• The Dropout focuses on the Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos scandal, and the contents of the story are so outrageous that they might have easily been created for television.
• In the Hulu miniseries, which debuted on Thursday, March 3, Amanda Seyfried plays Holmes.
• The 36-year-old actress “prepared like a mother-ker” for the part by doing her research, she told Harper’s Bazaar in February.

 More bizarre than fiction. The Dropout focuses on the Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos scandal, and the contents of the story are so outrageous that they might have easily been created for television.

In the Hulu miniseries, which debuted on Thursday, March 3, Amanda Seyfried plays Holmes. The 36-year-old actress “prepared like a mother-ker” for the part by doing her research, she told Harper’s Bazaar in February.

“The first choice you have to make is no judgments when you play somebody,” the Mean Girls star elaborated. “I can’t diagnose anybody. And I also think we’re all so nuanced. We’re built on so many different experiences, from childhood to where we are now. And I got to study. There’s a lot of information out there, and I was privy to all of it.”

The Dropout is hardly the first deep dive into Holmes’ narrative in popular culture. She has already been the focus of the books Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, The Dropout (podcast), and The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (HBO documentary). So, in addition to the interviews conducted by the series’ creator, Elizabeth Meriwether, Seyfried made good use of the material that was already available.

“We got the information,” the Mamma Mia! Actress said. “I Zoomed some people. I studied the s–t out of the deposition tapes because it’s about capturing essence.”

Seyfried wanted viewers to have a difficult time “uncovering the Amanda” in her portrayal. She said, “In doing this, I expect to vanish.” When it came time to play her, I was thinking, “Oh, God, what am I doing? ” I tried my best to take it all in. Am I doing this correctly? But eventually, you adjust to it. Muscle memory, correct?

The Mank actress tried her best to accurately portray Holmes, 38, but she didn’t allow perfectionist tendencies to spoil

“I knew my voice was never going to be as deep as hers because I’m physically not capable of it,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in February. “Besides, I promised I wasn’t going to give myself a hard time and try to completely mimic this other human being. It’d be impossible. And just not fun.”

The Dropout gains further fascination from Holmes’ own criticism for appearing to take on an untrue identity. In a February interview with Vanity Fair, Seyfried said, “I’m playing like Elizabeth Holmes acting.”

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