Elizabeth Holmes On Amanda Seyfried Portraying Her In ‘The Dropout’: “They’re Playing A Character I Created”
The disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for fraud, is opening up about what she thinks of her Hollywood portrayal.
Holmes, who was inspired by Steve Jobs to wear black turtlenecks as her signature outfit, was personified by Amanda Seyfried in the Hulu limited series The Dropout. However, the convicted former CEO says the actor was not playing her.
“They’re not playing me. They’re playing a character I created,” Holmes told The New York Times in an interview.
Holmes claims to have created a character to be taken seriously in the business world adding, “I believed it would be how I would be good at business and taken seriously and not taken as a little girl or a girl who didn’t have good technical ideas. Maybe people picked up on that not being authentic, since it wasn’t.”
Seyfried’s portrayal of Holmes in the streaming series was celebrated with a win at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series of Television Film and another win at the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category.
At one point, Jennifer Lawrence was attached to portray Holmes in the Apple Original Films project Bad Blood. However, Lawrence would back out citing Seyfried doing “terrific” on the Hulu series.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to redo that.’ She did it,” Lawrence told NYT in 2022.
Originally, Kate McKinnon was attached to star in The Dropout but dropped out in early 2021.
Source: Deadline
