Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes ― or, rather, the woman who played her ― turned out to be a big winner at the 2022 Emmy Awards.
Amanda Seyfried was awarded the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her portrayal of Holmes in Hulu’s “The Dropout,” beating out fellow nominees like Toni Colette and Sarah Paulson for the prize.
While Seyfried didn’t showcase her wildly spot-on interpretation of Holmes’ baritone voice ― which the onetime Silicon Valley darling is believed to have deliberately deepened in an effort to sound more authoritative ― she nonetheless turned emotional in her speech, even thanking her dog, Finn.
“This is a really nice feeling,” she said.
Watch the full speech below:
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in March, Seyfried revealed she’d worked with vocal coach Liz Caplan to perfect her Holmes-like intonation, but feared playing the role would end up damaging her natural speaking voice over time.
“I would be talking like Elizabeth and [my throat would] get a little sore,” she said at the time. “And I’d be like: This can’t happen. Like, this is freaking me out. Am I going to be able to do this for weeks? We worked together as much as we could. Sometimes we’d have to work together on weekends because I was auditioning for a musical. But, yes, at first I was fucking scared.”
That hard work paid off, as Seyfried earned near-universal acclaim for “The Dropout,” with some critics calling it a career-best performance. The show itself was also praised as a rare standout in a season that was packed with series based on real-life crime cases involving young women, including Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” and Hulu’s “The Girl from Plainville.”
In January, the real-life Holmes was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud by lying to investors to raise money for Theranos, a failed blood-testing startup. She now faces up to 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced at a California hearing next month.