'The Housemaid' Star Amanda Seyfried Is Facing Backlash Over Her Role in the Elizabeth Holmes Documentary 'You Can See Everything'

Few true-crime stories have been retold as often as Elizabeth Holmes’ rise and fall, and Amanda Seyfried has been tied to it ever since she played the Theranos founder in ‘The Dropout’. She won an Emmy for that performance, which made her an obvious fit for the stranger chapter now playing out on screen.

That chapter is ‘You Can See Everything,’ a three-hour documentary that A24 released in theaters on October 16. Filming started 34 days before Holmes had to report to federal prison, and the project grew into a three-year production from directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Holmes never participated in the earlier documentaries or the Hulu series about her, so access this close was a big deal.

Midway through, Seyfried appears as herself, and that appearance has become the loudest talking point around the film. She is facing harsh criticism online, with viewers tearing into her behavior and accusing her of hypocrisy.

After Holmes is incarcerated, Fielder brings in Seyfried to help recreate conversations he had with Holmes, with the actress playing Holmes in the prison visit scenes. She also reads a script built from Fielder’s real exchanges, and her guard goes up the moment she reads Holmes’ accusations.

The film also puts Holmes face to face with Seyfried’s work. Fielder has Holmes watch ‘The Dropout,’ and she breaks down in tears and asks him to turn it off, then Seyfried is shown the footage of that reaction. Holmes told The New York Times earlier that she wasn’t offended by the show because the actors weren’t playing her but a character she created.

The sharpest complaint is that Seyfried’s stance on Holmes flips when the spotlight turns on her. Some viewers accuse her of changing her tune once scrutiny shifted to her own role in bringing the Theranos scandal to television. The criticism centers on her growing sympathy for Holmes, which gives way to defensiveness once Holmes challenges how she was portrayed.

Another group of viewers is frustrated with the film itself. One pointed out that at no point does Holmes reckon with how anyone other than herself was harmed by the downfall of Theranos, and some of that frustration has landed on Seyfried by association.

Tension also flares during a dinner scene with Holmes’ partner, Billy Evans. Seyfried and Fielder press Evans over an alleged request for a share of the documentary’s profits, and a dispute over Charlie Kirk adds another point of friction.

Not everyone is buying the backlash. Other viewers argue that her changing opinion of Holmes isn’t hypocrisy but an essential part of the documentary’s larger message. One described her as someone who earnestly reckons with the consequences of her actions even when she is fairly sure she did nothing wrong.

The film itself makes it hard to say who is right. Seyfried acknowledges she doesn’t know exactly what happened in Holmes’ life, and she questions whether Fielder is protecting Holmes by showing a kinder version of her in the reenactments. Viewers are left wondering whether the on-screen Holmes is real or a fictionalized dramatization, which makes the blurry line between performance and reality part of the story.

The teaser trailer ‘YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING,’ a documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. In theaters this October. https://t.co/LHRvYLXULH
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 7, 2026

Seyfried hasn’t exactly leaned into the conversation. At the Academy Museum’s sixth annual gala in Los Angeles on October 17, she appeared reluctant to elaborate when reporters brought up Holmes. Clips of those exchanges circulated on social media and confused some viewers.

Fox News Digital reached out to her representative for comment, and as of now there’s no public response to the criticism. Given how many threads the documentary leaves dangling, the debate around her is unlikely to cool off soon.