After months of near-total immersion in the facts and nuances of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ tale of big-tech startup fraud to make Hulu’s acclaimed miniseries “The Dropout,” the convicted exec’s ongoing real-life story – she faces sentencing in September – still looms large in its creative team’s headspace.
“There was already a point where I had kind of washed my hands of it. I had a moment after we finished shooting where I was like ‘Okay, well that was good – I’m done,’” star Amanda Seyfried told Variety at an FYC screening at the Paramount Studios lot on Monday. “And then it creeped back in as we started doing press for the show, and then my interest was piqued again just after New Year’s she was convicted, of course, because Rebecca [Jarvis, journalist, executive producer and host of “The Dropout” podcast}) and Taylor [Dunn, the podcast’s co-writer and producer] were texting me as the news was coming in, and then it was a kind of re-emergence of interest.
“I think it’s just because it was intense for me,” Seyfried explained. “It’s never going to be as intense as it was for her… but as for our purposes of our story, I gave it my all and I had a really amazing time doing it and I needed a break. I think about it often, like ‘What did you know? What is she inventing right now? What is she thinking about?’”
Popular on Variety
Seyfried’s co-star Naveen Andrews — who plays Holmes’ longtime lover and accused conspirator Sunny Balwani, whose own trial is currently underway — confessed that he, too, can’t shake the story. “I can’t deny that having inhabited these people as characters, you’re now emotionally involved. I feel emotionally involved,” he said. “And so yes, I am following what’s happening. I can’t help it. And of course, that would never have happened if I’d just been a regular member of the public hearing about it in the media.”
But the series’ creator Elizabeth Meriwether says she’s managed to put her once-obsessive interest on pause. “I’m done with the story!” she insisted. “I obviously will be interested to see what happens and I’m sure everybody in my life will text me every new development, which is what happens now. But I spent three years on this, and I really feel like [moving on].”
“I’m now getting a PhD in chemistry,” she quipped.
Meriwether, known for creating the sitcom “New Girl,” said she was gratified to have stepped into a new comfort zone for the project, despite some trepidation. “There were definitely moments when I was terrified that the series itself was going to become [my version of Holmes’] box-that-couldn’t-work, and it fell apart a couple times, and it was a very easy connection in my mind to make of ‘I hope that this series doesn’t become life imitating art’… I’m hoping that I can sort of try to just find great characters, as opposed to sticking to one genre or another.”
Seyfried says she confident she’s found her creative lane forward as well after her utterly transformative performance. “Oh, I think I’m a character actor, judging by how much fun I had on this one,” she enthused. “God, I just want to get lost a little bit more!”