The Hulu series The Dropout, based on the podcast of the same name about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is coming out on March 3rd. Amanda Seyfried stars as Holmes and Naveen Andrews is Sunny Balwani, Theranos’s COO and Holmes’ secret boyfriend. Hulu has released new stills from the show featuring Seyfried and Andrews. I’m not as familiar with Balwani, but I looked up photos of him again and Andrews looks about as much like him as Seyfried looks like Holmes. They’ve got the general look, clothing and styling right for the most part. As I mentioned in the title Seyfried looks a little too put together. They should have messed up her hair more! She’s an incredible actress though, she was the best part of that bleak movie Mank, and I’m sure she’ll nail this role. I’m really looking forward to this series.
Closing arguments were made yesterday in Elizabeth Holmes’ trial for fraud. I’m keeping up with it somewhat. Holmes took the stand for seven days earlier this month in a clear bid for sympathy from the jury. Holmes gave birth to a son over the summer. She may have gotten pregnant as a strategy for her to avoid a harsher sentence. She scammed investors out of almost a billion dollars, she lied about Theranos’s technology and hid the fact that it didn’t work. She took it so far that people got inaccurate blood test results from Theranos’s partnership from Walgreens. Holmes should get the maximum sentence. People who rob grocery stories get life in prison. This woman spent years lying and scamming. She’s a clever white woman though. That’s why the media covered her story when they thought it was real and that’s why she’s still getting so much coverage now that we know she’s an expert grifter.
Welcome to Theranos. Amanda Seyfried is Elizabeth Holmes.
The Dropout premieres March 3 on @hulu pic.twitter.com/EGVvlLBy0b
— The Dropout on Hulu 🩸 (@TheDropoutHulu) December 15, 2021
photos credit: Hulu, YouTube and HBO screenshots and Avalon.red
Elizabeth Holmes wishes
She isn’t pregnant anymore, she gave birth over the summer. So now she’s a “young mother”
I think the plan was for her to be pregnant during the trial but delays whammied her plan. I read Plan B was she wanted to breastfeed during the trial to evoke sympathy. I think that idea got squashed. Everything she does is by design. I hope a good and kind nanny was hired to raise the kid so someone loves it. Since it’s role as a prop was for nothing.
Oh for sure the plan was to be pregnant while on trial. I know several ex-Theranos employees and the idea of her as someone with genuine maternal feelings or instincts is laughable. So yes, fingers crossed for a sweet nanny.
I’ve hear lots of people say this. I know she’s devious and manipulative- but I also thought that as a woman in her 30s looking at a possible 20+ year prison sentence she may just have considered that this might be her only opportunity to be a mother. I think that’s understandable – although I get why people don’t view her with sympathy. The case just boggles my mind. What I don’t get is how the regulators allowed this to happen- how can these tests have been used on real patients when they simply didn’t work? You can’t mess around with medical devices. It’s so dangerous.
Thanks I should have double checked this and appreciate you explaining it.
Her eye makeup tended to be a mess, always, as well. Amanda looks too polished (and sane).
Yup, I was gonna say: needs messier hair, worse lipstick.
I came here to say this : she doesn’t have the crazy eyes. I don’t think make up would get her all the way there though. Elizabeth has the eyes of a true believer narcissist high on their own supply.
Ding, ding! My mother had NPD – I’ve read Bad Blood and followed a podcast about her trial and Elizabeth ticks a lot of boxes for Narcisstic Personality Disorder (or another cluster B disorder).
I found listening to the way Elizabeth answered questions really eerie and disturbing, because it is the exact way my mother used to speak. It’s very evasive, but in quite a clever way, because the person is trying to appear earnest and helpful.
I don’t doubt for a second that she had a child to help garner sympathy; children of women with NPD are born with a job, and that job is to help their mother look better. I feel so sorry for that baby, because the father doesn’t sound great either.
I was interested in how Elizabeth claimed she was abused by Balwani during the trial. There was one diary entry which was submittedwhere only the first part of the entry was read, and it seemed like it COULD be referring to being abused or sexually assaulted. But, when the rest of the diary entry was read on the podcast I was listening to, it was pretty clearly about an eating disorder. (In an interesting parallel – my mother also had an ED and claimed my dad abused and stole from her when he finally left her).
Elizabeth is a piece of work – my only concern with this movie is that Amanda won’t be able to truly show that Elizabeth is mentally unwell.
Thanks, Mariposa, for the NPD description- had never heard of that diagnosis specifically. Quick google and it sure sounds like it fits. It sounds like it must have been very difficult being raised by a parent with NPD- appreciate you for sharing the information and your experience
She’s got the stare down. I don’t know much about Naveen Andrews but per his Wikipedia he knows something about age differences in relationships: “At 16, while at Emanuel School, he started a relationship with his 30-year-old mathematics teacher, Geraldine Feakins, whom he moved in with to escape his abusive home; their son, Jaisal, was born seven years later, in 1992.”
I think Amanda will do great–I’m really interested in her voice work for this part. And I’ll watch anything with Naveen Andrews. I first saw him in the English Patient & he made quite the impression (fans self).
He was my favorite part of the English Patient- that scene in the church when he shows her the frescoes.
For me the Buddha of Suburbia for formative TV.
I was going to say her face is too expressive to be Holmes’ sociopathic look. But Amanda isn’t a sociopath.
It’s a fantastic podcast and went deep into how and why she got pushed so far by old rich white men. I’m looking forward to a verdict and this series.
I listened to the podcast and it was really well done. But John Carreyrou’s book Bad Blood was a page turner. I really got sucked into this story and all that went on. I highly recommend it.
I haven’t listened to the podcast but that book sucked me in and wow, talk about a toxic and abusive work environment, not even getting into the whole fraud thing.
Carreyrou has a follow-up podcast, “Bad Blood: The Final Chapter” that includes more information that became available after he published the book. I recommend. (I’ve read the book and heard both podcasts – fascinating story.)
Carreyou is exceptional!
Amanda is prettier, but I think the casting is good in terms of maybe explaining why (older?) men might have been more taken in by Elizabeth Holmes than women (I can’t recall any women actually getting tricked). I assume that might be an underlying theme because older men seemed to throw money at her and women were like “um, something doesn’t sound right”).
They’re both way too attractive and sane-looking. I hope EH gets the full sentence, even though the jury was forbidden to hear some important facts (like the fact that her head chemist was driven to suicide by his work in Theranos).
Wasn’t J.Law playing Elizabeth Holmes in something? Hollywood is making two films about her?
Anyway, Amanda looks really good for this part. She certainly has the stare down and she is a talented actress (although I don’t think her performance in Mank was *that* great, I think it was just a standout in an otherwise horrible film).
Amanda Seyfried has such a unique beauty I have trouble seeing her as anything else. But Naveen Andrews migawd when did that hottie turn into my grandpa?
Your HOT grandpa.
He’s a GILF!
She’s much prettier than Elizabeth (and yeah, the hair could have been messier) but I’m sure she nailed it. I’ll definitely watch this!
This is a bad casting……..she does not look even close to how Elizabeth Holmes looks. Yes, it is about acting but this is so far off!
My thoughts exactly. Very bad casting.
It’s really amazing what a skilled white woman grifter can get away with if she has no scruples at all. Like, everyone in the legit medical industry knew the entire time Theranos was bullshit because of their knowledge of how basic biology works, yet she was able to get scam billions of dollars from investors who did no research at all into this supposedly totally revolutionary medical technology.
From SMART investors too, like people who should 100% have been doing their due diligence about this. When I got to the part in Bad Blood where Gen Mattis was introduced, I was floored. He wanted to use these nonfunctional kits on our men and women serving in combat zones and it didn’t seem like there were a whole lot of checks and balances there to prevent it! (I mean there were some which ended up working but still……)
There were so many names mentioned in the book where i thought “oh so THIS person is going to figure it out.” but nope.