Jennifer Lawrence left Adam McKay's Elizabeth Holmes project after watching Amanda Seyfried in The Dropout

“I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to redo that.’ She did it,” Lawrence says of Seyfried's performance

By Gabrielle Sanchez  |  November 3, 2022 | 3:33pm
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Jennifer Lawrence left Adam McKay's Elizabeth Holmes project after watching Amanda Seyfried in The Dropout
Amanda Seyfried with her Emmy for playing Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout, Jennifer Lawrence Photo: Frazer Harrison

Take note Hollywood: There are times when things are done so well the first time, there is no need to go back and rehash them for the exact same (or potentially worse) result. It’s a lesson Jennifer Lawrence took to heart this year when she saw Amanda Seyfried play Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout, and decided to depart her ongoing Holmes project with Adam McKay.

“I thought she was terrific,” Lawrence tells New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan in a new interview (per his follow-up tweet). “I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to redo that.’ She did it.”

And that ladies and gentlemen, she did. She put on the black turtleneck, practiced that deep throaty voice, and went to work. Following The Dropout’s airing earlier this year, Seyfried took home the Emmy for Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series for her performance as the Stanford dropout and defrauder.

McKay’s adaptation of John Carreyrou’s 2018 book Bad Blood: Secrets And Lies In A Silicon Valley Startup, was picked up by Apple Studios back in December, with Lawrence set to star and produce the feature. There’s no question that Lawrence would have brought her own merits to the role, but when something’s been done to perfection once, why set yourself up for constant comparison?

Even in the interview with the NYT, Seyfried’s image of Holmes seems to haunt Lawrence, as she showed up to the interview in the classic black turtleneck.

“I tried on a hundred outfits for this and ended up just looking like Steve Jobs,” Lawrence says, “Or Amanda Seyfried.”

Lawrence stars in the forthcoming feature Causeway, with Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry, which arrives on Apple TV+ on November 4.

 
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