Seyfried spoke with Jared Leto about playing the controversial character in Variety's 'Actors on Actors' discussion.
Amanda Seyfried is opening up about Elizabeth Holmes after playing her in Hulu's The Dropout. The Mama Mia actress sat down with Jared Leto for Variety's "Actors on Actors" discussion, where they spoke about the controversial characters they played and how they approached playing these very layered humans.
While Seyfried said she did not speak to Holmes before filming the series, she would be open to it now that the show has aired.
"Hi. Wow. Hello …," Seyfried said when Leto asked her what she'd say to the ex-Theranos CEO. "I don’t know. I would want to spend some time with her and know that I probably shouldn’t, because I have in some way affected her legal experience. Right now, Sunny Balwani is in court, and her sentencing may or may not depend on Sunny’s sentencing. And so, it’s really messy."
Balwani who was Holmes' boyfriend and former president and chief operating officer of Theranos, is also facing legal trouble amid the ongoing fraud case. Seyfried said their upcoming sentencing is something she's thought a lot about.
"I have thought a lot about the sentencing. We tried to figure her out from a place of compassion and worthiness. I know whatever she’s sentenced with, it’s what she deserves," Seyfried maintained. "And I also know, in my gut, that there’s a space for her outside of this whole Theranos thing, outside of prison — if she goes to prison. Then she’ll get out and she’ll invent something new that’ll work. I don’t know if I’m the only person who feels that way."
While she sees a future for Holmes outside of prison and in the world of business again someday, the 36-year-old actress said she hopes Holmes takes responsibility and accountability for the things she did -- something she has yet to do.
"I’d love to see her take responsibility in a very vocal way, which she has not. If she can just take accountability and move on," she said. "Yeah, she lied a lot. She’s a mother. She has her whole life ahead of her. She’s my age. I like to think I’m still young, you know what I mean?"
When ET spoke to Seyfried in February ahead of the show's premiere she shared how much she tried to get to know Holmes, despite being unable to speak to her or meet with her in person.
"As an actor playing her, I went to a place of, 'I want to get to know this woman, I really want to know what's going on,'" Seyfried shared. "Liz Meriwether wrote these amazing scripts, 'Ok, I totally agree, this is a lot of compassion,' totally different than watching it like, 'Oh, look at that trainwreck,' It's like, wait, why? Why did it all happen? And this is why we made this show."
If she could ask Holmes any questions, Seyfried joked she'd ask the former entrepreneur how many "Steve Jobs t-shirts" she owned.
While Seyfried said that they tried to depict the events that took place as accurately as possible, she did stress that the show is just a story, and one portrayal of what actually happened to Holmes.
"Listen, it doesn't have to be completely right, but we definitely tried and it's kind of an amazing story," she said before sharing how she'd feel if Holmes and the rest of the real-life players in the drama watched the Hulu show. "It can be highly educational too, but it's just a story, for the sake of our show and if they watch it, they watch it. We can't really think on those terms."
See more on Seyfried's depiction of Holmes in the video below.
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