Amanda Seyfried Shares Why She Initially Turned Down The Role Of Elizabeth Holmes

Amanda Seyfried explained why she was not too keen on playing disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu's upcoming series "The Dropout."

"Listen, I was having a f––king moment, OK?" she told 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 when her fever subsided the following day, the "Mamma Mia" star had a change of mind and thought to herself, "It's really going to be difficult. It's a huge challenge. But I can't believe that I get a challenge like this.'"

Holmes' role in the new Hulu limited series was first offered to Kate McKinnon in 2019. The pandemic delayed its production and McKinnon eventually left the project to work on Peacock's "Joe vs Carole," which is based on the life of Oklahoma zookeeper Joe Exotic.

Seyfried said she has nothing against L.A. but she prefers to work near her upstate New York farm, which she shares with her husband, "The Newsroom" star Thomas Sadoski, and their children.

One of the biggest challenges she had while filming "The Dropout" was finding her version of 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" will premiere on Hulu on March 3. Anne Archer, Michaela Watkins and Naveen Andrews are also part of the series. The miniseries chronicles Holmes' journey from being a college dropout to becoming Forbes' youngest self-made female billionaire after founding a start-up that was supposed to revolutionize diagnostics.

"Money. Romance. Tragedy. Deception. Hulu's limited series 'The Dropout,' the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos is an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong. How did the world's youngest self-made female lose it all in the blink of an eye?" the official synopsis of the miniseries read.