Amanda Seyfried, Redefined: How ‘The Dropout’ Finally Opened the Door for More ‘Thrilling’ Roles
variety.comAmanda Seyfried believed in “The Dropout,” she wasn’t expecting it to become a phenomenon. “I’ve never carried anything like this before, and now that it’s all done, it’s been amazing,” she marvels. “I’ve never felt the impact of something so viscerally.
It feels like everyone I’ve talked to has seen it!”She’s not wrong. “The Dropout” immediately cut through streaming TV’s increasingly crowded lineup in large part thanks to Seyfried’s undeniable performance as Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of a billion-dollar blood-testing company who’s since been convicted of fraud.
For the role, Seyfried transformed physically like never before, nailing Holmes’ wild-eyed blank stare, eerie and invented baritone voice, and aggressively awkward dancing style (which has since become prime GIF fodder, to Seyfried’s delight and chagrin). “Pretending to be somebody else with a different way of speaking, and expressing themselves, and even walking, is so thrilling,” she says after her Variety Power of Women cover shoot in New York City, just a little over a year since she accepted the role. “It’s just so fucking fun.”Embodying Holmes was a new challenge for Seyfried.
In fact, one of the only other projects she considers as much of a character piece is “Mean Girls,” in which the then 18-year-old, making her feature film debut, stole scenes as a sweet but dimwitted teen.Today, she sees Karen Smith as “the most iconic type of character,” whom she compares — unexpectedly but perfectly — to Thomas Haden Church’s lovable dummy in “Wings.” In 2004, though, she had to be careful not to get stuck playing variations on the “dumb blond sidekick” theme forever.
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