Jared Leto may have played WeWork founder Adam Neumann for AppleTV+’s “WeCrashed,” but the Oscar winner has a surprising real-world connection to another Silicon Valley tech titan: Elizabeth Holmes.
During a Variety Actors on Actors roundtable with “The Dropout” star Amanda Seyfried, who portrayed Holmes on the Hulu series, Leto revealed he formerly “stayed in touch” with Holmes after presenting her with a Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year Award in 2015.
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“I had heard her speak in Palo Alto. She was great onstage. She was incredibly smart, funny — and then I met her after that, and I liked her a lot,” Leto said. “But no indication that things weren’t great in her life and at the company. And then I gave her an award.”
Leto added, “We stayed in touch after that and talked a few times, but my experience with her was always quite lovely. Not everyone is one thing. No one is one thing.”
However, the “WeCrashed” star confirmed that he is not still in touch with Holmes as she is awaiting sentencing on charges of fraud. While Seyfried was not “allowed” to meet with Holmes prior to filming “The Dropout” since the Theranos founder was in litigation, Leto shared that he had a “top secret meeting” with the Neumanns for “WeCrashed.”
“I was too curious,” Leto said. “I thought that I would regret it. Nobody knew it was happening. I met his wife, Rebekah, and they have a lovely family. It was a nice experience on my end.”
And if Seyfried had the chance to meet Holmes like Leto did, she would most likely just say, “Hi, wow, hello.”
“I would want to spend some time with her, and know that I probably shouldn’t, because I have in some way affected her legal experience,” Seyfried told Leto. “I have thought a lot about the sentencing. We tried to figure her out from a place of compassion and worthiness. I know whatever she’s sentenced with, it’s what she deserves. And I also know, in my gut, that there’s a space for her outside of this whole Theranos thing, outside of prison — if she goes to prison. Then she’ll get out and she’ll invent something new that’ll work. I don’t know if I’m the only person who feels that way. I’d love to see her take responsibility in a very vocal way, which she has not. If she can just take accountability and move on.”
Seyfried added, “I know Elizabeth was told not to watch it, but I cannot imagine a world where she didn’t peek.”
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