‘The Dropout’ Director Michael Showalter: ‘It’s Important to Remember There’s a Person’

There’s nothing inherently funny about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ fraud, but in the hands of creator Elizabeth Meriwether and director Michael Showalter, the retelling of Holmes’ rise and fall generates more than a few laughs.

For Showalter, whose comedy background includes co-creating hot and humid american summer s search eventsThis black humor was a vital part abandonment. “Part of what’s interesting about this story is that these people exist inside this weird bubble that none of us really understand, where they’re passing millions of dollars back and forth like it’s no big deal,” says the director. The stakes are odd because as the series goes on, there are also real people affected by it. bonfire of vanity situation.”

The unique eight-part series was the result of a close collaboration with Tony Meriwether. “Elizabeth has a very specific sense of humor that’s kind of off-putting and weird, humor in people’s quirks and idiosyncrasies,” says Showalter.

Of course, these are all just words on paper, without Amanda Seyfried bringing Holmes to life. “Being there firsthand to see the production of this great work and feeling like I could have been a part of it is an incredible feeling,” says the director, who will present Jessica Chastain at the Oscars in 2021. Tammy Faye’s eyes. “When we were doing this show, I felt like we were creating something special. The scripts were great and the performances were amazing. It was fun and the tone was coming. I am very proud and proud to have been a part of it. “

As a director and executive producer, you can define the identity of the series. Can you describe what that means? abandonment?

It has a very specific and very nuanced tone. I felt it was my job to try as best I could to understand what Elizabeth Meriwether’s vision was and really make it happen. It wouldn’t be as simple as filming scenes. It was about understanding where the focus was in terms of how we were going to tell the cinematic story and calibrating the performances to create the sensation. I actually spent a lot of time reading the scripts side by side with Elizabeth. “What do you see here? What’s the joke? What’s at the center of the scene?” and he has endless ideas about it. It was very specific and very clear. So the challenge for me, in a good way, was to give it to him. And then pass that on to the directors who came after me to make sure the show has a consistent feel.

How much work did you and Amanda put into establishing Elizabeth Holmes before filming?

From the moment he was cast and through filming, it was a constant evolving process of trying to figure out the character. We met and spent a day together just talking about the story and the character and he went to study a lot of material. He then sent me a video of his commercial which spoke extremely in character. It was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it.’ It was shocking, this incredible interpretation of the character. But it was this ongoing, collaborative thing. There’s a scene in “Green Juice” that is a good example of this. The argument scene at the end of the episode where Sun [Naveen Andrews] He is violent with her in the kitchen and spills green juice on her; the way she talks to him is so condescending. There’s this disdain he has for her, like she’s pathetic. It was something we had to find out. It wasn’t our first thought that this scene played out like this. It was like, “What is this? Why is this feeling not uplifting? When you try a scene differently, you suddenly learn something about the character that you hadn’t noticed before.

Everyone loves a makeover, but what was so important about Holmes’ Easter show?

It is important to remember that there is a person with their own history and life. My episodes are, in a way, about Elizabeth, and the later episodes are about the people who brought her down. A question that really fascinates me is: “How do you manage to live with so much baggage? How do you wake up every morning, have breakfast, and talk to people when you have this big lie about you? How do you look people in the eye? It would be devastating for me. It wouldn’t be able to function. And I think there’s a story in my episodes about how he created a version of himself that can handle it. You see him at the end of “Green Juice” when he wears the turtleneck. The version of him we know a little bit, this gifted, perfectionist, a little weird, couldn’t last. But Elizabeth got the better of the tortoise’s handler.

The transition is amazing, but perhaps too delicate in terms of breadth. How did you work the scenes where Elizabeth lowers her voice or brags about herself?

The best thing about Amanda is that she really is someone who completely surrenders to the scene. But it is also open to any input. almost improved. It’s this ship. He says, “Tell me what to do.” It’s not that he doesn’t have his own ideas, but there’s this openness to him. He’s in character, but he also wants the director to give him direction. And then incorporate that. I found him very agile as an actor in a way that is not typical. He was often found at this time. Most of the time it was great on the first try, but sometimes something felt wrong and we kept working until we felt it was working. Where maybe that slows us down a bit are those moments when, as a director, I have to say to the producers, “We need a minute. I don’t mind, we spend more time here.”

Was there a scene or sequence in your episodes that you were nervous about?

We did a long scene where Elizabeth and Sunny meet in Beijing, and it was really important for me to make her feel real and not distract the audience filming in Los Angeles. We were in downtown Los Angeles and there were a lot of special effects and our background artists were local actors. These are the scenes where I have to be on high alert, just to make sure you feel like you’re in a grounded reality.

Was there a scene where you felt it really opened you up as a person?

There’s a scene in the first episode that I love. The father has the humiliating task of William H. Asking the Macy’s character for money. Guillermo H. Macy’s character embarrasses her in front of the entire family, and later that night, Elizabeth goes to her office to tell her everything is fine. For example, “We don’t need this guy. who cares if we are good.” And he starts crying uncontrollably in her office. This is someone he values ​​a lot and they are very close. We really felt that Elizabeth’s great desire came from her and we wanted her to live up to the expectations she had of her. And he puts his hand on her shoulder and she cringes and pushes her shoulder away from him. And he stands in her office, frozen, not knowing exactly what to do, not knowing whether to go or not, whether to stay, whether to try to be nice to her. In that moment, I really felt for him, because you understand there’s a lot of hard craziness that he’s dealing with when he’s young.

You are nominated for “Green Juice”. Was there anything that caught your eye in this episode?

This is the episode where we see her with her neck turned, that final moment of transformation where she becomes the Elizabeth Holmes we all know. But I also think that as a writing, it’s so brilliant that Elizabeth Meriwether focused on the idea of ​​green juice and what that symbol could be. For Elizabeth Holmes, green juice becomes a prop. And there’s a scene where he’s at a crossroads between going to the crossroads and counting or quadrupling his losses. It quadruples. Someone was saying, “It’s like Godfather, where Michael Corleone combines all his power”. This is the episode.

This story first appeared in the separate August issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.