The A24 documentary You Can See Everything has taken the cinematic landscape by storm, captivating audiences not only with its unprecedented subject matter—disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes—but also with a series of moments so brazenly unexpected that they have dominated cultural discourse. Chief among them is a startling, unvarnished full-frontal shower scene featuring Billy Evans, the partner of Holmes. For a documentary that promised a raw, unfiltered look into the twilight of Holmes’s freedom before her 11-year federal prison sentence, the scene broke barriers even seasoned filmmakers rarely attempt to breach.
Co-directed by acclaimed filmmaker Lance Oppenheim and visionary creator Nathan Fielder, the buzzy project spent more than three years quietly in development before hitting theaters on October 16. While viewers anticipated a deep-dive character study examining the final month of liberty for the woman convicted of massive wire fraud and conspiracy, few walked into the theater expecting to encounter Evans’s candid and completely unrestricted personal exposure.
As the film continues its historic theatrical run, breaking records at the box office and entering major conversations for the upcoming awards season, the origins of this jarring sequence have finally come to light, revealing an unusual dynamic between the subjects and the documentary crew.
The Genesis of a Viral Cinematic Moment
In a recent, widely discussed interview with GQ, co-director Lance Oppenheim detailed how the notorious bathroom sequence materialized. Asked to explain why Evans ultimately agreed to appear completely naked on camera, Oppenheim admitted that the motivation remains somewhat opaque, even to those who were in the room.
"I honestly don’t know. It’s beyond me, but I’ve heard interesting theories that people have when they see it," Oppenheim remarked. The director went on to describe the elaborate, multi-angled setup of the scene, which underscores the technical complexity and surreal nature of the production. "There’s a camera in the bathroom, there’s a camera that was on Nathan, there’s a camera outside the bathroom, and there’s an interaction that we see after Billy leaves where he sort of looks at the camera and smiles."
The multi-camera configuration gives viewers an omniscient perspective of the domestic environment, transforming an ordinary post-workout routine into a piece of performance-adjacent reality filmmaking. Oppenheim noted that the visual clues left in the final cut suggest a deeper psychological complexity. "So I don’t know what that means, but I feel like there’s enough stuff in there that gives me the impression that maybe he was excited that people could see everything and that there was full access, I guess. But it really beats me, honestly."
The casual nature of the invitation surprised even the crew. According to Oppenheim, the idea arose spontaneously following a workout session. "We were in the car ride on the way back from the gym, and I said to Billy, ‘We will give you some time to shower.’ And Billy responded, ‘Want to film me showering?’"
Crucially, the filmmakers offered Evans a compromise to maintain a baseline of traditional modesty, acknowledging the severe nature of public exposure in a major motion picture. Oppenheim noted that he offered to frame and shoot the sequence in a manner that would strategically avoid showing his genitals. However, Evans dismissed the accommodation entirely, stating unequivocally that he did not care about being seen naked.
Contextualizing the Controversy: Evans Goes in Blind
Adding another layer of intrigue to the controversy, Billy Evans admitted prior to the film’s theatrical debut that he had not actually watched the finished documentary. Appearing on the All-In podcast ahead of the October release, Evans expressed a mixture of apprehension and detachment regarding the project.
"I haven’t seen it. I might think this is the dumbest thing I have ever done," Evans confessed during the podcast appearance. He further conceded that even the promotional materials were jarring, noting that Elizabeth Holmes "looks insane" in the official trailer.
This nonchalant, almost detached attitude toward the project has become a central talking point for media analysts and audiences alike. To many observers, the willingness of a high-profile figure linked to one of the biggest corporate frauds of the 21st century to grant total, unvetted access to a documentary crew—without even previewing the final cut—points to a profound disconnect from standard public relations protocols.
A Three-Year Undertaking: The Making of You Can See Everything
To understand the weight of the documentary, one must look at the meticulous timeline of its creation. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim spent more than three years quietly developing You Can See Everything. The project was constructed away from the traditional Hollywood glare, allowing the filmmakers to secure an extraordinary level of proximity to Elizabeth Holmes during the final weeks before she was mandated to report to federal prison.
Holmes was convicted in January 2022 on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy related to her blood-testing startup, Theranos, which once commanded a $9 billion valuation before collapsing amid revelations of widespread technological deception. Following a series of legal appeals and delays, a federal judge sentenced her to 11 years and three months in federal prison. She ultimately surrendered to custody at FPC Bryan in Texas in May 2023.
The documentary captures the surreal atmosphere of her final month of freedom, blending Fielder’s signature deadpan, observational absurdity with Oppenheim’s flair for idiosyncratic documentary portraiture. The result is an unsettling, tragicomic, and utterly compelling examination of human psychology under the crushing weight of impending incarceration.
Box Office Phenomenon and Historic Opening Numbers
Commercially, You Can See Everything has outperformed even the most optimistic projections from distributor A24. The film opened on October 16 to a staggering $15.6 million from just 855 theaters. Industry analysts immediately noted the historic nature of the debut, marking the largest opening weekend for a nonmusical documentary in two decades.
The momentum did not slow down during its sophomore outing. Following a massive theatrical expansion to 2,655 venues, the documentary pulled in an additional $19.5 million, holding strong against major studio franchise competitors. The extraordinary box office performance signals a shifting appetite among modern theatergoers, who are increasingly drawn to high-concept, highly provocative documentary storytelling that offers theatrical-grade spectacle alongside investigative journalism.
Unprecedented Awards Season Aspirations
The commercial success of You Can See Everything has been mirrored by aggressive positioning from its studio for the upcoming awards season. While documentaries routinely compete in categories dedicated to non-fiction filmmaking, A24 has chosen to mount a historic, cross-category campaign that challenges conventional boundaries between documentary and narrative features.
According to A24’s official awards consideration site, the film is not only being submitted for Best Documentary Feature at the 99th Academy Awards, but it is also being pushed across the board in major competitive categories:
- Best Picture
- Best Director (Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim)
- Best Production Design
- Best Cinematography
- Best Costume Design
- Best Film Editing
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Best Sound
- Best Original Score
This comprehensive awards push has sparked intense debate among industry insiders regarding the classification of hybrid cinematic projects. By utilizing stylized re-enactments, immersive multi-camera setups, and unique narrative pacing, Fielder and Oppenheim have blurred the lines of traditional non-fiction filmmaking, prompting Academy voters to consider whether a documentary can successfully compete on equal footing with narrative dramas in core technical and artistic categories.
Implications and Broader Cultural Impact
The inclusion of Billy Evans’s shower scene and his subsequent, unfiltered commentary serve as a microcosm for the entire documentary: an unapologetic dive into the absurdities of modern notoriety. Where past investigative pieces on Theranos focused heavily on corporate malfeasance, victim testimonies, and the technical failures of the Edison blood-testing machine, You Can See Everything pivots inward, exploring the bizarre domestic reality of individuals caught in the gravitational pull of historical infamy.
As the film maintains its strong hold on box office charts and storms toward the awards season, the conversation surrounding consent, access, and the ethics of documentary filmmaking will likely persist. Whether Evans’s willingness to bare all was an act of calculated bravado, naive indifference, or genuine performance art remains open to interpretation. What is certain, however, is that You Can See Everything has permanently altered the playbook for how contemporary true-crime and high-profile biographical documentaries are conceived, marketed, and consumed.
