Jennifer Lawrence Exits Adam McKay’s Elizabeth Holmes Movie After Watching ‘The Dropout’: ‘We Don’t Need to Redo That’

“I thought she was terrific,” the actress said about Amanda Seyfried’s performance of the Theranos CEO

Jennifer Lawrence and Adam McKay
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Jennifer Lawrence will no longer be playing Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes in Adam McKay’s film “Bad Blood.”

Lawrence revealed the development during interviews with The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan for a profile he wrote on her for the publication, according to a tweet by the reporter.

Lawrence said she dropped out of the film after watching Amanda Seyfried’s Emmy award-winning performance as Holmes in Hulu’s “The Dropout.”

“I thought she was terrific,” the actress said, according to Buchanan. “I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to redo that. She did it.’”

Seyfried won her first Emmy Award in September for her role in “The Dropout,” for best actress in a limited series or TV movie.

The production plans for “Bad Blood” were revealed in January 2021, with McKay set to direct, write, and produce the film alongside fellow producers Kevin Messick, Justine Polsky and Will Ferrell. Lawrence was set to co-produce as well. Apple Original Films backed the project.

It is based on John Carreyrou’s 2018 nonfiction book “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley,” about the rise and fall of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup that set out to revolutionize blood tests, but collapsed when Holmes was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy.

Lawrence would have been the first actress to portray Holmes on the big screen, though the former biotech entrepreneur’s tale has been recounted in the podcast “The Dropout” as well as Alex Gibney’s documentary “The Inventor.”

Lawrence previously worked with McKay on “Don’t Look Up,” which debuted on Netflix in December 2021 and is a political and social satire about an impending climate disaster. Lawrence starred as Kate Dibiasky, a burgeoning scientist. The film quickly shot to the top of Netflix charts, becoming the streamer’s second-most watched original movie.

Up next for Lawrence, she just wrapped up A24’s Causeway, in which she stars as a soldier who has suffered a traumatic brain injury during her tour in Afghanistan and is forced to return home. She struggles to adjust to daily life as she waits for her eventual redeployment. The drama will be released on Apple TV+ Nov. 4th.

She also stars in the romantic comedy, “No Hard Feelings,” the actress’s second produced film with Justine Ciarrochi and is set to star in the film adaptation of “Die, My Love,” and a biopic of the Hollywood agent Sue Mengers.

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