Jennifer Lawrence Is 'Working on' Her Elizabeth Holmes Voice for Upcoming Movie: 'She's Feeling It'

Benjamin VanHoose
·3 min read
elizabeth-holmes-jennifer-lawrence
elizabeth-holmes-jennifer-lawrence

David Orrell/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty; Riccardo Savi/Getty

Jennifer Lawrence is perfecting her Elizabeth Holmes voice to prepare for her performance as the disgraced Theranos founder.

The Oscar winner currently stars in Netflix's Don't Look Up, directed by Adam McKay, who told Insider that Lawrence, 31, is hard at work nailing down Holmes' recognizable speaking patterns before portraying her in an upcoming biopic, written and directed by McKay. The film is an adaptation of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley by journalist John Carreyrou.

"You know, I haven't made her do it for me yet. She said she's been working on it," McKay told the outlet of Lawrence's vocal work. "She's about to have a baby so I'm not going to bug her right now but she's born to play that role."

"With the voice, she said she's feeling it," he added. "She's excited."

Earlier this month, Holmes, 37, was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury in California. She had been charged with 11 counts of fraud for claims made to investors and patients of her Silicon Valley blood-testing company Theranos. The jury handed down a partial verdict, finding Holmes guilty of four of the 11 charges — three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

RELATED: Don't Look Up Director Recalls 'Constantly Tweaking' Movie's Ending: 'Did We Go Too Far?'

(L-R) Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill and Adam McKay attend the world premiere of Netflix's "Don't Look Up" on December 05, 2021 in New York City.
(L-R) Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill and Adam McKay attend the world premiere of Netflix's "Don't Look Up" on December 05, 2021 in New York City.

Theo Wargo/WireImage

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Holmes first rose to prominence in 2014 as the founder and CEO of healthcare start-up Theranos, which duped investors out of millions by falsely purporting that its technology could run hundreds of medical tests using just a few drops of blood.

In 2015, Wall Street Journal journalist Carreyrou reported that the machine Holmes was selling — dubbed The Edison — did not actually work, and that the company was using outside technology and other subterfuge to fake positive test results. Federal authorities then investigated Holmes, indicting her in 2018.

Her story was the subject of the HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, and Amanda Seyfried will portray Holmes in an upcoming Hulu limited series titled The Dropout that debuts on March 3.

RELATED VIDEO: Pregnant Jennifer Lawrence Jokes That She 'Just Had a Ton of Sex' During Hollywood Hiatus

In November, Lawrence told Vanity Fair why she decided to temporarily step back from the spotlight after not appearing in any projects for nearly two years.

"I was not pumping out the quality that I should have," she said at the time. "I just think everybody had gotten sick of me. I'd gotten sick of me. It had just gotten to a point where I couldn't do anything right."

"If I walked a red carpet, it was, 'Why didn't she run?' " Lawrence continued, adding, "… I think that I was people-pleasing for the majority of my life."

"Working made me feel like nobody could be mad at me: 'Okay, I said yes, we're doing it. Nobody's mad.' And then I felt like I reached a point where people were not pleased just by my existence," she said. "So that kind of shook me out of thinking that work or your career can bring any kind of peace to your soul."

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