Elizabeth Holmes may have just been in it for the "Money, Money, Money" but that doesn't mean Amanda Seyfried is!
On Feb. 24, Seyfried revealed that she initially turned down the role of disgraced Theranos founder, Holmes, in Hulu's new limited series The Dropout. Back in 2019, Seyfried was offered the role after Kate McKinnon, who was set to play Holmes, left the project to work on Peacock's Tiger King–inspired series, Joe vs Carole.
And at first, the Mamma Mia star wasn't interested.
"Listen, I was having a f––king moment, OK?" she said to The Hollywood Reporter. "I had COVID. I was isolating in the basement of a gross townhouse in Savannah, Georgia, because my husband was working on a movie there. And now an L.A. shoot? Pass!"
But once her fever subsided the next morning, she had a change of heart. She explained that she was thinking to herself, "It's really going to be difficult," she said. "It's a huge challenge. But I can't believe that I get a challenge like this.'"
Though it was a large undertaking, Seyfried was up for the challenge.
One of those challenges being Holmes' distinct voice. "I knew my voice was never going to be as deep as hers because I'm physically not capable of it," she said "Besides, I promised I wasn't going to give myself a hard time and try to completely mimic this other human being. It'd be impossible. And just not fun."
She continued, "I was so worried that getting the voice 100 percent right would distract from the actual story, that it would become the focus."
The Dropout, starring Anne Archer, Michaela Watkins and Naveen Andrews, follows the unbelievable true story of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong and how the world's youngest self-made female billionaire lost it all in the blink of an eye.
The Dropout premieres March 3 on Hulu.