Amanda Seyfried is dropping her opinion on Elizabeth Holmes’ prison sentence into the mix.
The “Dropout” Emmy winner, who portrayed the Theranos founder in the Hulu limited series, addressed Holmes’ 11-year prison sentence over defrauding investors in the medical start-up.
“There’s two kids that are hanging in the balance here. As a parent — just as a mom,” Seyfried said while promoting new series “The Crowded Room” on “Good Morning America,” adding, “Life’s not fair, but in a lot of ways it’s fair. It’s fair for her, in particular.”
Theranos raised almost $1 billion from investors and was valued at close to $4.5 billion since being founded in 2003. The company was dissolved in 2018; Holmes and former partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani have been ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to the investors.
Seyfried previously told IndieWire that she was drawn to “The Dropout” as the series approached Holmes’ case “from a very non-judgmental point-of-view,” which in turn allowed Seyfried to fully dissolve into the character.
“You distance yourself from the real person if they’re still alive, which seemed to really help me. We weren’t allowed to talk to her anyway and she wasn’t allowed to talk to us,” Seyfried said of Holmes. “Who knows what that would have been like, but thank God because I think I tend to get close to people and see the good immediately, and I definitely have gotten in trouble in the past. The more kids I have, the more boundaries that build, it’s cool. From now on if I do play someone who’s around, I, for the sake of my experience playing this person, it’s safe to to keep my distance.”
Holmes later told The New York Times that onscreen portrayals of her are “not playing me, they’re playing a character I created.”
A fictionalized adaptation of non-fiction book (and later, HBO documentary) “Bad Blood” was set to star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, with Adam McKay directing. The feature was confirmed in January 2021, but Lawrence allegedly dropped out of the role after seeing Seyfried’s turn as Holmes.
According to New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan, Lawrence said, “I thought she was terrific. I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to redo that.’ She did it.”
