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There's so much more to this documentary than meets the eye. Join us as we dive into the incredible behind-the-scenes facts from "You Can See Everything," the A24 documentary featuring Elizabeth Holmes, Nathan Fielder, and a surprise appearance from Amanda Seyfried that nobody saw coming!
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 10 incredible behind-the-scenes facts from You Can See Everything.
00:06We will be getting into spoilers, including that one.
00:10You're being real right now?
00:12I'm always being real.
00:14Holmes and Evans were involved before Fielder.
00:17Obviously, A24 couldn't have made this documentary without the participation of Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans.
00:24Come jump in with me, hmm?
00:26You're asking me to go?
00:28Yeah.
00:28Still, you can see everything wouldn't be the unique experience it is without directors Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder.
00:35One might assume Oppenheim and Fielder approached A24 about doing an Elizabeth Holmes doc, but it was the other way
00:41around.
00:42I think this is the moment in time to capture this story before I'm gone.
00:50According to Oppenheim, quote,
00:52She was looking for someone to document her life, and she had reached out to A24, which I thought was
00:57strange for a few reasons.
00:58You know, I knew that she hadn't been in public, really, for years, and, um, when we started talking about
01:05it, yeah.
01:05And spoken, I think, to anyone in, I think, seven years.
01:09Fielder speculated that Holmes didn't want someone with a personal connection to direct the film because, quote,
01:14no one would take that seriously.
01:15Who knows if this is the movie that Holmes envisioned?
01:18She certainly got an outsider's perspective, though.
01:21I still have this weird feeling that there's some things that I'm not seeing.
01:27It's because I don't have anything to hide.
01:29A trip to the magic castle inspired the film.
01:32Fielder and Oppenheim initially became friends over email, having already seen each other's work.
01:36I was a huge fan of Nathan's, and, uh, he had seen my first film, Some Kind of Heaven, and
01:43I had Magnolia Pictures put that movie out,
01:45and there was, like, a screening service called Indie TV, and I could track who was watching the movie.
01:51And I saw that Nathan watched, like, 60% of the documentary.
01:55The two considered a collaboration, a film about the educational organization Toastmasters International being one possibility.
02:01They got another idea upon attending a performance at L.A.'s Magic Castle in 2023.
02:06The magician asked the audience for a celebrity's name, and someone said Elizabeth Holmes.
02:11That random person changed everything, reminding Oppenheim that Holmes had been speaking with A24.
02:16A light bulb went off in my head because earlier that day, I had heard from someone who basically told
02:23me that A24 was interested in working with her,
02:25and that she had sought out A24 to look for a documentary crew to document, you know, her life.
02:32Fielder initially didn't think there was anything left to be said about Holmes in a documentary.
02:36When Oppenheim suggested such a project, though, Fielder, quote,
02:40was really curious to meet Holmes, just as a personal thing.
02:43As well documented as Theranos' rise and fall is, Fielder found there was much more to see.
02:49I mean, it took me a really long time to be okay with, um, with letting someone see me cry.
03:01It was filmed in secrecy.
03:03Despite being in the works for almost three years, most people didn't even learn this documentary existed
03:08until its surprise debut at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2026.
03:12You know, we made this movie over many years, and the thing that kind of started to happen is you
03:18begin to see
03:20sort of patterns emerge and behaviors that you would never have known if you had just done this
03:25kind of, you know, uh, maybe more conventionally or through, like, an interview over a couple of days.
03:31When we say surprise, we mean most people in the Telluride audience didn't even know what they were gonna watch
03:36until Fielder introduced the film.
03:38From the get-go, this movie's production was kept largely confidential.
03:41Fielder claims the crew included about seven individuals.
03:45Only four at a time were allowed to be in Holmes' home.
03:48And this was like a whole dance we did.
03:50We had no lighting.
03:52And our DP, David Boland, found a way to make shots look beautiful
03:56by only having a single light source, like, in the day or the night.
04:02As long as there was a light, he could sort of make it work.
04:05While the crew was small, they were given access to the whole house for 16-hour-day shoots.
04:09According to the Wall Street Journal, fewer than 10 employees at A24 knew the film was in development
04:16throughout its three-year journey.
04:17We said to A24, like, we cannot promise we'll deliver anything on this.
04:23We don't know what the story is, but we wanted to see what will happen if we go with cameras.
04:28And they were like, okay, that's fine.
04:29And if you want to pull the plug anytime, you can do it.
04:32So that was, like, amazing.
04:34Many declined to appear in the doc.
04:37Fielder has in-depth conversations with Holmes, Evans, and a certain special guest.
04:41Aside from Holmes' parents, though, not many others close to the subject appear in You Can See Everything.
04:46Does any part of you worry about me being here 24-7?
04:51I don't think so.
04:52This wasn't due to a lack of trying on Oppenheim and Fielder's behalf.
04:55The filmmakers claim that they reached out to various people who knew Holmes and had worked with her.
05:00Pretty much all of them rejected the opportunity to participate.
05:04She created this whole web of lies.
05:06As Fielder put it, quote,
05:08Liz is toxic to people.
05:10People did not want to appear in this, or people from the past were just sort of done with her.
05:14This may have worked to the film's advantage.
05:17Sometimes, the fewer talking heads, the more a documentary has to say.
05:23What if I see something that makes you look bad?
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05:33There's no plan of what's going to happen next at any point.
05:37Fielder learned to fly a plane while this movie was in the works.
05:40This documentary isn't the only project Fielder has been working on for the past three years.
05:45Most notably, season two of the rehearsal debuted in April 2025.
05:50I've been studying commercial aviation disasters sort of as a hobby.
05:54Okay.
05:55And I've been staging my own recreations of these disasters to better understand what's really going on.
06:03A major plot point of that docu-comedy saw Fielder learn to fly a Boeing 737.
06:07Yes, that was real.
06:09In May 2025, Fielder said he, quote,
06:12trained for almost two and a half years.
06:14That means around the same time he started shooting You Can See Everything in April 2023,
06:19he was also taking the first steps towards receiving a commercial pilot's license.
06:25Runway 2-4, when called, clear for takeoff.
06:28Runway 2-4, clear for takeoff.
06:30Fielder finished his work on You Can See Everything shortly after the rehearsal season two aired.
06:34So, within three years, he got inside the heads of Elizabeth Holmes and Sully Sullenberger.
06:40Oppenheim was equally busy, juggling this and Primetime.
06:44You see how this looks, right?
06:46Emma Stone's unlikely role.
06:48We're not sure what was a better kept secret,
06:50that this movie existed or that Amanda Seyfried was in it.
06:53It's Nathan Fielder and I know what he does.
06:57It's wild and everybody is saying that it's wild.
06:59Emma Stone may be the film's unsung hero,
07:02bringing Fielder and Seyfried together.
07:04Stone and Fielder previously co-starred in the Showtime series The Curse.
07:07How much have we been charged total for those jeans?
07:12Roughly $14,000-ish.
07:14I know, I know that it's too much.
07:16I know that we need to put a stop to it.
07:18I understand.
07:19I just expected more from people, you know?
07:22Stone also just so happens to be friends with Seyfried,
07:25starting a dialogue between the two.
07:27Seyfried and Fielder got in touch over Zoom,
07:29with the latter asking if she would shoot a reaction for a secret Elizabeth Holmes project
07:33he was working on. The dropout actress agreed, but she feared getting, quote,
07:37punked, being familiar with Fielder's past work. So for anyone curious why Stone got a special
07:42thanks in the credits, it's because she's kind of responsible for the second half.
07:46Seyfried was meant to have less screen time. After shooting the 34 days leading up to Holmes's
07:52incarceration, Oppenheim and Fielder still weren't entirely sure what they had.
07:55I feel like our brains were scrambled, and we were also unsure for so long if we even had
08:02anything that was worthwhile. By showing Seyfried some of the footage they already shot,
08:07the directors hoped to achieve, quote, a deeper understanding of what they'd make.
08:11Seyfried's initial reaction in the film was supposed to be the extent of her involvement.
08:15It wasn't until Seyfried suggested that she reprise her role as Holmes that the documentary's
08:20second act started to take shape.
08:21Here at Theros, we are developing new technology.
08:29Seyfried's The Testament of Anne Lee co-star Christopher Abbott was also enlisted to play
08:34Evans. And that's how a small cameo snowballed into an essential role that could potentially
08:39be nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. Seyfried already has the Emmy for
08:44portraying Holmes.
08:45I did everything right. I... I followed all the steps.
08:51That shower scene was spontaneous. The film is called You Can See Everything, but we didn't
08:56think that would include Billy Evans' nether regions.
08:58I mean, weren't you worried she was, uh, sort of scamming you?
09:02A hundred percent, but what did she have to gain from me?
09:04The filmmakers did not go in expecting to capture full frontal nudity on camera either.
09:08The crew wasn't prepared when Evans returned from the gym and popped into the shower, giving
09:13them a good look. Oppenheim believes, quote, he really had something he wanted to show
09:18to us and to the world. Evans reportedly gave a conflicting account. A source claims that
09:23Evans was told the nudity wouldn't make the final cut for legal purposes.
09:27I know what you're feeling.
09:29No, you don't.
09:30Whether Evans offered to be filmed nude as Oppenheim suggests, he knew the cameras were
09:35rolling while his junk was out. Had Evans been more modest,
09:38this film might have been PG-13. The film could have been abandoned.
09:43When Fielder and Oppenheim were invited into Holmes' home,
09:46they had no idea what they were going to walk away with.
09:48You've never been suspicious that she's ever lied to you.
09:52No, never.
09:53Maybe something fascinating. Maybe something boring, repetitive, and or unreleasable.
09:59In case it was the latter, Fielder negotiated for the project to have a kill switch.
10:03If the filmmaker started production and found there wasn't anything worth further pursuing,
10:08they could, as Oppenheim put it, quote,
10:10throw it in the garbage can.
10:11I'm sort of like, man, I wish I could have that for every project,
10:14because then it really, it feels like you're just operating purely out of like a creative,
10:18almost just complete out of curiosity.
10:21Although that would also mean throwing away any money invested,
10:24824 agreed to these terms.
10:26This gave the directors more room to find an angle without interference or pressure from the studio.
10:31While Fielder and Oppenheim were free to walk away at any time,
10:35it fortunately didn't come to that.
10:37There were all these different revelations that happened over the course of it
10:40that were surprising to us that kept sort of changing, you know,
10:45sort of the, like, I guess the central locus of our attention.
10:50Fielder wasn't supposed to be on camera or direct.
10:54Fielder wasn't sure what direction this project was heading in,
10:57but he knew one thing.
10:58He, quote,
11:08During filming, though, Holmes and Evans started asking Fielder questions.
11:13At first, Fielder would answer off-camera.
11:15As the conversations became longer, the camera started to focus on Fielder.
11:19He was also compelled to interject when Holmes and Evans said something that sounded off.
11:23Well, isn't your family rich?
11:26Yeah, I think that there's, like, a lot of different levels of wealth.
11:30It wasn't long until Fielder and Oppenheim decided not only that they should direct the film together,
11:34but that Fielder's interactions with the couple would be integral to whatever it was they were making.
11:44Do you have any fun facts about You Can See Everything to share?
11:47Let us know in the comments.