Amanda Seyfried To Play Elizabeth Holmes In ‘The Dropout,’ Replacing Kate McKinnon
Last month,Saturday Night LivestarKate McKinnonlived up to the titular role of Hulu’s upcoming limited seriesThe Dropoutbydropping out of the lead roleof Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the deceptive biotech start-up company Theranos. However, Hulu has landedAmanda Seyfried, fresh off her Oscar nomination forMank,to star in the series instead.
Kate McKinnon first became attached toThe Dropoutwhen the project was announcedback in the spring of 2019, but she dropped out over a month ago. NowThe Hollywood Reporterhas learned that Amanda Seyfried is taking the role of the woman who became a media darling, raised hundreds of millions to fund a biotech start-up, and turned out to be a total fraud. Joining her will beLostco-starNaveen Andrewsas Holmes business partner and secret boyfriend, Sunny Balwani.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story of Elizabeth Holmes, her story was chronicled onan ABC News podcastalso titledThe Dropout. When Holmes was just 19 years old, she dropped out of college, founded a biotech company called Theranos, raised $700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, and suddenly found herself managing a business valued at $10 billion. At the time, she was said to be the Steve Jobs of medical technology, touting a a device that she claimed could run a large variety of tests from a single drop of blood. But the machine didn’t exist, or at least it didn’t do what Holmes claimed, and she ended up being indicted by a federal jury in 2018 on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud
The Dropouthad the potential to be a major breakthrough performance for Kate McKinnon, so I’m wondering why she dropped out. She’s likely pretty busy trying to fit in projects in between seasons ofSNL, so maybe the schedule just didn’t work out. Though it would have been interesting to see her tackle a dramatic performance like this, Seyfried coming off an Oscar nomination forMankwill only help boost the profile of the limited series for Hulu. Plus, we’ll still get to see McKinnon broaden her horizons a bit since she’sslated to star in a seriesbased onThe Tiger Kingdocumentary series.The Dropoutis still letting another comedy voice make a change, withNew Girlexecutive producerElizabeth Meriwetherworking as showrunner and executive producer. The series also countsLiz Hannah,Katherine Pope,Victoria Thompson,Taylor Dunnand ABC News reporter and podcast hostRebecca Jarvisas executive producers.
Hulu hasn’t set a release date for The Dropout yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
