Transformation Into Elizabeth Holmes 'Hard' But 'Joyful': Amanda Seyfried

Preparing to portray former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was a months-long process that involved work with a vocal coach and making pretend sales pitches, Amanda Seyfried told Newsweek's The Parting Shot podcast.

The Oscar-nominated actress is playing Holmes in Hulu's The Dropout, a limited series based on an ABC Audio podcast of the same name. Hulu's series is set to premiere on March 3, two months to the day after Holmes was found guilty by a jury in California of defrauding investors in connection with claims made regarding the abilities of her blood testing company.

Speaking with Newsweek podcast host H. Alan Scott ahead of the series premiere, Seyfried said she had about three months to prepare for the role before preproduction. Access to hours of depositions and interviews Holmes did with the media in years past helped Seyfried in studying her voice and mannerisms.

"I'm a mimic; I'm an actor. Obviously I'm not her clone. I'm never going to be her clone," Seyfried said. "The trick is always to get the audience to believe that you are her, like very soon into the show. And then they forget what she really looks like."

Over the course of her preparations for the role, Seyfried said she "just listened."

"It was the kind of homework that I wish I had in high school," Seyfried said. "All of a sudden I became this eager college student, and it was really fun—not to take away how hard it was, and scary it was. But it was joyful at times," she said, adding that it was still "troubling at times to remember that it's all real."

Seyfried said she collaborated with her singing coach to work on getting her high voice closer to Holmes' famously deep baritone. While Seyfried said she's not sure what critics will think of her efforts to mimic Holmes' voice, she said she "did what I needed to do to make it work for me, to make it feel real," and said she had "a lot of really smart, creative people around me to help us find whatever it is we needed to find in order to tell the story."

Beyond vocal preparations, Seyfried recalled spending mornings setting her phone against bales of hay at her farm in upstate New York and recording videos of herself trying on the role of Holmes the businesswoman.

"I would just practice every day, and then I would send [director and executive producer] Michael Showalter videos of me trying to sell hay as her," she said.

The more Seyfried practiced, the more she said she came to realize that it "was like life and death" for Holmes.

Before hearing about the plans for a limited TV series about Holmes' story, Seyfried said she had "an idea about this person" based on earlier media coverage but acknowledged there were gaps in her understanding of who Holmes is and the details of her trial.

"And then this project came along, and it's like, let's get to the why," Seyfried said. "Let's get to the how, and open things up for discussion."