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Before writinga show about an imploding biotech start-up, Elizabeth Meriwether was best known for creating the sitcomNew Girl.
I had a take it or leave it attitude when I came in, she said.
I realized how much I connected with this story.
Holmes was famous for her artificially low speaking voice; Meriwether lost hers the first week filming her sitcom.
And not trusting yourself to be that leader, feeling like you better put on this performance.
Of course, Meriwether never ran any scam blood tests on actual at-risk patients.
But the parallel was enough to fuelThe Dropout, now starring Amanda Seyfried.
Something that always baffled me about the real-life Holmes was that shewent to Burning Manafter Theranos collapsed.
Why would that be?
Was it really how she feels?
I realized I could do it in a simpler way but keep that same spirit.
Now its one person getting into an Uber.
Its her getting into an Uber and saying her name is Lizzy, which feels like a crucial shift.
This is a new identity and a new chapter for her.
Then theres Uber, another start-up that happened while she was running Theranos.
The scene shows how easy it is, in the way we live right now, to reinvent yourself.
Its just changing the name on your Uber account.
Before the car shows up, Amanda Seyfried lets out this primal scream.
Its a big, cathartic moment you might interpret in a lot of different ways.
How was it written in the script?It doesnt say scream in the script.
I wanted a moment of reckoning.
I knew that if she was going to have a moment of that, it couldnt be in public.
So I wrote into the script that it all flashes in front of her eyes.
She also really wanted to fall down on the ground.
She actually texted me this weekend like, I hear youve started working on a second season.
Shes messing with me a little bit.
But I still wanted to acknowledge what came before.
A lot of this show feels like a tour of the pop music of the 2010s.
I was surprised that it was a hip-hop song.
The other piece of information was thatIm in a Hurrywas her favorite song in her high-school yearbook.
When I listened to it, the lyrics were very relevant to this story.
It was also a way of getting the audience back to the particular year of a scene.
It was also a question of sex scenes.
Was it always that Elizabeth would dance toHow to Loveto Sunny in the office?It was!
I tried to think about a song that people had maybe forgotten about but was instantly recognizable.
I remember loving that Lil Wayne song so much.
This show has maybe revealed my own music tastes and less whatever Elizabeth Holmes might have liked.
The music choices dovetail with Elizabeths obsessions with her iPhone and Apple as a company.
Speaking of pop thats not too dangerous: Alan Rucks Walgreens exec sings along to Firework inthe fourth episode.
I think were all Dr. Jay in that moment.
The show portrays Elizabeth rubbing her iPod over her face as she listens to it.
I didnt know what to do!
I actually related to that part of her character.
New Girlwas picked up when you were 29.
I mean, look at my glasses.
Have I just spent my life trying to be Tina Fey?
Theres a scene in episode three where shes confronted by her board.
Thats what makes the story complicated, especially around gender.
We were always having those conversations.
I hope thats reflected in the show.
I dont want people to walk away from the show with a verdict on her or a diagnosis.
Everybody I talked to when I was working on this wanted to label her a sociopath.
I wanted you to connect but also constantly question your connection to her.
What was the decision she made that was hardest for you to understand?Theyre both inepisode five.
One is never reaching out toRochelle Gibbonsand Theranos coming in and taking Ians computer.
Then, the big one: the decision to go live at Walgreens.
Your TV background is primarily comedy writing.
They asked me and I dont know how many other people to come in and pitch.
I loved the story, and I didnt know why we needed to tell it as a limited series.
It made sense to me and felt easy.
The scene inepisode twoof everyone getting the office together for Don Lucas was originally much longer.
There was a lot more silliness, trying to fix the coffee maker.
Which was hard for me!
I felt, and I still feel, that really great actors play the moment.
Some of the funniest arent doing comedy.
Amanda joined the show pretty far along in the process.
How finalized were the scripts at that stage?The scripts didnt really change.
We were pretty close to shooting, but looking back, I dont know how we got so lucky.
Her performance, even after being in editing with it Im still surprised by things she did.
Its a good scene to hand an actor because you’ve got the option to watch their process.
She doesnt have to start off doing a perfect impression.
What went into writing it?That was actually a reshoot.
Wed shot something that felt like it wasnt having as big of an impact emotionally.
That scene was one of the last things she shot as the character.
That scene was the climax of that story.
Its when her self is splitting apart.
Inepisode six, for instance, Tyler Shultz and Erika Cheung go through a sort of buddy investigation.
But I had always been drawn to the character of Erika Cheung.
Shes a woman of color.
She came from no money.
That she is the one who brings down the company is incredible from a storytelling point of view.
It was important to really understand what she and Tyler did and what that felt like.
Do we need this narrative out in the world for women?
That episode was important to me because you see Erikas story, Phylliss story, and Elizabeths story.
It was important to look at those different versions of being a woman in the sciences side by side.
The second half of the series tries to show what it takes to stop a speeding train like Theranos.
It takes a lot.
Holmesstrial startedwhile you were very far into working on the series.
But the text messages we got were the conversations I had spent years trying to imagine.
Taylor and I were going through pages and pages of text messages going, Did you see this one?
She was looking at it from a journalistic place, and I was looking for flashes of emotion.
Igave them to Naveenafter a first rehearsal of a scene, like, Could you somehow fit this in?
Also, theres been more skepticism about Silicon Valley recently.
you could just ignore gatekeepers and cut through the red tape.
There are so many similarities between the early days of Theranos and a lot of these success stories.
It was important to emotionally understand the context she was in.
They never sent it!
I get long updates about their manufacturers and China and who knows what.
I want to do a dramatic reading of those emails.
There is so much green juice on this show.
But I assume there was a constant green-juice supply flowing for everybody.
I dont think Ill ever drink it again.
I dont know how Amanda feels.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
