Updated

Updated · ELLE · Oct 17

Billy Evans Says Elizabeth Holmes Looks “Insane” in Trailer for A24 Prison Documentary

Updated

Updated · ELLE · Oct 17

Billy Evans Says Elizabeth Holmes Looks “Insane” in Trailer for A24 Prison Documentary

Q: Why did Elizabeth Holmes's partner create an AI version of her while secretly controlling her social media from the outside?

Billy Evans appears to have created the AI version of Elizabeth Holmes and managed her social media mainly to preserve her presence and control her communications while she was in prison, where she had no direct internet access. Reporting around *You Can See Everything* says Evans had broad authority over Holmes’s affairs, including power of attorney, and he acknowledged posting from her X account, sometimes without telling her. The documentary and follow-up coverage suggest he used that control to speak on her behalf to the public, business contacts and even, at times, as a stand-in for family interaction. The AI likeness served a similar purpose: keeping Holmes “present” in conversations and maintaining access to her image and voice despite her incarceration. Evans has publicly framed the effort as a way to let people see Holmes outside the long-running Theranos narrative and to present her as a real person in family life, not only as a convicted founder. But the film presents a more complicated picture. Nathan Fielder said Evans increasingly tried to control the production, and the documentary suggests the social media management and AI avatar were also tools of image management and message control. In short, the available evidence points less to one single motive than to a mix of personal loyalty, reputation management and practical communication control while Holmes was imprisoned.

3 articles · Updated · ELLE · Oct 17

Billy Evans said he has not seen You Can See Everything but, after watching its trailer, thought Elizabeth Holmes “looks insane” and admitted he is concerned about how the film will land.
On the All In podcast released Oct. 15, Evans said joining the documentary was a deliberate choice to let audiences see Holmes before and during her prison term rather than “re-litigate” the Theranos case.
The A24 film, directed with Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, shifts attention from Holmes to Evans and reportedly reveals that he posted from Holmes’s X account while she was incarcerated and initially sought payment for their participation.
Fielder said at an L.A. screening that neither Holmes nor Evans had seen the finished film and that communication with Evans broke down after he tried to exert more control over the process.
Holmes, convicted in 2022 on 4 fraud-related counts, is serving a reduced 9-year sentence in Texas; Evans has continued defending her publicly and visiting her in prison.