Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris is considering making public a previously hidden two-hour interview with disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, filmed during her peak years of success.
The footage, captured back in 2015 when Holmes was still riding high as the wunderkind CEO of the blood-testing startup, offers a rare glimpse into the woman behind the headlines before her empire crumbled.
A Portrait in Contradictions
Morris, renowned for films like The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War, was originally commissioned by Holmes to create promotional materials for Theranos at a time when she graced magazine covers and commanded attention in Silicon Valley.
During that period, he also conducted a separate, in-depth interview with Holmes, portions of which later surfaced in Alex Gibney’s 2019 documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.
“I did film a two-hour interview with her, which is not very well-known if it is known at all,” Morris told Variety. “And I just watched that. I am sincerely interested in putting that out as an unedited film.”
His motivation? “If anything, it gives you a comparison of Elizabeth before and Elizabeth after, which I think is interesting in and of itself,” he explained.
Blind Trust in a Fraudulent Dream
Morris revealed he had no suspicions about Theranos’ fraudulent activities when he worked with Holmes years ago.
“What’s really not known about any of this is, yes, I did all the advertising for Theranos,” he said. “But I did it at a time when Elizabeth Holmes was on the front cover of Forbes and many other magazines. She was riding high, and this was before everything collapsed. Did I have any reason to believe that she was a fraud? I did not. Did that change as time went on? It did.”
The footage has remained largely unseen, with only Morris and his office staff having access to it. When asked why it had never been released, he admitted uncertainty: “Because the company fell apart and she was prosecuted… but I can’t really answer it. The clearest answer is that I’d moved on.”
A Changed Perspective on Self-Belief
Theranos promised to revolutionise blood testing with technology requiring only tiny samples, but those claims unraveled under scrutiny. In 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison after being convicted of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. She was acquitted of charges related to defrauding patients.
Recently, Holmes has returned to public consciousness through You Can See Everything, a secretly filmed documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. The nearly three-hour film documents Holmes and her partner Billy Evans in the months leading up to her imprisonment, earning critical acclaim and a record-breaking $15.6 million opening weekend across 855 cinemas.
While Morris hasn’t yet seen the new documentary, he expressed more curiosity about Holmes’ psychology than her veracity. “What interests me is: To what extent was she self-deceived? To what extent did she believe in her own bullshit?”
After revisiting his own interview footage, Morris reached a simple conclusion: Holmes was “a true believer.”
Why it Matters
This potential release comes at a time when society continues grappling with questions of accountability, ambition, and the fine line between visionary leadership and dangerous deception. A raw, unfiltered interview from Holmes’ most triumphant days could offer unprecedented insight into how charisma and confidence can mask fundamental flaws in judgment. As audiences remain fascinated by the Theranos saga, Morris’ footage may finally provide the missing chapter that explains not just what happened, but who Elizabeth Holmes truly believed herself to be.
