She’s only human. Amanda Seyfried may not “agree” with what Elizabeth Holmes did in allegedly defrauding people with her blood-test technology, but she did embrace her quirks with her Dropout role.
“I loved how awkward our version of [her] teenage years were,” the 36-year-old actress exclusively told Us Weekly at the 2022 Variety’s Power of Women event on Thursday, May 5. “I think any young woman, or man, can relate to that awkwardness of, like, knowing what you want do and not knowing how to go about it.”
The Mean Girls star added: “And also knowing the limitations — especially being a young woman — in the fields she wanted to enter into. And I think that’s relatable.”
Amanda Seyfried and Elizabeth Holmes. Shutterstock (2)
Seyfried played Holmes, 38, on the Hulu’s miniseries, which premiered in March, telling the story of the Theranos founder from her childhood through her decision to drop out of college and start her tech company.
“I was on the dance team as well [as was Elizabeth]. And for some reason that really helped me get into her head,” the Big Love alum continued. “Like, I know what that’s like to be in the third row of the dance team. I related to that. I shot all those early scenes early, so that was really helpful in getting me to the next phase of her journey.”
The Dropout eventually detailed what happened to the entrepreneur when her attempt to revolutionize healthcare by only using a finger prick’s worth of blood to test for illness ended in scandal and fraud in 2016.
Holmes and Theranos president and COO Sunny Balwani were charged with “massive fraud” in 2018 by the SEC and later pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Holmes was guilty on four counts of defrauding investors in January and is set to be sentenced in September.
“I don’t agree with anything she did, but I can understand how she started and how it was formulated,” Seyfried told Us on Thursday. “I’m not that big of a dreamer so I don’t understand that, but I appreciate it.”
The Mank star noted that there are “a lot of things” she appreciated about the businesswoman, but “as she got older, as her journey unfolded, I was like, I don’t [get it]. … It was a fascinating journey for me.”
