What Elizabeth Holmes Teaches You About Being Believed on Camera
Her words, her eyes, her nod and her new look are a master class in how audiences decide who to believe. Here’s what I saw as a media trainer, and what to take into your next interview.
What does Elizabeth Holmes’s body language reveal in You Can See Everything?
In You Can See Everything, Elizabeth Holmes’s wide-eyed gaze, her habit of nodding while she talks, her softer look and her carefully built denials all push one message: I’m harmless and misunderstood. It shows how much an audience is taking in before you even speak.
I’ve spent nearly 20 years in TV and media, at Fox, Inside Edition and Netflix. As a TV news producer, I decided who got booked as an expert and which soundbite made air. Now I coach CEOs and founders on what to say when the camera is rolling and the questions get hard.
What is You Can See Everything about?
You Can See Everything is an A24 documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim that follows Elizabeth Holmes in the weeks before she reported to prison in 2023.
Quick refresher: Holmes founded Theranos, the blood-testing company once valued at about $9 billion. She was convicted in 2022 of defrauding investors and is serving a sentence of just over 10 years.
Holmes invited the filmmakers into her home with her partner, Billy Evans, and their two young children. The film opened to an estimated $15 million, the biggest documentary opening in more than 20 years, and hit $45.1 million in two weeks.
Everyone is talking about the twists. I couldn’t stop thinking about the messaging.
How has Elizabeth Holmes changed her image?
Holmes traded the black turtleneck, red lipstick and deep baritone for loose waves, a bare face, a softer voice and a new name: Liz.
The old Holmes said visionary. Serious. Steve Jobs. The new Holmes says mom. Partner. Regular person who got swept up in something.
Every one of those changes is a message, and the words she chooses on camera follow the same script. Here are the five patterns I spotted, each with a name so you can catch them in your own interviews.
1. The Non-Denial Denial
Holmes stacks her denials in a row instead of saying one clear “no.” To an audience, more denials sound less believable.
In the teaser, Fielder asks if she’s being straight with him. She replies, “I don’t have anything to deceive you on. Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.”
Count them. She denies it three times and never just says “no.” One clear “no” sounds true. Three sounds like a sales pitch.
Then look at how it ends. “Why would I deceive you?” is a question. It hands the burden back to the person asking. Now he has to come up with a reason.
When I prep a CEO for a tough interview, this is the first habit we cut. One clear sentence. Then stop talking. The more you protest, the more people wonder why.
2. The Naive Pivot
The Naive Pivot replaces an explanation with confusion. It’s not a denial and not an apology, and it lets the speaker skip the question.
In the trailer, Fielder asks, “You really feel you did nothing wrong?” Holmes says, “I did not.” He pushes: “Where did things get lost? Like, how are you where you are right now?”
Her answer: “I don’t feel like I understand that.”
This is the line I keep coming back to. She positions herself as someone this happened to. Naive. Maybe even a victim.
In media training, we compare “I made a mistake” with “Mistakes were made.” One owns it. One creates distance. This answer suggests Holmes still isn’t ready to take responsibility.
3. The Self-Nod: Why does Elizabeth Holmes nod while she talks?
Nodding while you speak, not while you listen, reads as agreeing with yourself, and it quietly invites the audience to agree too.
The film is shot in extreme close-up, so I couldn’t help noticing Holmes’s head. She nods constantly while she speaks.
We all nod when someone else is talking. It says, “I hear you.” What stood out to me was how often Holmes nods while she’s the one talking. I call it the Self-Nod. It works like a cue: I’m saying yes, so you say yes.
4. The Wide-Eyed Stare: What does Elizabeth Holmes’s stare mean?
Her wide, rarely blinking stare is one of the film’s most talked-about images. I could NOT stop watching her eyes. Clinical psychologist Morgan Starr-Riestis told TODAY that the stare is an example of a “dissociative gaze.” Some viewers read innocence. Others read intensity, or nerves.
Here’s what most people get wrong: you can’t spot a liar by their eyes. A 2019 review in the Annual Review of Psychology by Aldert Vrij, Maria Hartwig and Pär Anders Granhag found that nonverbal cues to deceit are faint and unreliable.
That’s exactly why her presentation matters so much. If the eyes can’t prove anything, the audience decides on feeling, and every choice on screen moves that feeling.
5. The Costume Change: Does wardrobe change how people judge you on camera?
Yes. Before you say a word, your clothes, hair, setting and who’s in the frame tell viewers who you are.
This is where my TV background kicks in. On camera, wardrobe is never just wardrobe. The black turtleneck was a uniform, as recognizable as any founder’s. Now it’s loose hair and no makeup. In the teaser, the camera pulls back mid-conversation to show her baby bouncing in a seat behind her.
Some of that is the filmmakers’ framing. Either way, the frame tells the story before she does: mother first, founder second.
She changed the voice. She didn’t change the message.
What should you do instead in a tough interview?
Say no once, answer the exact question, own one specific thing and keep your look consistent with who you are.
How can you check your own on-camera presence?
Record a 60-second answer, then review it three ways: sound only, picture only and the full frame.
Record a 60-second answer to a hard question a client actually asks you.
Listen without watching. Did you answer the question? Count your denials.
Watch with the sound off. Notice your eyes, your nodding and your hands.
Look at the frame. What do your clothes, lighting and background say before you speak?
Ask one trusted person what they remember and whether they believed you.
You’re not trying to become someone else. You’re making sure people see the expertise you already have.
Frequently asked questions
Is Elizabeth Holmes lying in You Can See Everything?
Holmes maintains she did nothing wrong. A jury convicted her in 2022 of defrauding investors. Body language can’t settle it, because research shows nonverbal cues to deceit are weak. What you can analyze is how her message is built: her denials, her deflections and her presentation.
What is a dissociative gaze?
It’s a wide, fixed stare with little blinking that some psychologists associate with stress or emotional disconnection. Clinical psychologist Morgan Starr-Riestis used the term for Holmes’s stare in the film. It describes how someone looks, not whether they’re telling the truth.
What can founders learn from the Elizabeth Holmes documentary?
Audiences judge your words, gestures and setting together, and fast. Say no once instead of stacking denials, answer the exact question, own one specific thing, and make your look and voice consistent with who you are.
Watch the breakdown
I broke down her denials, her eyes, her nod and her new look in a 1-minute video. Count the denials yourself. Watch it here.
The story an audience takes away isn’t always the one the speaker meant to tell. Your words matter. Your gestures matter. Your frame matters. You don’t need a manufactured persona. You need a clear message, and the confidence to say it once.
Grab my free On Camera Confidence guide, and for real stories of professionals who say it straight, listen to The Exit Interview.