Amanda Seyfried Says Her Elizabeth Holmes Voice in ‘The Dropout’ Is ‘an Accent’
It’s a good week for Amanda Seyfried’s career. The Mean Girls alum received her first Emmy nomination on Tuesday, July 12. For months, critics had been praising the actor for her performance in The Dropout. In the limited series, Seyfried was able to portray the fraudulent Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, with a deep sense of empathy. Fans were impressed with the level of nuance that Seyfried brought to the role and the voice that she adapted for the Hulu series.
Amanda Seyfried loved researching Elizabeth Holmes for her role in ‘The Dropout’
Though Seyfried has been acting for nearly two decades, The Dropout was a new experience for her. Because she was playing a real person, she had access to a ton of information that helped her build her version of Holmes. The Dear John actor studied deposition tapes, YouTube videos of Holmes on stage, and more to help her prepare for the role. She studied everything from the way Holmes manipulated her voice to how the Theranos founder rarely blinked whilst being deposed.
While on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Seyfried revealed how much she loved filming The Dropout. “It was the most fun ever,” the Emmy nominee exclaimed. “And you know what, a bunch of my actor friends were like, ‘God, you’re a character actor.’ And I was like, ‘I never thought of it that way.’ It’s so much more fun to play people that are a little bit separate from who you are. I’m always playing a version of myself, right? And I love it. And I’m good at it, depending. And this was just a completely different ballgame, and I really loved it.”
The ‘Mean Girls’ alum talks about the voice she adopted for her Emmy-nominated role
Continuing on, Seyfried shared that although she was portraying a real person, it was her interpretation of Holmes. There were some idiosyncrasies that Holmes had that Seyfried could never perfectly imitate. One clear example is Holmes’ voice. The Mamma Mia! star is a natural soprano and simply doesn’t have the vocal range to mimic Holmes’ voice naturally.
“It’s not that deep,” Seyfried shared of her voice in The Dropout. “Listen, it’s my version. I always have to remind people it’s my version of it. I will never be able to go that low, but I will go as low as I can with the affect.” Interestingly enough, Seyfried considers her Elizabeth Holmes voice to be an accent rather than a lowering of her own voice. In an interview with The New York Times, she got candid about the infamous voice.
Seyfried says her Elizabeth Holmes voice in ‘The Dropout’ is an accent
“To me, it’s an accent,” Seyfried shared of her voice in The Dropout. “For a long time, I refused to do it. And then after the trial, a couple months later, one of the doormen at the building where I’m staying, they’re like, can you do the voice? And I did it. And I was like, Hmm, it feels good. It’s done me well.”
Perhaps one of the reasons that Seyfried didn’t want to use the voice frequently is that she wanted to protect her natural voice. While filming The Dropout, she worked diligently with a vocal coach to ensure that she wasn’t causing damage to her own voice. “I also get really nervous about losing my voice because I’m a singer,” Seyfried shared. “I was always in touch with my voice coach for anything, especially the deeper speaking.”
Clearly, Seyfried’s hard work on the voice and her overall character paid off. The Dropout certainly seems to be “an inspiring step forward” in her career.
