When we first heard that Amanda Seyfried would be playing Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout – a Hulu drama about the true story behind Holmes’ ‘revolutionary’ health technology company Theranos – we were pretty excited. 

The series, which was first announced in 2019, promised a behind-the-scenes look at Holmes’ journey from Stanford dropout to multi-millionaire – as well as her eventual downfall after the company’s claims turned out to be fake.

As the first fictionalised account of Holmes’ story (there’s another biopic on the way starring Jennifer Lawrence), The Dropout was always going to be big, but Seyfried’s performance is already exceeding expectations. Ever since the series landed on Disney+ last week, there’s been plenty of buzz surrounding her performance – especially in regard to one specific detail.

We’re talking, of course, about Seyfried’s take on Holmes’ noticeably deep voice – one of the disgraced founder’s defining characteristics alongside her signature black turtleneck and infrequent blinking. Check out the clip below if you don’t know what we’re talking about.

While Holmes has never confirmed or denied rumours that she made her voice deeper on purpose to seem more authoritative in her role as CEO, it’s widely believed to be the case – and Seyfried’s portrayal of this adjustment is particularly fascinating. 

Indeed, in two separate scenes, we watch Holmes craft the voice – repeating phrases over and over again to try out her new approach. “Here, at Theranos, we are developing new technology,” she says in one scene as she stares directly into the mirror. “This is an inspiring step forward.”

The series also plays on the reaction to Holmes’ change in voice: when she deepens her voice during a phone call with an investor, he asks her whether she has a cold and her colleagues are shown raising their eyebrows when she pulls out the voice during a confrontation in her office.

While it’s cool to see Seyfried nail this part of Holmes’ character so accurately, it’s hardly surprising. The actor has spoken about the amount of work that went into crafting her performance – especially when it came down to mimicking Holmes’ signature voice. 

“People are always talking about the voice,” Seyfried said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It’s the first thing people mentioned. Second is the turtleneck; third is the non-blinking. But the voice is number one. The voice is the foundation. If you don’t [get it right], it’s like you’re missing the whole thing.”

She continued: “I went full force into finding out everything I could. There was this huge [encyclopaedia], that’s still actually on my desktop, of all the information that had been collected over the two years of research during the development phase of The Dropout.

“The thing that really helped with the voice and how that evolved for me was the deposition. Because it was so many hours, and I could just play it on loop… I felt like I was really doing homework; I was really studying. I was most excited about that than any homework I ever had to do.” 

Seyfried also spoke about the challenges of switching her voice all day – her throat would get sore, and she was worried that she’d do permanent damage to her vocal cords – as well as how hard she’s found it to leave the voice behind since filming: “I still sometimes talk like her. It’s hard to shake.”

If one thing’s for sure, Seyfried’s hard work has paid off – and with Holmes’ vocal transition complete by the end of episode four, it’ll be interesting to see what happens as we head into the second half of the series.

Episodes 1-4 of The Dropout are now available to watch on Disney+. New episodes drop weekly on Thursdays. 

Images: Hulu/Disney