Oscar winner Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) and Oscar winner Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables) star in Apple TV+’s WeCrashed, an eight episode limited series inspired by true events. The series delves into the creation of WeWork and focuses on the relationship between founder Adam Neumann (Leto) and his wife, Rebekah (Hathaway).
Hathaway described Adam and Rebekah as flawed, fascinating, and complex people, and during the 2022 Television Critics Association winter press tour, series co-creator, writer, and executive producer Lee Eisenberg confirmed the characters in the series exist in a grey area.
Hathaway didn’t know anything about Adam and Rebekah’s story prior to WeCrashed.
“I was unfamiliar with the story when it came to me, and I became very interested in this idea of the mentality that people have that doesn’t let them see the world that other people see. That was the first thing that interested me about it,” explained Hathaway during the TCA panel. “And then as I got to know Lee and Drew (Crevello, co-creator, writer, and executive producer), I began to realize that this was a really serious team. And then they told me that Jared Leto was involved, and I realized this was a team I wanted to very much to be on. So that was the beginning of it for me, was the possibility of exploring how these two people work. And then as we got deeper into it and realizing the depth of the love story, that’s when it went to a new place for me.”
Leto, after noting this TCA panel marks the first time he and Hathaway have sat down to talk about the series, discussed his knowledge of Adam Neumann before signing on to star in the limited series.
“I remember learning about the story that they wanted to tell. I was familiar with it. I was familiar with WeWork. I had been to some WeWorks before and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a gorgeous company.’ The product was amazing; the spaces were incredible. I remember friends of mine that were up-and-coming filmmakers or artists kind of using WeWork, using that product and being really happy with it. And I remember hearing about this kind of huge success story and the fact that it was valued so high, and that they all of a sudden were confronted with these enormous challenges,” said Leto. “But I think for me as well, sitting down with Lee and Drew was pretty interesting to get a sense of where they wanted to go with this story. We kind of shared our thoughts and ideas. I was happy to hear that they didn’t want to just make a takedown piece that kind of vilify people and really look at this nuanced story and dig in deep into character.”
WeCrashed isn’t just the story of WeWork; it’s also very much the story of who Adam and Rebekah are outside of the business. Eisenberg and Crevello believe they’ve laid out the story in such a way that there’s enough information provided for viewers to draw their own conclusions as to the couple’s motivations.
“[…]So much of what we aspired to do with this was to present a story as fairly as possible and to not assume the worst of people, and to explain that just because people do things that we might disagree with doesn’t automatically make them bad,” said Hathaway. “And I thought it was very important to get the full picture of who she is because, at the end of the day, I’m just playing a human being. I’m just a human being playing a human being. And I was very excited to find out that Lee and Drew wanted to tell a more full, complex story of someone who, like all of us, is really complicated.”
Hathaway didn’t share her opinion of Rebekah, opting to keep that to herself.
“But the one thing I will say is that I do think that, certainly at the beginning, certainly in the first episodes that everyone’s going to see, you see that these are people who had very sincere intentions. I really think they wanted to make the world a better place. How they executed that is a lot more complicated, but I do think they were people who – certainly in my character’s case – really looked at the world and was trying to leave it better than she found it,” explained Hathaway.
Asked whether he thought Adam might have been just a dreamer who didn’t understand just how complicated his vision would become, Leto replied, “I think that they set out…Adam set out to build something that he was proud of, something that he believed in. And I think that he set his sights on a pretty impossible goal and achieved something pretty remarkable. I love that this story is the story of an immigrant who comes to this country and really wrestles his dreams into reality. I think that’s a pretty fascinating thing, as well.”
Leto is aware we’re never going to understand everything about Adam. “And this is a painting…it’s not a photograph…it’s not a documentary…so it’s impressionistic. When you play a real-life character, I always feel like you have an obligation to do the work, dive deep, do the diligence, and to bring that person to the screen with as much dignity and grace as possible. So, that’s what I did in this scenario,” said Leto. “And Adam was and is a really verbose person. We talked about this a little bit but one of his superpowers is his ability to use words, to again wrestle his dreams into reality. I related to that quite a bit, as any artist probably would…maybe any person would. To create something meaningful and share it with the world is a really beautiful thing.”
Hathaway confirmed she did extensive research on Rebekah to prepare for WeCrashed.
“I did study her a lot and during the rise of WeWork Rebekah gave a series of interviews, and she’s always been very generous in terms of sharing the wisdom that she’s learned. She’s very interested in spirituality, sharing the books that she’s read, so I really immersed myself in those. I also work with a woman named Amy Hammond, who’s a researcher, and she gave me amazing, amazing research on Rebekah’s life, on Rebekah’s world,” explained Hathaway. “It is a world that I was not born into but I am familiar with, and then I just sort of did my own investigative reporting. I would find people that knew her and I would ask them questions, and it was very interesting to kind of hear people’s experience with her versus the way she’s portrayed in the media. There’s a big difference there.”
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WeCrashed premieres on Apple TV+ on March 18, 2022 with the release of the first three episodes. New episodes arrive on subsequent Fridays.
