the outage star and Emmy winner Amanda Seyfried says the most challenging part of playing the infamous Elizabeth Holmes was creating her own boundaries around the role, out of respect for portraying a real, living person.
“It was definitely a challenge because I had to set my own boundaries, because this is a real person with a real story,” says the actress. told E! News on the red carpet prior to Monday night’s ceremony. Seyfried stressed that the show’s view of Holmes and the Theranos scandal was separate from the real person and events.
“We just made a version of it, and I had to keep it separate and remember it’s my version – or [show creator] Liz Meriweather’s version of Elizabeth Holmes. I had to focus on that.”
Seyfried won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for her portrayal of the disgraced founder of Theranos in the outagewhich was released as a six-episode miniseries exclusive to Hulu.
And nevertheless the outage only one version of a real story, Seyfried said it was challenging to capture some of Holmes’ “iconic” aspects while also creating these boundaries.
“It was… it’s hard, there are a lot of iconic things about her that we had to capture, but in the end it was our version,” she added.
Seyfried’s performance goes beyond uncanny resemblance, says Show Creator
If Seyfried felt it was challenging to portray Holmes’ nuances while maintaining this separation, it wasn’t noticeable in her performance.
Seyfried, who delved fully into the role of Holmes’ clothing to mannerisms, was praised by critics for her “uncomfortably realistic portrayal” of the convicted felon.
While Seyfried says she’s not the type of actor to completely disappear into a role, she admits to Time that “anyone who knows me will catch a glimpse of me on screen in the outage’ said series creator Liz Meriweather that this works in Seyfried’s favor and made for a great performance.
“When you look at Amanda on the screen, you don’t feel like you’re looking at this perfect imitation, you are looking at this complete person‘, the writer shared, noting that the actress’s performance is deeper than just the spot-on resemblance to Holmes in costume.
“Amanda’s performance is just a great mix of how she brings herself – her emotions, mind, intelligence – to the character.”
the outage is now streaming on Hulu.