The Dropout First Look: Amanda Seyfried Is Elizabeth Holmes
It was only a matter of time before someone made a dramatized series chronicling the wild rise and fall of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, and Hulu is doing just that with their upcoming limited series "The Dropout," starring Amanda Seyfried as Holmes and "Lost" veteran Naveen Andrews as Sunny Balwani.
For the uninitiated, Elizabeth Holmes was once the world's youngest female self-made billionaire, with money made through her health technology company Theranos. Unfortunately, Holmes girlbossed a little too close to the sun, because everything her company promised was built on a lie. The big promise from Theranos was that they had supposedly developed a revolutionary rapid blood test which allowed testing for countless diseases with only a small finger prick (compared to the blood sugar tests for diabetics). But it was all B.S.: A federal grand jury indicted Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for distributing blood tests with falsified results to consumers. "U.S. v. Holmes, et al." began in August of 2021 and if convicted, Holmes faces up to 20 years in federal prison and would potentially be forced to pay millions in restitution and fines.
What is The Dropout Focusing On?
Seyfried took up the mantle as Holmes after Kate McKinnon left the project earlier in 2021, and the first look from Hulu highlights Holmes' visually striking black turtleneck, vibrant red lip, and messy-casual low bun hairdo. No word yet on whether or not Seyfried will also drop her voice into the deeper register Holmes famously used for some reason, but fingers crossed she pulls it off. Read below for Hulu's official synopsis of the show.
Money. Romance. Tragedy. Deception. Hulu's limited series "The Dropout," the story of Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) and Theranos is an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong. How did the world's youngest self-made female billionaire lose it all in the blink of an eye?
Well, she lost it all because the promises she made could not be fulfilled, as her company's rapid blood tests and "Edison Machines" were a total scam. The Food and Drug Administration never cleared Theranos' tests, and Homes' supposed findings were never published in peer-reviewed journals. She successfully duped investors out of billions, because the Stanford drop-out had an amazing underdog origin story and a product that seemed too good to be true. As it turns out, it was.
The series comes from showrunner Elizabeth Meriwether, who is executive producing alongside Liz Heldens, Liz Hannah, Katherine Pope, Rebecca Jarvis, Victoria Thompson, and Taylor Dunn. Michael Showalter ("Wet Hot American Summer," "The Big Sick") is set to direct multiple episodes, and will also serve as an executive producer along with his Semi-Formal Productions producing partner Jordana Mollick.
The original series will premiere its first three episodes on March 3, 2022, with new episodes streaming weekly after that.