‘The Dropout’: Amanda Seyfried ‘Begged’ For Season 2
There are plenty of scammer stories to go around, and while Anna Delvey’s story was interesting, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes takes the crown as the biggest fraudster of all. If you’re overwhelmed by all the news about the disgraced Silicon Valley CEO, Hulu has a fictionalized account of what happened from start to finish with Amanda Seyfried at the helm. Seyfried delivers an excellent portrayal of Holmes, whom she enjoyed playing so much that she begged for a second season.
‘The Dropout’ depicts the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes
The Dropout takes viewers through the events that followed Holmes’s rise in the healthcare tech game to her downfall. The miniseries begins with Holmes’ decision to drop out of the prestigious Stanford University at age 19 to start her healthcare-focused tech company Theranos.
The show emphasizes all the red flags present even before the company went global and dives into her relationships behind the scenes. The Dropout gives viewers an inside peek into the lengths Holmes went to market her finger-prick blood testing device and dupe investors into thinking they were investing in a futuristic invention.
Holmes led people to believe that her innovative blood testing device would be as efficient even without producing a blood vial. While impressive in theory, the Edison device never gave accurate results, and instead of disclosing as much and working toward making things right, Holmes and her then-partner Sunny Balwani, continued promoting it.
The Hulu series heavily emphasizes Holmes’ fall and split with her partner (in crime) Balwani, the closure of Theranos, subsequent media buzz about the fraudsters, and an investigation into the company.
Amanda Seyfried begged for another season of ‘The Dropout’
The Dropout was marketed as a miniseries, but Seyfried wants more episodes. In a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair, the actor revealed she had fun playing Holmes and diving into what made the disgraced biotech entrepreneur tick.
“There should be a Season 2,” the actor said. “I keep putting it out there because I didn’t know how much I was going to enjoy playing her until I was done. And then, even after that, I was like, ‘I’ll never play her again.’ That was just hard,” Seyfried said, adding that she misses the role.
“I feel like there’s so much more,” she said. The 37-year-old actor said she would be thrilled to have another chance to “play somebody that I felt like I could really nail,” like Holmes. Seyfried continued her campaign for another season in a recent interview with the outlet calling Holmes “such an actor.”
“What a dream role. I didn’t want to put it down. I didn’t want to stop playing her,” the actor said, adding, “I begged and begged and begged our creator Liz Meriwether to write another season.” According to Seyfried, there’s still plenty of material to work with in the second season since the show only ends when the lies begin to unravel.
“She goes to trial. She gets pregnant. She has a baby. She gets sentenced. Even before she gets sentenced. Even before her trial was over. Her life continues,” Seyfried justified her need for another season.
Will there be another season of ‘The Dropout’?
Seyfried is right. There is still a lot to unpack in the saga. The actor noted that the podcast on which the show is based has a second season and chronicles the ongoing trial. However, showrunner Meriwether doesn’t think another season of The Dropout needs to happen.
Meriwether told Vulture in 2022 that Seyfried keeps goading her for another season, but she isn’t buying into it. “I would love to work with her and all the people who worked on this show again, but this story has gone as far as I want to go with it,” Meriwether told the publication.
