It’s a face that will make your blood run cold.
Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes has pushed herself back into the public consciousness with the most disconcerting smile imaginable in the trailer for a new Netflix documentary secretly filmed about her life.
And there’s a reason people having such a visceral reaction, according to a body language expert who called her behavior “psychopathic” and “almost not human.”
Holmes’ wild-eyed, unblinking gaze and repeated insistence that she’s “not deceiving” filmmakers has sparked a flurry of online commentary since a trailer for the doc, titled “You Can See Everything,” was released after its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend.
The minute-long, close-up clip features an awkward exchange between the Silicon Valley scammer and Canadian comic Nathan Fielder – during which Holmes’ intense stare is impossible to miss.
“She’s got laser-focused eye contact, wide-eyed, no blinking – not even a little blinking…It’s like a stalker stare, which is what everybody is talking about,” body language expert Susan Constantine told The Post.
“A lot of psychopaths do that because they’re trying to be convincing. She has the raised eyebrows, staring eyes and wide-open smile, which is also what we call ‘dooping delight,’” Constantine said.
The phrase refers to “that smile a person gets if they are pulling over a big whopper and they feel like they’re being successful with it,” she explained.
“Natural expressions don’t freeze on the face – they are on and off…which is how I know it’s performative,” Constantine said.
Holmes’ eerie eye contact and slight head nods throughout the clip suggest “she’s trying to persuade” Fielder of what she’s saying and could even be interpreted as intimidation tactics, the expert said.
Taken altogether, Holmes’ questionable body language and bizarre choice of words reveal “massive clusters of deception,” according to Constantine, who also specializes in statement analysis.
As the trailer begins with an extreme close-up of Holmes’ face, she tells Fielder: “I’m not that person. I can promise you that. 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 – there’s no reason for me to do that,” she continues.
According to Constantine, Holmes’ use of the present-tense is telling.
“It’s like saying, ‘I don’t have anything in my pocket to deceive you on – right now’…instead of just, ‘No, I’m not deceiving you,’” Constantine explained.
“She’s answering the logic behind the accusation before giving the denial.”
Holmes’ use of the phrase “of course” also appears calculated, suggesting it should “seem obvious” that she’s telling the truth. And her declaration of “I promise” signals yet another desperate attempt to seem persuasive, the expert said.
At another point in the clip, Holmes slightly softens her voice while tilting her head to the side – a shift that marks an attempt to seem vulnerable or likeable, Constantine said.
However, it was obvious from Fielder’s expressions – specifically, slight movements in his mouth – that he wasn’t buying what Holmes was selling, she noted.
Overall, the Holmes depicted so far in the documentary – which was filmed just a month before she began serving an 11-year federal prison sentence in 2023 – is markedly different than the phony start-up wunderkind Constantine began analyzing in footage of Theranos investor meetings dating back to 2013.
“Here, she’s not as commanding,” Constantine said about the trailer, and pointed to the lower-octave voice Holmes adopted in the early years of her bogus company in order to seem more authoritative in business settings.
Today, “Her voice has softened in volume…it seems a little exhausted.”
Still, the fraudster has long appeared to be “performative,” Constantine said, as well as “highly aware of how [she’s] being perceived.”
“So it’s almost as if she is always acting and she’s not even in touch with her real self.”
Holmes, the founder of the now-defunct blood testing startup, was convicted in 2022 on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy for cheating investors. She was ordered to pay $452 million in restitution.
Prosecutors said Holmes lied to investors from 2010 to 2015 by promising Theranos’ technology could run many medical tests on a single drop of blood from a finger prick.
In November 2022, she was sentenced to 11 years and three months behind bars and is housed inside the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan — the same lockup which is home to Jeffrey Epstein’s madam, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Holmes, however, is eligible for release on Dec. 30, 2031 after having a year shaved off her sentence.
She continues to maintain her innocence, telling People last year: “I refused to plead guilty to crimes I did not commit.”
Constantine – who will use Holmes as the primary case study in her new book titled “How to Spot a Liar in 7 Seconds,” which will be released in February – said she knew Holmes was lying about her technology back in 2013 — based solely off of her behavior.
And she didn’t mince words in her assessment of the new footage: “She’s a psychopath.”
