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It's been nearly 200 days since Elizabeth Holmes was convicted on four counts of criminal fraud, and a couple weeks since her former boyfriend and COO Sonny Balwani was also found guilty, in his case, on 12 counts.
As they await sentencing later this fall, we're back with something a little different. A conversation with two brilliant talents who are crucial to creating the Hulu limited series, The Dropout, based on this podcast, now nominated for six Emmys.
Amanda Seyfried, who's nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her portrayal of Elizabeth Holmes.
If it doesn't scare me, there's really no point.I think because I choose the things that will be complicated.
I get very, very afraid that I'm not going to be able to do it at all.And the show's creator and showrunner, Liz Meriwether, nominated for outstanding writing for a limited or anthology series or movie.
There's this like mix of fear and excitement and just like a thing that's gnawing at you where you're like, I can't get this out of my head.What drew these women to Elizabeth Holmes?
What scared them the most when they set out to tell this story?And what was the toughest part of getting it right?From ABC Audio, this is The Dropout.I'm Rebecca Jarvis.Bonus Episode Amanda and the other Liz
Amanda, congratulations on your nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress and welcome.
Thanks.Couldn't have done it without you guys.That's for sure.
It's truly incredible.You're a remarkable performer.And Liz, for your outstanding writing for the episode, I'm in a hurry.Your nomination, congratulations.You are pivotal to all of this.Welcome.
Thank you.I'm so happy to be here.I love this podcast so much.I feel like I've entered into my own research.
Liz, where are you right now?I'm in Vermont.And Amanda?
I am in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.
And I'm coming to you from my from my closet in New York City.So, very much like every other episode.But I'm so happy we're having this conversation.I've been wanting to have this conversation with both of you for a while.
And I think we should start at the beginning.Amanda, I think for you, what has just blown me away is that you really embodied the essence of this character who is still alive.Was it scary to take on a role of somebody who's still around?
Yeah, I mean, I think at first, I worried too much about what other people feel in general.This was a really good exercise in trying to work through that.
Because my job at this point was to embody this person that exists, this hybrid between the person who exists and the person that Liz wrote.
And every time I reminded myself that it was our version, it was her version, our version, something we're building together, I could separate from caring too much about what the real Elizabeth Holmes thought because we're making a TV show.
And at the end of the day, it's for the audience.And her story is very public and has been well-researched, thanks to you guys.And a lot of people are very well aware of her.She's iconic in a lot of ways for a lot of people.
I just had to stay on that track so I wouldn't get sidetracked into worrying too much about the cost of it for her because she made her own bed in that way.I don't want to damage anything for her any further than she already has herself.
And I also thought because Because we're telling the story from a more inside point of view, like we're trying to understand her more, I thought it could really kind of only help.
Let's talk about, Liz, what drew you to this story.What intimidated you about it?What did you love about it?
I was very intimidated by it.I felt, I mean, first of all, I'd only written comedy. And I worked on a network sitcom, which is very different than what a Hulu dramatic limited series is.So I was very intimidated for that reason.
And then also just there had been so much reporting on the story.I felt like she had been kind of dissected by a lot of different people, and I felt like
I wasn't sure if the story kind of needed to be told again, which was like a big question that I had in my mind.And then I listened to the podcast and I felt like you guys had gotten her mind in a way that other reporting sort of hadn't yet.
that just kind of drew me in because I felt like that was a part of the story that hadn't been told yet.
And that was a part of the story that specifically a fictional telling of it could explore, you know, because it wouldn't have to, you know, be reliant on rigorous journalism.It could be kind of explored from an emotional place, which is what
I felt like I could do.That was the one thing I knew I could do.So I, yeah.And then beyond that, it's like the business side of things, the chemistry, the engineering, the Sonny Elizabeth relationship, which kind of, which had almost no
information about it.All of those things, you know, felt very intimidating to me because I sort of didn't know where to start with them, but I was so intrigued.
Were there any real-life people who you've actually come to know, Amanda, that you based the character on?
There are some people I thought about when I was preparing You know, I was able to relate a lot to certain ways I behaved when I was younger.
Certain things that I find embarrassing, I was able to tap into in order to play like the younger version of her.
But I think, you know, there are some people in my life from my past that remind me of her in terms of how they relate to the world and how uncomfortable they are in their skin. And Liz?Or were you saying that I did?I do?Nope, not at all.
Did you, like, does someone in your life?
No, I mean, I think that you definitely hit on it with that sort of tapping into a younger version of yourself that was uncomfortable in your skin.I mean, I think I did the same thing.
And a lot of what I kind of brought to the scripts were my experiences as a younger person, running New Girl in a position of power in my 20s, like not having a ton of experience.And so I did really draw from those experiences in my own
life, because I related in certain ways to the story.And it's a strange answer to say that, like you drew from your own life.But I think the work that that we do, Amanda, I feel like you always kind of have to.
And I think if you're not, if you don't connect in that way to something you're working on, then it's probably not what you should be working on.I don't know.
I think I don't, I definitely don't do my best work until I've sort of found my own emotional connection into something.Totally, totally.
Is there a process that you guys go through every time you approach new work that gets you there?
My process is always to like hate on myself as much as possible until I'm just like open nerves and then start from scratch and then like build upon that because the truth is I don't go anywhere without my insecurities.That's my reset button.
Like I've been terrified playing this new role because I haven't worked since the dropout and I felt so, present and safe in that world we created by the end.I was just not ready to let it go.Maybe I'm still not.
And it just took me so long to feel comfortable in this other character that I'm playing that's so much more me than Elizabeth was.So it's just start from scratch, hate yourself, crawl your way out.
I kind of want to understand what that looks like. You write in a diary or you just think about all the things you don't like?Dear diary, today is the day I hate myself the most again.
It looks like questioning what I'm doing with every single person I know, every actor I know, every person in my immediate family, you know, telling everybody, my therapist, my husband, my best friend Jennifer, who's like the best actor I know,
You know, I don't feel comfortable with this.What am I doing wrong?What can I do?What are the tools?Where do I go?Can you read the script for me?
It's basically about getting all the help outside from people I trust, not to validate me or tell me that I'll do a good job, but give me ideas. make me ask the right questions, much like a, I think like an acting coach would do.
I ask myself the questions and then I get different ideas from different people.
And then, and of course the writer and the director always help when we're on set or pre-production, but it's just like, I think I just need to bounce ideas off of every single person before I enter into the filming zone.
I wonder, Amanda, do you look for that sort of hate yourself thing that you said jokingly?I mean, I wonder if it's fear and I also wonder if it's like, do you look for things that scare you?
I mean, I feel like I feel the same way or like in hearing what you are saying.
Yeah, I think there's no point.If it doesn't scare me, there's really no point, unless I'm doing a favor for somebody or I get to work a couple days with a best friend.
If I'm going to dive into a project that's going to take me away from my family, it has to be important.It has to be something that's going to challenge me and it has to twist my world up. in that realm.And so if it doesn't, there's no point.
And there, I think because I choose the things that will be complicated, I get very, very afraid that I'm not going to be able to do it at all.
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Liz, what's your preference?Would you rather write the stuff that is very limited in its scope in terms of what's already reportable?Or would you rather target the things that have huge amounts of reporting behind them?
That's such a good question.I mean, writing scenes from
you know, using actual words that people have been quoted saying was a totally new experience for me, obviously, because, you know, there's no new girl real story that I was ever, that I was ever quoting.
You know, I've only sort of ever worked on things that I was really coming up with on my own.I was scared by the Sunny-Elizabeth relationship so much.But I will also say, And this seems like it's easy to say in retrospect, but I had a lot of fun.
I mean, fun is the wrong word.I found the writing of this show so exciting because it really did sort of challenge every part of me.I really had to like,
go deep emotionally with myself, you know, process a lot of stuff that had happened to me in the past, and also become like an armchair chemist.And there was just so many things that I was like, it was really, I was really challenged by.
I think the Sunny Elizabeth relationship, like, if it felt so unknowable, and I, and it, it, it also was, it felt dangerous to me, because
when you don't know something as a writer and when you're up against it, I think there's a tendency to fall into cliches or to like fall into stereotypes.
And so I was just like really aware of that and wanted to just make sure that it was never simple, you know?And those were just really hard scenes for me.I was really scared of them becoming melodramatic.
Fine, George doesn't like you, but I have to keep him happy, so get over it.
Don't talk to me like you talk to other people.
What have I told everyone tonight?Tell them what?That you love me.That I'm your king.
I'll meet you at the party.I can't be late.
That relationship was really one of those things where you show up at the rehearsal with the actors and you're kind of like, yeah, like I know what the scene is about.
And you talk to them about what the scene is and you like hope that you actually do know what the scene is about.For those scenes with Sunny and Elizabeth, I was constantly like, I think this is what it's about.
And that was a place where Amanda and Naveen just really took the ball and ran with it.And I felt understood this relationship in a very
primal emotional way that I think I had gotten in my head overthinking things and they just sort of like went with it in this beautiful way that amazing actors do.
Those scenes were really hard for me to write and I think their performances gave the scenes and the characters like so much more depth than I did.
You like to do the self-deprecating part after the fact.Yeah, yeah.By the way, I mean, look, you guys both know what a fan I am of all of it.So I think that goes without saying.
But I just every aspect of the work that both of you put into this has been for myself and the team, Taylor Dunn and Victoria Thompson, the podcast team.We have just been blown away by the care and the talent that you put in.
And it just means so much to us. the degree that you both, as well as everyone in the cast, and that extends so deep and layers and layers out of people working and caring.So I feel like a broken record sometimes saying it, but it is, it's the truth.
I also will say, I think that came from your podcast.I mean, I felt like, and you, and how much care you guys put into the story and just thinking.And you always say I came to the table with questions.And I think that's exactly what you did.
And ultimately, I think that's what I hope the audience leaves with.I never wanted to provide answers, I think. I don't see that as my job.
So I think hopefully all the questions that we had were translated into a good story that just created more questions.So I think that that also really came from you.Thank you.
And also I think it's funny, Everybody comes to the table from different places and with different questions.
And the questions that you guys asked on the podcast, the journalistic integrity, the real curiosity, the human curiosity that you had sparked Liz's curiosity.And she came as a writer and a creator, finding out about Elizabeth from a different angle.
And it's just like, you guys built this thing together.It was just like a domino effect. And then by the time I get to the table, which is like at the end, I have all this information
you know, over the course of all of your research and all Liz's research and everything I have available, it's just like, how could it not be?I just basically set into a warm bath here, you know?
Not to say it wasn't hard, but I'm just saying like, it's rare and it's never going to happen again.I'm like really sure that I'm not going to get
to sit in on something and have something so cozy and, you know, and so thoughtful and so ready to be filmed.You know what I mean?It's just, it's rare.
You guys are the reason, you know, this show existed and then, you know, it just snowballed from there.
It was a warm bath that I drained a couple times.You filled it back up.You put a bath bomb in it.Sponsored by Lush.Multicolored bath bomb.No, I mean, I think about the anecdote.
I mean, when I listen to the podcast, it's so funny, like doing this podcast, talking about the podcast.I'm sorry, I just keep saying that. But like, I remember listening to the anecdote about her running on the track, you know, as an 11 year old.
And that was in your last episode, I think, everyone would finish the race.
And then all of a sudden, you hear the announcer say, Don't cross the track, there's still a runner on the track. That runner was Elizabeth, but sure enough, she was not deterred by people laughing or, you know, people crossing the field.
She was going to run that race and finish it, and she was determined to do it no matter what anybody said.
I had been riveted the whole time, but it was like those anecdotes, you know, her sitting alone in her car, dancing to hip hop music, like what Ana Arreola, you know, told you.
And just those little glimpses into who she was as a person, that's what fired me up to write it.You know, I mean, I think like, The story is, from an intellectual level, so interesting.
And there's so many forces at work and big other conversations that need to be had about a lot of other things.But just the way that you guys had drawn out her character in the story that you told in the podcast, for me, was huge.
And that anecdote about the track, I remember listening to it and just being like, well, that's the first scene.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.We'll cross the track till the last runner's done, all right?
Why is she still running?Oh, Elizabeth, you're doing great!
I mean, I think that's such a good question of, like, why do you pick certain projects?
And I honestly don't know, but I know that there's this, like, mix of fear and excitement and just, like, a thing that's gnawing at you, where you're like, I can't get this out of my head.And that particular anecdote was just so vivid and so...
alive in my head.And I just remember that feeling of like, okay, well, this is a character I need to write, you know, like, in listening to that.So Yeah, warm, warm.
I like the warm bath analogy.But I also think looking at it from the perspective of there were so many pieces of this puzzle that all had to come together, that all had to work from every person on the project being committed to it.
COVID came up a pandemic came up, everything got pushed, dates got moved around, even that anecdote.
of Elizabeth's running on the track that was something it was in our last episode because This was someone who reached out after listening to the podcast.
So you think about these these realities in life that The difference between yes and no Sometimes things either work out or they don't The deposition tapes we knew they existed and we did everything in our power to get them and we finally did and we were the first ones to air them in the podcast and
it could have gone the other way just as easily.But I wonder about the creation of this project as there was a court case, as the trial was going on.The trial got pushed many times because of the pandemic.
And Liz, you had written, and you're in the process of shooting, and then we get all of the text messages between Sonny and Elizabeth.
Amanda, what was that like to read these text messages that, in many ways, were kind of validating this relationship that you were recreating?
I such a bizarre, bizarre situation to be in, because, you know, this is really happening, but we're on set making the imagined version in Hollywood.And, and there's a trial going on between the, you know, with this person with these people.
with all the witnesses and the players in our show.It's very easy actually to separate because there's no consequences for what we're doing.We're doing it because we love our jobs and we want to create and it's an incredible story.
And these people's lives are totally like in jeopardy.Um, and so that feels very weird.There was a lot of guilt there for me at times.And then I'd tell myself to like, just chill out because the truth is like, she created this for herself.
So, you know, she's, she's no one's victim of course, but you know, it just still made me feel uncomfortable knowing that she's going to court every day while her,
baby is at home or with her and she's being judged by the media every single day and every move she makes and now her intimate text messages are being released.It's just like, it's really hard not to feel for her.
And I think it helped in a lot of ways, you know, connect to that. side of things, but I also feel like it was just so, it was just too bizarre at times.
You were so in it at that point, Amanda, you know, because we'd already shot two thirds of the show and you'd created this amazing character that, as you said, was a mix of you and me and the writing and her, you know what I mean?
So you'd, you'd kind of created your own version of her.This is an inspiring step.
Forward.Forward.This is an inspiring step.Forward.
Yeah, but also just like the moments of just, oof, what?Why did you say that?What are you talking about?No, please don't be, this can't be true.Like, please.I'm trying, I'm trying to do a good thing for us.No, I'm kidding.It's uh,
Yeah, it was.You can't play a character well unless you're fully rooting for that character and seeing things from that character's point of view.
Exactly, but by the end, honestly, come on, things were falling apart and it was really hard.I don't know about how you felt when we were wrapping up in October, but when we were shooting all those choices, the wrong choices that she was making,
I was slowly pulling back.I was slowly pulling apart.
And it made it even easier for me to play the darker sides of her because I don't have to agree with her, but I at least have to understand why she's doing it and have compassion for maybe why she would behave that way.
But I don't have to agree with it.So it's like I was peeling back layers, but I was also kind of separating a little bit from her.And those text messages helped me separate because
they really nailed her in a lot of ways.I'm totally with you in that, like, I've said a lot that it's like, you know, I had never written drama before.And I think that's not just about jokes.
I think I'd never written a character that, you know, took such a turn, you know, that like, like exactly what you're saying, sort of like a character who starts to make the wrong choices, a character who starts to self-destruct in that big of a way.
I think obviously with comedy you're just never, you fall in love with your character in comedy and then you still love them at the end.I think with drama it was very different for me.Those final episodes were very hard for me to write.
probably in the same way that they were hard for you to perform because it's, you know, at that point you've spent so much time with the character and you're, you know, you are not rooting.
I mean, for me, I wasn't like, it was, it's more just like a connection.And then you have to write them doing these things that are very questionable.It was, it was new.It was a really new experience for me too.
I think I especially had trouble with the fifth episode, you know, where she's where she decides to, to go forward with the Walgreens launch and the episode where Ian Gibbons commit suicide as well.That episode was difficult for me.
Get your money from somewhere else.You've done it before.I don't need your advice on this, Ian.You don't understand the business.
And you don't understand the science!You know, the trauma aspect, the things that she's been through, were the things that I held onto as buoys to be able to continue justifying in my own head why she's doing certain things.
Of course, I don't have to, you know, I can sleep at night.But while I was shooting them, you know, you just you want it to be effective, the performance to be effective, and you have to, you know, commit and connect in a certain way.
So those were Yeah, it was it was definitely By the end, I was just tugging at anything I could to get through October 15th or whenever our last day was.
For an actor, I mean, this role, it was such a marathon.And watching Amanda do it, we were shooting for months.And it's not a movie.It's not two hours.It's hours and hours and so many episodes.And Amanda was living in this role for so long.
And I mean, I honestly... I could not believe that you were still standing in October, let alone giving the performance that you were giving.And I feel like those last couple of days, I think you were like, I need to get out of here.
I know, Rebecca, you visited set. I mean, you said it was surreal for you to just like walk into the set that was pretty much like a replica of the Theranos building.I mean, you know, it's just like life imitates art a little bit.Art imitates life.
I don't even know.But like, you know, we're all just sort of locked into this
Theranos set, you know, and I was desperately trying to not like, constantly compare the process of making the show to Theranos and like, making the box, you know, so I don't know, it was all like, by the end, I think we were all just like, we were all just really, really in it.
I don't know.But I actually think, I mean, it's interesting, earlier, what you said, Rebecca, about commitment.I mean, I think that's, in some ways, that's also what the story is about.I mean, what it takes to make something, right?
I mean, the choices that you need to make in some ways, the way that you have to kind of give your whole life over to something in order to make it work, and then
you know what happened every choice builds on it doesn't work yeah and then you know i did find a lot of connections to what what happened at theranos and and sort of the process of making something of making um you know a series
Yeah, it's yeah.But our series, I was going to say our series ended up working.So I feel like honestly, this is a giant, giant success.It's a giant win because we we shot it.We finished it.We edited it.We put it out.
People watched it and we still get to talk about it.It exists.
And and it it tests blood.No.
On this point of comic relief, I want to talk to you about what it was like on set because Liz said that it's very different to create a film than it is to create a show.How different?What's that like?What was it like on set?
I know we met your dog Finn when we were on set, which was so fun.It was so much fun.
So we would have these little bubbles of cast members coming in for like a couple of weeks and then leaving.
And we shot this whole show in three blocks, the first four episodes in the first block, the fifth and sixth in the second, and the seventh and eighth in the third.And we had the best cast I've ever seen in anything ever, I think.
We had eight hours of TV and so many people coming, like incredible actors coming in to play in three days.
So we would cluster up and then we'd have these little bubbles of like time with each other between setups and between shots and between scenes.And like, everybody kind of got to know each other in a way.And then they would leave and I'd be sad.
And then a new crop of characters would come in and actors would come in to play these characters.Like I got really tight with Utkarsh on the first block.And, you know, Bill Irwin, James Lau.The most incredible, Kate Comer played my assistant.
We were just texting with each other 10 minutes before this podcast.I've stayed in touch with all these people.Then the second crop, Beth Marvel, Michael Gill, who played my parents, came in and just stole my heart.Now I'm just
You know, and I'm also, I'm in all of them as actors.Josh Pais, all the Walgreens guys, like insane.Like I'm telling you the most insane experience because, you know, I'm very social on set.I really don't go back to my trailer much.
I'm very curious about people.I'm pretty energetic.I love my job because I need to survive because I'm away from my kids.So I might as well have as much fun as I can.
We created this little land called Table and we would bring the huge, huge collection of Copic markers, which are very, very good artists, watercolor markers and paper.
And then at one point when we were at the Walgreens place, Alan Ruck taught me how to draw.Everybody would start drawing, like, you know, just whoever was around. table, which was usually everyone, whoever's working at the time, we would just draw.
Everybody just got along so well.
Do you still have any of the pictures you drew with Alan Ruck?
Yeah.Basically, was like, you've got to get this book.Basically what you do is you take a picture and then you put it upside down.Now see that?And you showed me the lines.So I have some pictures because I really like drawing houses.
I have some pictures of houses that I have on my phone still that I can't believe that I actually drew.Because he's like, yeah, you just draw it upside down.Here's the book you get.And I got the book.And I brought it back to set that next week.
It's not just that.It's like the stories these people tell.Stephen Fry is the nicest man to ever walk the planet.He also knows the most about everything you will ever know and he's not a dick about it.I mean, I could go for days about these people.
These people.Are you kidding?I saw Michaela a couple months ago.She came up to the farm.It's just...
I don't know.I don't know what to say.I think if you're working on something so intense, you have to find a way to just leave mentally.You had your dog there.I totally got it. I remember at first I was like, wow, there's a huge dog on set.
Of course, like, of course, you know, like you need to play this part like you need that.You need like, like, buffers around you, you know, we did and we created a home.
And it was a really cozy home.And then when people come in, and they feel like, They feel part of it.They feel accepted.And it just feels like a team effort in that way.
I think it's one of the reasons the show works, too, is that everybody was very professional and very happy to be there.And the makeup trailer, everything.It takes so much to make something, right?Filming is hard.It's a lot more hours.
It's not a 9 to 5. We are definitely, you know, we're doing something very specific for a lot of hours, crammed in small places sometimes, and it can be uncomfortable, but you've got to, like, survive.You've got to make it fun.
And we do, and we did on this show.And that doesn't always happen.
Are there any more stories, any more anecdotes that you've never shared anywhere else that you want to do here?
Um, I, we have, um, so the entire crew shared a photo album and we would just add photos.Whoever took a photo, they would just add it to the photo album.So the whole crew would get it.And, um, someone took a picture of me.
I think it was Kendra standing under this really weird spotlight, um, outside of chats were at the studio and the picture turned out.
So terrifying that Michael Showalter's assistant Mika, who of course I'm still friends with too, made like, photoshopped me as many people, but one of them is Beetlejuice.And it was just, I hadn't laughed that hard in years.
For whatever reason, the picture of me went viral around the crew. as soon as I put it on and everybody, like I couldn't, I cry laughing so hard.I was like, this is, I don't know why, maybe I was tired.It was the ugliest, creepiest photo.
And it's just me.I didn't do anything to my face.It's the lighting, but I look like, I look like Betelgeuse.It's so weird.And I don't know what, I think a ghost took over me or something.It's really funny.And I just said it to you.
I'm looking at it right now.
It's really unsettling.It's really unsettling.
For some reason, we weren't even shooting outside, and here we were.I was like, I got to get a picture of me under there.
And that's what happened.I want to see your full camera roll, given the glimpses that we've achieved.
Like, it's one of those pictures that you look at, when you look at closer, it gets scarier.Yeah.You look at it far away, and it's like,
Yeah.It's pretty fun.Listen, I had, I don't know if I'll ever have that much fun again.So I might as well just, um, I'm capitalizing on this moment.
Like we got all these Emmy nominations, which is like more than you could ever expected for anything, you know, like to get recognition and acknowledgement for some of our job, well done, that kind of stuff.
It's like, you don't expect that kind of stuff.It's happening.I get to keep talking about it.I get to keep hanging out with you guys and, I don't know.It's just like, not gonna happen again.
I like the way you think, Amanda.I think it's the way I think.Like, we're both just like, it's like, so negative in a good way.Always shocked when something good happens.
Constantly shocked. No, we made like a Chatsworth Gazette because we're in Chatsworth all the time.We're like, you know, this place is crawling with interesting things.What didn't we do in the show?
It's just like the things people do when they're bored or they've been around each other for too long without sleep.It's a lot of funny stuff happens.I mean, I used to with Michael Showalter just constantly.I made a whole video.
I would like just with him because Because of course, because why not?I like made him a hairpiece out of my dog's fur when I just was grooming him.It's just the stuff I did.And then he like threw it away because he thought it was disgusting.
And I said, wow, I put a lot of work into this.
Also, there was a, I mean, I did get a Theranos tote bag that said, fake it till you make it.And I do still use it.I use it and then I was like, this is, you know what I mean?Like, I'm like, I can't carry this around.Like people, I was just like.
You know what, you can give it to me.I don't have one.I don't know why I don't have one.
Oh my God, I have three minute video of Michael Showalter just dancing around the camera because he was directing us to do dancing, because we did a lot of dancing, to Poppin' Bottles.And Liz, thanks for that song.Oh, that got cut.That got cut.
I'm so sorry.But Michael Showalter is just, for three minutes, just dancing behind the camera as if it mattered, as if people were, like he was just making sure that we were getting it right.
And you know when certain directors just act and monitor, this is what he was doing.
Liz, any other scenes that got cut that you would have loved to keep?
Well, that one was like, I really, Like everybody, the whole way was like, this scene is gonna get cut.And I was like, no, no, no.But it was a scene, it was another dancing scene in a series that had a lot of dancing scenes.
But it was after she gets invited to like, you know, meet Larry Ellison.She goes home to Sunny and they dance around kind of celebrating.And was it to poppin' bottles?
It was written in the... I don't know if it ended up being Poppin' Bottles, but I know he actually says Poppin' Bottles.
Sunny talking about Poppin' Bottles and then they were like dancing around.Yeah, it was incredible, but ultimately, did not need to be in maybe for the story.
There was definitely a couple, there's a few like comedy scenes that I felt like I wrote and that I never knew like tonally if it was going to be kind of too silly.
Like there was a scene where when they're about to show the prototype, Elizabeth's assistant kind of the coffee maker isn't working and she runs into the lab and she says, the coffee maker's not working, is anybody here an engineer?
And like everybody raises their hand.And there was like another scene after it where like all these engineers, including Edmund, were trying to fix the coffee maker, but like talking really technically about coffee makers.
And it was too silly and we cut it.But the the on the plus side, I like had to do a lot of research on like how coffee makers work to write the lines.
So I like now I understand now you're making amazing coffee for yourself.Yeah.Before we go, I want to hear from both of you if you have a favorite moment either from the actual series or from creating the series. Either one of you can go first.
If something just pops in your head, tell me.
The masked dance, like the dance where they're both wearing masks of Elizabeth's face after the birthday party, it just kind of hits every button I have. Oh my God.It hit buttons I didn't know I had.
I think so.It felt so good.The best experience I had was actually redoing this scenes, shooting the scenes where we were
actually using like footage when I was in, like during the deposition, it just, there was nothing more invigorating than like repeating things that I'd, I'd learned, I'd heard over and over again out of someone else's mouth in their same, with this, with this, just the mannerisms and everything.
I just, I also just loved walking as her, There's too many things.I don't even know.I don't even know.I don't know.I mean, obviously the dragon puppet thing is, I keep the dragon puppet in the box of markers.And I don't know.
It's just, it was all- You still have the dragon puppet?That's good to know.
Oh, I sure do.I sure do.I sure do.It's just, I mean, there's just, there's too much.There was so much fun had, and I really enjoyed every single almost every single second, except when I got hit in the head with a camera, which was so bizarre.
So not expected.Like the funny thing, like the funny things I have at work.Yeah.God, what a dream.Dream come true.
And to both of you, thank you.Congratulations.You have done such a tremendous job with this project.I'm in awe.So many people are in awe of what you have created here.And this is also just a really fun conversation.
So thank you for taking the time and good luck at the Emmys.We're all cheering you on.
Thanks.Well, we'll see.We'll all be together.Yay.Yes.Thank you.
Nice to hear your voice.This bonus episode of The Dropout was written and produced by Victoria Thompson, Taylor Dunn, and me.It's edited by Brenda Salinas Baker.
Special thanks to Sherry Rosenblum, Catherine Pope, Will Kim, Lisa Dong, Hank Sanders, and Josh Kohan.
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