Kate McKinnon does some of the best impressions in “Saturday Night Live,” but one impression you won’t get to see anytime soon is Elizabeth Holmes, because McKinnon has dropped out of Hulu‘s Elizabeth Holmes series, “The Dropout.” Before you ask, yes, the pun was very much intended.
Deadline has the scoop on the drop out from “The Dropout,” and reports that Hulu will go on ahead without McKinnon, with a search for a new actress to play the disgraced Silicon Valley entrepreneur. No reason for the drop out was given, which is surprising since McKinnon has been attached to the project from the very beginning as a star and executive producer, since Hulu gave the show a straight-to-series order back in April, 2019.
For those who didn’t see the great HBO documentary “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley” and don’t remember the headlines, “The Dropout” is based on the ABC Radio and ABC News’ podcast released in 2019 covering the story of Holmes, a college dropout who went on to found Theranos, a company that was meant to be the Apply of the health industry, and that raised $700 million from private investors and venture capitalist and eventually got valued at an insane $10 billion. The company invented the Edison machine, which promised an easy way to test for 200 diseases from a single drop of blood. The machine didn’t work remotely as well as Holmes claimed, people found out, and Holmes was eventually indicted by a federal jury on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud back in 2018.
In addition to “The Dropout,” a feature film titled “Bad Blood,” based on the book by the same name, is in the works with Jennifer Lawrence in the main role and Adam McKay directing.
Even if McKinnon isn’t playing Holmes in “The Dropout,” Deadline points that she remains incredibly busy. In addition to her role in “Saturday Night Live,” McKinnon remains committed to star as Carole Baskin in a “Joe Exotic” series.