Recreating the unique voices of Elizabeth Holmes, Anna Delvey, and Adam Neumann is a balancing act of perfection and impression.
It ’s Scammer Season , infant ! This three - month period in 2022 — in which a trio of unrelated circumscribed serial about spectacular 2010s swindler premiered within two month of each other — started with the arrival of Netflix’sInventing Annafrom Shonda Rhimes on February 11 telling the genuine chronicle of Anna Delvey ( or is it Sorokin ? ) . A few workweek later on , on March 3 , Hulu dropped ( sorry ) the first three episodes ofThe Dropout , following the rise and fall of Theranos and its founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes . Friday , March 18 Mark the commencement of the remainder of Scammer Season with the premiere ofWeCrashedon Apple TV+ , which charts the co - working outer space WeWork ’s financial mismanagement at the hand of founder and CEO Adam Neumann .
Delvey , Holmes , and Neumann are liberal , polarizing personality . Each has a unique accent ( or voice ) plus a astuteness and swarthiness beyond their glazed public facade . For these performances , the line between idol and impression is sparse , particularly when it comes to their accents . On top of that , these chiseler are ( albeit on very different levels ) morally corrupt people who lied , schemed , and in some cases , committed veridical crime to get what they wanted . Recency adds extra press : All three of these scammer stories spread out in the mid to belated 2010s , with podcasts and books , YouTube videos , or documentary about each promptly useable . Thrillistspoke to role player and showrunners fromInventing Anna , The Dropout , andWeCrashedabout creating these character and their vocalisation in an authentic way that did n’t cross that fine production line .
Ensuring these characters come across as human beings started with the committal to writing . The first several episode ofThe Dropout , which espouse the early life of Elizabeth Holmes as a teenager , her brief sentence at Stanford , and the early days of Theranos , have a Christ Within , comedic tone that Jehovah and showrunner Elizabeth Meriweather “ fuck was going to be challenging , ” especially coming from a drollery - writing background . ( Meriweather create the web comediesNew Girl , Single Parents , and Bless This Mess . ) It help to approach the beginning of the story as that of a immature woman trying to set forth a fellowship , Meriweather says . “ It was important to me that it was n’t presented purely as this dark , dark , glowering story . It gets really dark , but I do n’t think it originate out in that spot . ”
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WeCrashedcreators and showrunners Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello have it off that the full room to make trusted WeWork ’s Adam Neumann did n’t finger like a parody was to simply do their chore as writer . “ The more we learned about Adam , you ca n’t help but empathize , ” says Crevello . “ We read about his childhood and some of the things that go into making him the person he was . Our task , we thought , was to balance that with the fact that there was confirmatory damage in this tale . That there were employees and investors and mass that really got hurt by the fallout . So it was really balance empathy with some objectivity , but both of those thing kept us away from just making him a cockamamie caricature . ”
The first episode ofWeCrashedshows what Neumann ’s lifetime was like before WeWork . While Holmes had one idea for an design she was convert would change the world and stick with it , Neumann hadtoomany ideas he was convinced would change the mankind . In the first instalment , a struggling Neumann is selling silly invention such as onesies with genu pads for sister to make crawling more comfortable — something he really did . This accomplished two thing at once : The mind is so stunned that you palpate a bit sorry for him , but also establishes the fact that he was in over his head .
manufacture Anna , beginning each episode with text that readsThis whole story is completely dead on target , except for all the piece that are totally made up , takes a different approach thanThe DropoutorWeCrashedby portray Anna Delvey as a sympathetic fig with a repurchase arc . It villianizes men and Rachel DeLoache Williams , one of Delvey ’s victims and former friend , while portraying Delvey as a brilliant , inspiring though untrusty fair sex who outsmart New York City ’s elite . The serial concludes with an geographic expedition of her family and puerility in Germany , and thus ends on an emotionally grounding note rather than the other shows which begin with it .
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" I recall she ’s a untried woman who tried to get over in a public in which we observe getting over , ” showrunner Shonda Rhimes toldShondaland . “ We celebrate it when people do it and do it the right way . The Instagram image of your life is the life you ’re supposed to be moderate . And we celebrate the people who can get it . "
Every actor play these persona had a challenge : On top of depict complex , generally unkindly figures , they had to make and perform accents that could , if done incorrectly , drain the entire serial . Or worse , their vocation .
For Julia Garner , who played fake inheritrix and scammer Delvey / Sorokin onInventing Anna , the biggest challenge was creating an authentic portmanteau of regional inflection that change depending on her character ’s environs . Delvey verbalize in a false German dialect spoken by a aboriginal Russian , which is already complex on its own . But Delvey is fluent in other languages , learned British English ( which Garner notes is unlike from American English ) , and lived in the United States , all of which influence her language patterns .
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In her enquiry , Garner comment that Delvey ’s “ consistently discrepant ” accent changes with her environs : where she is , who she is with , and if she ’s been drink , which she used in her operation . “ It ’s such a unique speech pattern , it ’s sometimes hard to consider that she actually sounds like that . But she does , ” Garner says . In one other conniption , Anna is vacationing on a yacht with her boyfriend and some friends . She ’s been drink , and Garner noticeably remove the accent a hint more Russian . Another guest on the racing yacht require her if she is Russian , and Delvey , caught in her Trygve Halvden Lie , adjust back to her German accent .
To hone that “ hybrid , ” Garner rivet through hours of single television recording of Delvey ’s interviews with journalist Jessica Pressler . “ I was able to really listen to how she was speaking and mirror how she was speaking , ” Garner says . She worked with dialect coach Barbara Rubin , who help fine tune her fictitious character Ruth Langmore ’s Missourian drawl ( ie . " Missuruh " ) for Netflix’sOzark . Garner visit Delvey in prison when working on the role , but not to search the emphasis , which Garner had already created by the fourth dimension they met . “ It was really just to get her energy and her spirit . ” Garner says . “ I just want to see how Anna was without any recording devices or feeling like she is being ascertain every five minutes . I just wanted to get her sum . ”
Garner is confident that Delvey ’s accent is the " most challenging accent " she will ever perform . “ WithOzark , it ’s just a Missouri accent . My [ Delvey ] accent was different accent . It was n’t just one accent mark , " Garner say .
Amanda Seyfried had a interchangeable approach to Garner ’s in revivify the infamous , mysterious , and forced baritone horn phonation of Theranos ' Elizabeth Holmes forThe Dropout . “I listened to her speak so much , ” Seyfried says . “ For so many hours . ” listen to Holmes ’ voice — specifically her 2017 deposition — helped take the pressure off , because it take into account Seyfried to center on depth rather than the voice itself . She focused on the depositions over public show or spoken language , such asHolmes ’ TedTalk , because those recordings are where Holmes ’ voice is the most authentic . By that point , Seyfried paint a picture , the voicewasher actual representative . “ There ’s so many hr of her being herself , orthatversion of herself , ” she says of the deposition . “ It was n’t as performative . ”
Rather than an imitation , Meriweather was depend for something that captured “ the emotional spirit ” of Holmes ' phonation . “ I was afraid , ” Meriweather says . “ I did n’t want the voice to be too perfect . ” The role of Holmes onThe Dropoutwas primitively supposed to go to Kate McKinnon ofSaturday Night Live , with shot to start in March 2020 . McKinnon eventually throw away out of the project , and Seyfried step in .
Working without a dialect coach , Seyfried practice everywhere , including in her elevator car while driving in upstate New York where she lives . “ It start to feel really natural , ” she says , though Seyfried was aware that her vocalism could not physically reach the exact deep tone of Holmes . “ It was all about how I can make this piece of work for me emotionally and psychologically as well as have it be efficient for the hearing . My body just kind of absorbed it after a while . It becomes muscle computer memory . ”
Seyfried , over Zoom , shew her Holmes voice , discover how she did it . Amanda Seyfried disappears as she pulls back her jaw , almost transubstantiate it into a dissimilar conformation , her eye bulging . “ Now I ’m making my tongue flatten against my tooth in the back and that ’s how I really can plug into to this touch sensation and it makes me finger close , ” Seyfried said in her deep , classic Holmes voice , which is equally as chilling over a late morning video call as it is onThe Dropout . As her Holmes voice advance , Seyfried — who noted this was a collaborative process with Merriweather and director Michael Showalter — would send part memos of her advance to Showalter .
Meriweather recalls her “ whole body kind of keep ” the first time she pick up Seyfried do the voice at the first rehearsal . “ I think that she is a really rarified actor , I ’m really excited that she got a chance to fiddle a role this complicated , ” Meriweather says . Instead of insert moment where Holmes loses her deep vocalisation into the script , Meriweather rent Seyfried decide when Holmes would wear , commonly when she is the most vulnerable and in environments that make her feel more at relaxation , such as when she ’s with her crime syndicate or alone with her partner , Sunny Bulwani . In a scene in Episode 6 , Holmes and Bulwani are on their fashion to her 30th birthday company . Holmes , irritated with Bulwani , speaks to him using the voice . “ Do n’t talk to me like you talk to other the great unwashed , ” he says . Until they enter the political party , Seyfried speaks in a softer tonicity .
“ The circumstance where you may really hear it is important , ” Meriweather says . “ Like where she ’s really trying to be a leader . Where she ’s in room with mostly men , or where she ’s dissociate a short bit . That ’s where it comes out more . The voice ended up being a tool in the storytelling where you could find where [ Holmes ] is emotionally by what her voice sound like . Amanda just intuitively know what I was trying to do and go for it . ”
ForWeCrashed , Eisenberg and Crevello have it away that the best way to tell Neumann ’s news report was to have the right histrion play him . They only had one mortal in brain when conceptualizing their limited serial about the WeWork saga , which they did on socially distanced walks in 2020 long before they even know if they ’d sell it . It took some push , but they stick their ambition roll in Jared Leto , who wanted to make certain the show would not revile Neumann . “ There ’s nothing whacky about Jared Leto , ” Eisenberg jokes .
“ And [ Leto ] exceeded our anticipation , ” Eisenberg says . “ My dad is Israeli and so the Israeli accent was a particularly tender and of import aspect to the show for me . He dead blow me away . ” Leto worked with a dialect coach on his accent and had an Israeli scenery partner he rehearsed every conniption with “ thoroughly . ”
“ He did not preview his idiom for us , ” Crevello says . “ I remember he just show up for the first Adam scene and it was this in full imprint character , the prosthetics , the emphasis . And he just get together our production as Adam Neumann . It was berth on and it was thrilling . ”
Leto is a method histrion , which think that while shootingWeCrashed , Jared Leto was gone . Jared Leto was Adam Neumann . “ We started calling him Adam , ” Eisenberg says . “ I would say Shalom to him every aurora when I would amount in and the show end four month later . We were in editing and we fit Jared Leto again , peach about the station [ yield ] mental process and about how we ’re going to market the show . Our supporter was back . ”
Eisenberg and Crevello were onto something : The persona of Adam Neumann is ideal for a bombastic scene - thief like Leto and the carrying out does exactly what they imagined it would . “ Adam is a cult leader . He ’s messianic , ” Eisenberg says . “ He is a rockstar and he is so engaging and mesmerizing . We needed someone that could fascinate all of that . Jared Leto has charisma to burn and he is mesmerizing , and those were the same caliber . ”
Inventing Anna , The Dropout , andWeCrashedfictionalize the fat , addictive , and completely true ( perchance not inInventing Anna’scase ) gouger stories to varying stage of achiever . In finicky , Seyfried ’s voice work onThe Dropouthas earned her long - deserved respect as a performing artist , with an Emmy very likely in her near future tense . What unites them , from page to performance , from narration to accent , is the idea that everyone has a backstory , that everyone is human : even a fake German inheritrix , a Steve Jobs wannabe , and a guy whowalked around New York Citybarefoot .
