It's in the voice. Or maybe it's in the black turtleneck. Or maybe it's in the way she walks, or doesn't blink often, or shrugs her shoulders while dancing.
Whatever "it" is, Amanda Seyfried has it in her performance as Elizabeth Holmes in "The Dropout," a new Hulu series about the former Theranos CEO. Holmes claimed her tech start-up's technology could perform over 200 blood tests using only a few drops of blood, and is now awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of fraud.
"The Dropout" is one of a few ripped-from-the-headlines series on TV this year, along with "WeCrashed," "Joe vs. Carole," and "The Thing About Pam."
In addition to being based on true stories, the shows are united by one element: Transformation. The actors become their real-life characters, whether through prosthetics (like in "The Thing About Pam") or a blend of wardrobe and mimicry, like in "The Dropout."
Seyfried and the creators of "The Dropout" have spoken extensively about the behind-the-scenes work that led to such a convincing performance. Below, find out more about the elements that helped Seyfried become Holmes.
Seyfried worried she would damage her voice while playing Holmes
Ahead of "The Dropout," there was one element to the character Seyfried knew she had to nail in order to be believable: Holmes' signature baritone voice.
“People are always talking about the voice. It’s the first thing people mentioned," Seyfried told the LA Times. "The voice is the foundation. If you don’t, it’s like you’re missing the whole thing.”
In “The Dropout,” Holmes deliberately lowers her voice in order to seem more authoritative. The real Holmes has never confirmed or denied rumors that she changed her vocal patterns. However, an anecdote from the Theranos-centric book "Bad Blood" may inform the show's creative decision to include a sequence about Holmes's lowered voice.
Speaking to writer John Carreyrou, a former Theranos employee recalled thinking Holmes' voice was "affected" when he first heard it. Then, after a long meeting, the employee said Holmes allegedly "lapsed into a more natural-sounding young woman's voice ... her pitch several octaves higher than usual."
Committing to the part, Seyfried dropped her voice — but worried about damage to her vocal cords. “I would be talking like Elizabeth and (my throat would) get a little sore,” Seyfried told the LA Times. “And I’d be like: this can’t happen. Like, this is freaking me out. Am I going to be able to do this for weeks?”
Seyfried mimicked Holmes' mannerisms, including blinking frequently
Seyfried was tasked with emulating Holmes' mannerisms, beyond the clothes and makeup. "What about the cadence? What about the way she walked?" Seyfried said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Carreyrou highlighted another one of Holmes' notable idiosyncracies in "Bad Blood:" She allegedly doesn't blink frequently. "The way she trained her big blue eyes on you without blinking made you feel like the center of the world," Carreyrou described.
Seyfried was aware of this trait going into the role, telling the LA Times that people frequently associated Holmes with "non-blinking."
Seyfried used a TODAY interview to get into character
While preparing for the role, Seyfried relied on footage of Holmes. She called the trial deposition tapes "gold" in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, and said she rewatched them "over and over again."
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Seyfried commented on the fact that Holmes knew she was being monitored during the deposition, another layer to the footage. "I'm acting as Elizabeth Holmes acting," she said.
Then, while on set, Seyfried would watch videos of Holmes giving speeches to get into character. "One of our (production assistants) would hold her phone out, just so it was ready," Seyfried recalled.
But there was one interview that Seyfried found particularly useful for getting into character and understanding Holmes. During an interview with Maria Shriver on the TODAY Show, Holmes said, “I feel devastated that we did not catch and fix these issues faster.” Seyfried told ET this "impactful" moment spoke to Holmes' sense of "defiance."
The costumes were supposed to look "off-trend" and "awkward"
Speaking to Vanity Fair, costume designer Claire Parkinson revealed the first garment Seyfried wore on set was a black turtleneck. Famously, Holmes adopted the black turtleneck as a principal part of her wardrobe to emulate her hero, Steve Jobs.
Parkinson speculated to the meaning of Holmes' attachment to the black turtleneck. The turtleneck was Holmes' way of saying, according to Parkinson, "‘How can I just fix [the hassle] of getting dressed everyday so I don’t have to think about it?’"
Since "The Dropout" begins when Holmes is in college, Parkinson also used childhood photos to inform her look. No matter the era, Parkinson's goal was the same: Make Holmes look "a little bit off-trend … and kind of awkward,” she told Vanity Fair.
The series's makeup artist had an unconventional method
Makeup artist Jorjee Douglass studied photos of Holmes, and noticed trends among her makeup looks, beyond the signature red lipstick.
"(Holmes) often had clumpy lipstick and sometimes out-of-line lip liner…She wore makeup that sometimes clashed with her skin tone in college," Douglass told Vanity Fair.
To replicate the look, Douglass got creative. “I’d make Amanda scrunch up her face when I was applying her makeup,” Douglass told the New York Times.
Seyfried mastered the "messy bun"
Looking at photos of Holmes, "Dropout" hairstylist Vanessa Price told PopSugar she was struck by the Theranos CEO's frizzy hair. She replicated the look on Seyfried's hair.
According to Price, Holmes' hair transformation on "The Dropout" tells a story. As Theranos lands more investors, for example, Holmes starts pulling her hair back into a messy bun in an attempt to "put her best foot forward."
"That was our signature look that we went with for her to ‘pull it together,’ but we still maintained a level of frizz and a level of ‘frazzled-ness' ... that we would ramp up and take down throughout the story, given the circumstances,” Price said.
