Amanda Seyfried’s performance brings Elizabeth Holmes to tears

Elizabeth Holmes became emotional while watching Amanda Seyfried portray her in the television drama The Dropout, revisiting a difficult period in her life. The moment appears in a new documentary titled You Can See Everything, which premiered on Friday, October 16, offering viewers an unusual look at the former Theranos founder and her personal experiences.

Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the documentary explores Holmes’ life through a different perspective, including her reaction to a dramatized version of her controversial business journey. The project captures a deeply personal moment as Holmes watches the series alongside her partner, Billy Evans.

In one scene from the documentary, Fielder encourages Holmes and Evans to watch The Dropout, a 2022 biographical television miniseries that follows Holmes’ rise in the business world and the eventual downfall of her blood-testing company, Theranos. The series examines the ambition, promises and controversies surrounding Holmes and the technology that once attracted widespread attention.

As the couple watches the show together in bed, Holmes struggles to control her emotions during a particular scene. In the sequence, Seyfried, playing Holmes, angrily demands money from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The portrayal appears to bring back difficult memories for the former businesswoman, who becomes visibly upset.

Holmes eventually bursts into tears and asks Evans to turn off the show. Her reaction provides a glimpse into how she responds to seeing important events from her past recreated on screen. Although the documentary does not change the public record surrounding Theranos, it offers viewers an opportunity to observe Holmes’ personal response to a dramatization of her story.

Seyfried’s performance in The Dropout received widespread recognition and earned her her first Primetime Emmy Award in 2022. She won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her portrayal of Holmes, bringing attention to the remarkable transformation required to play the controversial entrepreneur.

Elizabeth Holmes and the rise of Theranos

Elizabeth Anne Holmes is an American businesswoman who became widely known for founding Theranos, a healthcare technology company that promised to transform medical testing. She established the company in 2003 at the age of 19 after leaving Stanford University.

Theranos attracted considerable interest by claiming that its technology could perform hundreds of medical tests using only a tiny amount of blood collected through a finger prick. The idea promised a simpler, faster and potentially less expensive alternative to conventional blood testing.

The company’s claims helped it secure more than $700 million from prominent investors. Between 2013 and 2015, Theranos reached a valuation of approximately $9 billion, making Holmes a celebrated figure in the technology and business communities. Her rapid rise attracted considerable media attention, and she became associated with the promise of innovation in healthcare.

However, the company’s technology failed to deliver the results it had advertised. Investigations revealed that Theranos relied on conventional commercial laboratory equipment for many tests instead of consistently using its own technology as promised. The company also diluted blood samples in certain testing processes, raising concerns about the accuracy and reliability of its results.

In 2015, investigative reporting exposed serious problems with the company’s practices. The revelations triggered regulatory scrutiny, damaged investor confidence and contributed to Theranos’ eventual collapse.

Holmes was later convicted of fraud-related charges connected to misleading investors about the company’s technology and business operations. Her story became a prominent example of the dangers of exaggerated corporate claims and insufficient oversight in the technology industry.

Through The Dropout, Seyfried helped bring the complicated story to television audiences. Now, Holmes’ emotional reaction to the series in You Can See Everything adds another dimension to the public narrative surrounding her rise, the collapse of Theranos and the lasting consequences of the scandal.