the kids, helped babysit, and celebrated birthdays together during what the production source described as “a three-year-plus process and a pretty all-consuming experience.”
“It was a three-year-plus process and a pretty all-consuming experience, so you inevitably develop a bond,” said the source. “It wasn’t just showing up, getting the footage and going home.”
The documentary was filmed shortly before Holmes began serving her reduced sentence of roughly 10 years and three months for fraud related to blood test company Theranos. The “revolutionary” company she founded raised a valuation of $9 billion before being exposed as a con. In January 2022, a federal jury found Holmes guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud involving more than $140 million in investor funds. She was acquitted of charges related to defrauding patients.
Evans, who refers to Holmes as his “wife” despite the couple not being legally married, has mixed feelings about the film despite being the one who brought Fielder on board. He told pals he did not agree to a much-publicized full-frontal nude scene, which left him “feeling violated.” There are also moments where he is seen as controlling, including wrestling a bowl away from Holmes as she tries to inexpertly whisk eggs.
Before the film’s release, Evans told the “All-In Podcast,” “I haven’t seen it. I might think this is the dumbest thing I have ever done.”
“I wanted our kids to be more like her than me, that’s when I knew,” Evans told the podcast of starting a family with Holmes. “Wills is so much like his mom. He has an enormous heart, and he isn’t afraid to show it.”
The film’s meta-documentary approach has raised questions about how much of what viewers are watching actually happened. Some of the documentary’s most consequential conversations were never captured on camera. Instead, actors step in to recreate them, including Amanda Seyfried reprising her role as Holmes from the 2022 Hulu hit “The Dropout.”
In a reenactment, Evans — played by Christopher Abbott — raises the prospect of profit participation with Fielder, Oppenheim and A24 executives after Holmes leaves the room to check on the children. Fielder tries to remember exactly what Holmes said during the visit, asking Seyfried to help reconstruct the exchange and working through the wording aloud. Did Holmes say she knew Evans was “talking to you about it”? Or did she say he was “talking to you about something”?
Seyfried then questions whether Fielder’s feelings toward Elizabeth have influenced his interpretation. Their final exchange ends with her saying: “It’s very complicated.”
Fielder has been open about his strained relationship with Evans. Following the screening earlier this month, he claimed that Evans, the scion of a wealthy hospitality group, “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 A24.”
“We sort of had to stop,” he added. “Communication broke down basically, and we’ve been in that state for a little bit. So it’s been challenging in that way.”
One industry insider said the profit-negotiation sequence was highly unusual. “You always negotiate any backend profits before a deal gets signed. I have a hard time believing this played out the way it did on screen,” said the insider.
“It’s interesting that this became such a central question only through reenactments. You have to wonder whether A24 regretted the terms and wanted a way out,” the insider continued.
Fielder himself remains uncertain about the entire experience. “I still am not sure to this day what I experienced,” he said at the Q&A, “And it’s one of the reasons I’m excited for it to come out and more people see it.”
As filming began, Holmes and Evans had just welcomed their daughter, their son hadn’t turned two yet, and Holmes was preparing to begin her prison sentence. The outlet can reveal that she was also undergoing IVF treatment in the hopes of having a third child after being released. “The goal was to be able to have another child when she was out,” said a source in the know.
“They knew they had no control over how any particular moment would end up playing out on film,” said the production source of Holmes and Evans. “And there were definitely some tense moments and points where they were uncomfortable. But that’s also real life.”
A friend of Evans offered a final defense. “Nathan is great at what he does, no doubt there,” the friend said. “Nobody opens their home to Nathan Fielder expecting to come out looking perfect. Whatever anyone’s opinion of Billy may be, I think we can all agree the man would walk to the ends of the earth for Elizabeth and his children.”
Reports say Holmes is expected to transfer to a halfway house next August, with her full release scheduled for February 2030.