Amanda Seyfried has gone all-in to play the part of fallen Silicon Valley CEO Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout (Disney+, from Thursday), opting for the kind of immersive performance that is as hungry for awards as Nicole Kidman’s prosthetic nose. By all accounts, the real Holmes was a shapeshifter, adjusting her voice and her look as her star rose, and Seyfried embraces every bit of that transformation, from the scruffy 19-year-old in business-suit cosplay to the full face of slap and infamous black polo neck. Just as Dopesick dated its action by its characters’ hairstyles, this does it with eyeliner. The thicker it is, the closer we are to the moment Arthur Fleck becomes the Joker.
Holmes was once the youngest female, self-made billionaire in the US. She was on magazine covers, touted as the next Steve Jobs, whom she idolised, and her company, Theranos, promised to transform medicine by allowing blood tests for a plethora of ailments to be carried out with a single drop of blood. But the concept ran away from the science, and the science never caught up. Screeners for the show came with a request that reviewers do not give away any plot details, but I think it’s safe to say that Holmes – who was found guilty of fraud and deceiving investors just weeks ago – found notoriety, if not the sort she was searching for.
