‘The Dropout’: Was Elizabeth Holmes Involved With the Show?
Hulu’s new TV miniseries, The Dropout, chronicles the meteoric rise and colossal fall of Elizabeth Holmes. The Theranos founder and CEO attempted to create a device that identifies a range of diseases using a small drop of blood. After raising billions in funding, Forbes recognized her as the youngest self-made female billionaire before it was determined that her product never worked.
As a result, she received a guilty conviction for defrauding investors and faces up to 20 years in prison and million dollars in restitution. The Dropout creator Elizabeth Meriwether opened up about adapting the story for a miniseries without speaking to Holmes.
Was Elizabeth Holmes involved in ‘The Dropout’?
Based on the ABC News podcast of the same name, The Dropout came from New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether. She adapted the disgraced entrepreneur’s story into an eight-part limited miniseries.
In an interview with FastCompany.com, Meriwether revealed that the show’s subject, Elizabeth Holmes, had nothing to do with The Dropout; Meriwether didn’t interview her.
It’s unclear why not, as the Theranos founder is still awaiting sentencing. However, the creator noted she fleshed out Holmes for the show by speaking to several people who knew her.
During an episode of The Dropout podcast, former Apple product manager who briefly worked at Theranos, Ana Arriola, said she remembered watching Holmes dance when she thought no one noticed. This anecdote helped breathe life into the various dance breaks incorporated in the series.
‘The Dropout’ creator on why she incorporated Elizabeth Holmes’ dancing scenes
The creator admitted she doesn’t know how the former Stanford student acts “in real life.” But, she discovered that “as a character,” Holmes is someone who isn’t the best at “expressing their emotions.”
Therefore, she used dancing as a way for the entrepreneur to release her bottled-up feelings, noting, “dancing is the thing that she does when nobody’s watching.”
Although she doesn’t consider The Dropout a documentary, Meriwether wanted to flesh out specific characteristics to make Holmes more balanced. She noticed that many people began to look at her as a “satire” without “engaging” in how the disgraced entrepreneur might connect with them.
Therefore, the creator attempts to show different sides of the Theranos CEO to help the audience understand her thought process.
‘The Dropout’ cast stars Amanda Seyfried
Saturday Night Live comedian Kate McKinnon initially signed on to portray Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout. However, actor Amanda Seyfried eventually took over when McKinnon left the series.
Holmes’ ex-boyfriend and former chief operating officer of Theranos, Sunny Balwani, is portrayed by Naveen Andrews.
Bill Irwin portrays Channing Robertson, Holmes’ chemical engineering professor at Stanford and Theranos’ first board member, Other members of The Dropout cast include William H. Macy as her next-door neighbor and inventor Dr. Richard Fuisz, Laurie Metcalf as Professor of Medicine at Stanford, and Holmes’ skeptic, Phyllis Gardner, Stephen Fry as Theranos’ chief scientist Ian Gibbons, and Utkarsh Ambudkar portrays engineer Rakesh Madhava.
New episodes of The Dropout are released every Thursday. The first three are currently available to stream on Hulu.
