Amanda Seyfried Calls Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes "An Incredible Actor" For Her Ability To Defraud Investors

Amanda Seyfried believes disgraced biotechnology entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes was an "incredible actor".

The 36-year-old actress plays Theranos founder Holmes — who was convicted of criminal fraud in January 2022 for lying about her company's blood-testing technology — in Hulu miniseries The Dropout, but rather than be disgusted by Holmes' actions Seyfried thinks that "we are all capable of such crazy things".

In an interview with the new US issue of OK! magazine, Seyfrield said: "[Elizabeth] believed in herself. If you want something badly enough and you work so hard to make it true, physically and emotionally, then I think we're all capable of such crazy of such cray things. Our brains are miraculous and we can forget things, we can bury things and we create things. And she was incredible at creating the story of Theranos."

The Mamma Mia! actress went on to explain that Holmes — who was found guilty of misleading investors by knowingly lying about the capabilities of her company's testing — would always find a way to convince medical professionals of her lies by "deflecting" her way out of it.

She said: "People in healthcare and science and medicine, I'm sure that they questioned it — but she'd double down and deflect would always kind of deflect something she didn't really know with something she did know. She was an incredible actor."

Seyfried was shooting the series while the court case of US v Holmes was ongoing and she described the concurrent timing of the two events as "bananas".

"The timing was just bananas in so many ways because new information was always coming through to us, and we were always wondering if we were on the right track," she added. "Sometimes, you're on set and you forget that the things you're saying we actually said by real people. There was just a lot of real-life happening."

Holmes is currently on bail and is set to be sentenced on Sept 26. She faces the maximum possible penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

The Dropout is now streaming on Disney+.

Photos: TPG News/CLick Photos