From singing ABBA on a beautiful beach in Greece to hunting werewolves in classic tales, to even being a mean girl in high school, Amanda Seyfried is one of those actresses that no one is really able to place inside a box, mostly regarding the wide variety of characters and genre's she has tackled. Seyfried is a young actress who has been working in the industry for over two decades and has impressed many worldwide with her stories — but never quite like her brilliant performance in The Dropout.
The Dropout is a true crime-inspired miniseries by Hulu that was able to stand out from all other true crime productions that appear to be more common every year. Why? There are a lot of reasons: an interesting story with greatly detailed source material from the podcast it's based on, it's a well-directed docuseries with very high quality. But the one that really solidifies its excellence is the way in which Seyfried decided to portray the main character, Elizabeth Holmes. The actress blew everyone away with her performance, and it's safe to say that her life, especially her career, changed a lot since the first episode aired.
Here is a little recap of Seyfried's career while also taking a look at how it changed after her iconic role in The Dropout, and what can fans expect next from this diverse actress.
Amanda Seyfried's Extensive Career
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Amanda Seyfried is only 36 years old, but has nonetheless had an impressive and extensive career. Seyfried has acted in dramas, comedies, musicals, romantic dramas, and intense thrillers. Her feature film debut was none other than the beloved Mean Girls, in which she took on the comedic role of Karen Smith. From that, she has appeared in various movies, some with a great degree of success and others not so much. The actress is known for her roles in Dear John (an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel), Letters to Juliet, the classic HBO series Big Love, and the underrated horror satire Jennifer's Body. One of her most impressive performances to date has been in Paul Schrader's spiritual masterpiece First Reformed.
To some, Seyfried is best known for her musical roles, which include the daughter of Mery Streep in both installments of Mamma Mia and as Cosette in the 2012 version of one of the great French tragedies, Les Misérables. But it was only last year that the actress received her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the iconic actress Marion Davies in David Fincher's film, Mank. Unfortunately, Seyfried didn't win, and the award went to Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari. Nevertheless, being nominated for the first time for an Academy Award is a great achievement in itself.
Even though the actress has been well known in the industry for decades now, not everything has been perfect for her, and she has been recently opening up about losing a role she really wanted: Glinda in the new adaptation of Wicked. The actress was actually shooting her big career-changing role in The Dropout while auditioning for the part of Glinda, which ultimately went to Ariana Grande. It was a surprise for some fans that Seyfried didn't get the role since she is known for her singing abilities: she trained in classical Opera singing and had a Broadway voice coach for a few years. Then again, Grande is beloved worldwide for her vocals, and Seyfried missed the role in order to film perhaps her most important part to date, so maybe it all worked out.
The Dropout
The Dropout is an eight-episode miniseries about the rise and downfall of Elizabeth Holmes, inspired by the real-life case of how Holmes scammed the medical industry with her supposedly groundbreaking million-dollar health technology company, Theranos. The show had enormous success. The series has been praised for numerous aspects, but one element that is recurrently highlighted as the best one is Seyfried's performance. This was the first role that got the actress an Emmy nomination for Best Actress in a Limited Series, which she won. In the same category was another actress that also plays a scammer based on true occurrences, Julia Garner, in Netflix's Inventing Anna.
Seyfried was very open about how The Dropout changed her life beyond career recognition. “I’ve been working for two decades playing people very similar to me, in different circumstances,” she told Backstage. “This just unlocked a whole world.” Although Seyfried had done stories in multiple genres, she had become known for doing the 'girl seeking love' characters, which dramatically changed in The Dropout. The actress was also very open about how she found Holmes' iconic voice, and how some days she had trouble finding her own voice again. How well she was able to convey Holmes has deeply impacted how the industry perceives her, telling Variety, “I think people in the industry are realizing that I can be cast as more than just versions of me,”.
What's Next for Amanda Seyfried
After so much well-deserved praise, fans of Seyfried can't help but wonder what is next in store for the actress. There is no denying that the reality of multiple studios trying to lure her to their projects was already real, and after her last couple of years with The Dropout's Emmy win and her Oscar nomination, this can only have increased.
Seyfried has worked on a horror short film this year called Skin & Bone from director Eli Powers, a friend of hers for years who also directed her in the short film Holy Moses. The short is about a man that after accepting a job in a farm run by a reclusive woman starts to have visions about men trapped inside animal bodies. Seyfried is also appearing in the upcoming AppleTV+ television show The Crowded Room. The series is inspired by real-life stories about people that had to learn how to live with mental illness, and if The Dropout is any evidence, we know that Seyfried will master the art of portraying someone, and something, very real.