Updated October 25, 2026, 11:09 p.m. ET
Spoiler alert! We discuss major details of the Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” (in theaters now).
“You Can See Everything” raises many questions about Elizabeth Holmes.
Among them: Why does she whip her eggs like that? Does she really not understand “Who’s on first?” » And was she in cahoots with her fiancé Billy Evans to make money from the documentary?
But one of the biggest questions the film keeps returning to centers on a seemingly simple New York Times profile from 2023. In the article, reporter Amy Chozick asks Holmes about the actors who portray her in films and TV series.
“They’re not playing me. They’re playing a character I created,” Holmes reportedly told Chozick.
The quote becomes a sticking point for Holmes and Evans in “You Can See Everything,” as the pair claim she actually said, “They’re playing a character.” they created. »
Fielder focuses on this particular pronoun change and how it changes the entire meaning of the sentence: Was Holmes simply suggesting that the audience had projected their own ideas onto her? Or has the disgraced founder of Theranos actually admitted that her public persona is made up and that nothing we see is authentic?
Holmes, now incarcerated, disputed Chozick’s reporting in 2023, saying she was misquoted. But the New York Times stood by the story, even though the conversation was not recorded.
In a recent interview with the newspaper published October 22, Chozick explained that she took notes on what Holmes said, although she has since thrown away the notebook.
“I usually keep my reporter’s notebooks for a few years before getting rid of them,” Chozick told the New York Times. “My editors confirmed the quote to me in 2023 and I thought the problem was resolved. I didn’t expect the quote to be part of a documentary years later.”
Chozick goes on to share that she spent a lot of time interviewing Holmes and Evans, and that many of the “most telling moments” occurred when the recording devices were turned off.
“Holmes and I spoke at length about the persona she created at Theranos, and according to her, her romantic and business partner, Sunny Balwani, pressured her to adopt it,” says Chozick. “Holmes told me repeatedly how Balwani encouraged her to ‘kill Elizabeth’ – to wear black turtlenecks, not talk like a ‘little girl,’ drink green juice, become vegan, not sleep more than five hours, etc.,” which Balwani’s lawyer denied.
“Hollywood screenwriters didn’t invent black turtlenecks, deep voices, or red lipstick,” adds Chozick.
Field player and co-director Lance Oppenheim concludes that we are all unknowable and that true authenticity doesn’t exist, especially when the cameras are rolling. “You Can See Everything” posits that it is not our place to judge what is genuine and what is not in Holmes’ relationship with Evans, and that any attempts at “radical transparency” in this film are ultimately futile.
Chozick also argues that the famous Holmes is much more self-aware than she lets on.
“I’ve profiled some of the most controversial figures of our time and I’m always surprised by the details or quotes that touch on them,” Chozick says. During their time together, “Holmes spoke openly, over several days, about the persona she created at Theranos. It was the first interview she’d given since the blood-testing company’s implosion, and she looked and sounded like a completely different person than the public persona people remembered.
“How and why she created this character was a subject we returned to several times.”
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