{"id":22608,"date":"2022-05-13T08:27:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T04:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=210991"},"modified":"2022-05-13T13:36:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T09:36:49","slug":"wecrashed-anne-hathaway-jared-leto-interview","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/wecrashed-anne-hathaway-jared-leto-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Hathaway: \u201cRebekah Neumann was absolutely crucial in her husband\u2019s development as a successful entrepreneur\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WeCrashed\"
Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway star as Adam and Rebekah Neumann in Apple TV+’s new TV series WeCrashed. Credit: Apple TV+<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a powerful scene in the first five minutes of Apple TV+\u2019s new, slick and stylish docudrama, WeCrashed, <\/em>where Rebekah Neumann (played by Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway) is placating her erratic husband, WeWork cofounder and CEO Adam Neumann (played by Academy Award-winning actor Jared Leto), before he faces a flank of black suits in a New York boardroom.<\/p>\n

Removing her oversized, square-framed sunglasses, Rebekah combs Adam\u2019s long, dark, Johnny Depp-esque hair behind his ears, before grabbing the sides of his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a supernova,\u201d a stone-faced Rebekah says, her voice deep and authoritative.<\/p>\n

The eight-episode limited series explores the extraordinary true story of American co-working start-up WeWork. Inspired by the rather juxtaposing concept of a \u201ccapitalist kibbutz\u201d, Israeli-born Adam and his Oregon-raised buddy Miguel McKelvey launched the company in a single location in downtown New York City in 2010. Nine years later \u2013 and in 29 countries \u2013 WeWork\u2019s worth was valued at an eye-popping USD $47 billion making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world. But Adam soon became a poster child for start-up excess, and his erratic, prophet-like behaviour and wild plans for expansion saw him burn through billions of investment dollars. With the path to profitability unclear and a botched IPO, the value of WeWork plummeted and, in 2019, Adam was ousted by his own board.<\/p>\n

While Rebekah was known as Adam\u2019s behind-the-scenes advisor and muse (and Adam the \u201cmaverick\u201d \u201cmogul\u201d \u201cunicorn\u201d and \u201cvisionary\u201d), WeCrashed<\/em> creators Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello do a really great job at shining a light on how Long Island-born, Cornell University-educated Rebekah was actually the one arming Adam with the tools he needed at every stage of his tenure. You\u2019ll notice Hathaway\u2019s Rebekah pull out lines like, \u201cfear is a choice,\u201d and \u201cyou\u2019ve accomplished nothing compared to what you\u2019re going to do\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s not about money. It\u2019s about worth. It\u2019s about how you view your own value\u201d \u2013 all phrases used to tame Leto\u2019s Adam. Rebekah was the ultimate hype girl.<\/p>\n

\"WeCrashed\"
Credit: Apple TV+<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNot only do I agree that Adam wouldn\u2019t have been able to do it all without Rebekah, I think Adam would be the first person to say that,\u201d Hathaway tells GRAZIA, flashing her wide, pearly smile during a press junket in New York. \u201cI think Rebekah was absolutely crucial in his development as a successful entrepreneur. She was the person who got him to focus, that got him to share his vision. I think she also was responsible for giving him a lot of the language that at least initially allowed him to connect with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead Hathaway, Leto \u2013 together with creators and showrunners Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello \u2013 explore the reimagining and making of this spectacular rise and fall story, the chaotic love story that made WeWork what it was, and how it was indeed Rebekah who was the supernova.<\/p>\n

Hollywood\u2019s Obsession With The Rise And Fall Arc<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Never have scripts been ripped as rapaciously from the headlines and placed on television screens as right now: The Dropout <\/em>(Amanda Seyfried plays Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes who accepted millions of investment dollars for a medical device that didn\u2019t work); Inventing Anna <\/em>(Julia Garner plays a fake heiress named Anna Delvey, the one with an unplaceable accent who frauded half of New York\u2019s elite); Super Pumped<\/em> (Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Uber\u2019s hard-charging founder Travis Kalanick in a new flashy, high-octane series about his battle for the company\u2019s power).<\/p>\n

Now, WeCrashed<\/em> sees Leto and Hathaway take on the titular roles of Adam and Rebekah. (Interestingly these success and loss storylines spill over into each other\u2019s docudramas. In Inventing Anna<\/em>, Anna\u2019s lawyer works out of a WeWork office. In WeCrashed<\/em>, Adam watches Travis\u2019 2019 resignation on television. In The Dropout<\/em>, talks circle about the new app which lets you book a taxi with your phone.) Yes, the self-immolating entrepreneur rise and fall arc is wielding great attention in Hollywood. But why now?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all really fascinated by charismatic people. People who have that sort of strange ability to get other people to do what they want,\u201d Hathaway says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never been so globally connected, and if you are someone who is charismatic and have reach to connect with a lot of people, it\u2019s a very powerful thing. Given the timing we\u2019re living through and late-stage capitalism, people are looking to invest in this. It doesn\u2019t surprise me that we\u2019re seeing this happen again and again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WeCrashed\"
Credit: Apple TV+<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eisenberg agrees, citing that audiences are attracted to unicorns, the term used in the venture capital industry to describe\u00a0a start-up company with a value of over $1 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen WeWork came out, there\u2019s was the unicorn stampede \u2013 and it was Peloton, WeWork, Uber,\u201d explains Lee. \u201cIt was this idea that we as a society are always kind of craving that next thing, and the possibility that you can become a millionaire or a billionaire \u2013 or in Adam\u2019s case a trillionaire \u2013 overnight is fascinating to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this WeWork legend about how in 12 minutes [Adam] gave a tour to SoftBank\u2019s Masayoshi Son and got USD $4.4 billion,\u201d adds Crevello. \u201cWell, the flipside is, somebody went on a tour and gave someone $4.4 billion dollars. So it\u2019s not just a story about one man\u2019s salesmanship or him being some kind of fraud, it\u2019s \u2018why would you ever give money to someone in such a fantastic amount?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Becoming Adam Neumann<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For the role of Adam, Eisenberg and Crevello only had one man in mind from the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cJared [Leto] was always our dream pick for Adam,\u201d says Eisenberg. \u201cWe felt that he had the magnetism, the charisma, and the rock star quality that we imagined with our Adam and he has blown us away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much like the entrepreneur, the actor and 30 Seconds To Mars frontman bears a unique charm; the type that can throw a journalist off script with a deadpan look and a compliment, served in the same degree of seductiveness as Leto\u2019s cover of Rihanna\u2019s \u201cStay\u201d on BBC Radio 1\u2019s Live Lounge a few years back. (If you know, you know.) A brilliant method actor (and interestingly) an active technology investor, Leto, says he spent a lot of time with a group of Israelis to master Adam\u2019s accent, a feat given the actor was just coming off Ridley Scott\u2019s House Of Gucci<\/em> set in which he needed a strong Italian accent to play Paolo Gucci.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccents are just a series of mistakes. It\u2019s a series of muscles and shapes in your mouth\u2026you need to teach yourself to appropriate those shapes and sounds,\u201d Leto tells GRAZIA over a Zoom call from a hotel room in Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally your mouth and tongue are sore for days, like you went to the gym or something. Your whole throat is sore,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe\u2019re using so many muscles all of the time in a specific way. When you change that, it\u2019s actually a physical process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it many, many times now and it\u2019s a really fascinating thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WeCrashed\"
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 24: Adam Neumann and Rebekah Neumann attend the 2018 Time 100 Gala at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill\/FilmMagic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leto also admits to secretly meeting up with the real Adam Neumann prior to shooting WeCrashed<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested to know everything about a character,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to know what his favourite colour is. I want to know what his breath smells like. I want to know how many hours the character slept last night. For me, there is no detail too small, and it\u2019s all informative and all important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI told [Adam] not to watch the show because it\u2019s going to be critical of his life,\u201d Leto adds, stroking his beard, his blue-painted fingernails now in full view. \u201c[WeCrashed<\/em>] examines not only his successes, it [also] examines his failures. You can\u2019t do that without some criticism and exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WeCrashed\"
Credit: Apple TV+<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crevello \u2013 who only ever called Leto \u201cAdam\u201d on set \u2013 recalls Leto telling him that Adam\u2019s superpower was the way he communicated, and in an effort for Adam to sell desks and office space to investors with deep pockets, Leto was going to need more dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cJared said, \u2018Give me more words,\u2019\u201d says Crevello. \u201cAdam is always talking, always moving and as we developed the scripts, we really leaned into that and gave Jared these monster monologues. He is just incredible and nailed them every single time.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Jared] asked for it, and while we were shooting he\u2019d be like, \u201cA lot of words here guys, a lot of words here,\u2019\u201d Crevello laughs.<\/p>\n

\"WeCrashed\"
Credit: Apple TV+<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of the workload, Leto\u2019s eyes light up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were big speeches, lots of dialogue, lots of numbers, lots of facts, lots of information. It was crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cThe workload was amazing and I loved it. I\u2019ve never had so much dialogue before and it was a chance to see what you\u2019re made of, to see what you\u2019re capable of, to see if you had what it takes, and I was really up for that challenge. It was the right role at the right time in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hathaway says she didn\u2019t actually meet Leto until filming wrapped as he stayed in character for the duration of the shoot. Production lasted four months.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven within [his] character, I was always treated with complete sweetness and total support,\u201d says Hathaway, smiling. \u201cAs important as [Jared\u2019s] performance was to him, my performance mattered to him just as much. I was so inspired by the work that he was doing that it just made me want to give it everything I had in order to represent this very real love that exists between Adam and Rebekah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind Every Man\u2026<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Hathaway had it a little harder than Leto though in that she didn\u2019t have the opportunity to meet Rebekah, and there\u2019s wasn\u2019t a lot reported about her in the media. Lee and Crevello hired a researcher who worked to track down Rebekah\u2019s friends, college acquaintances and people she used to work with. Very into her own spirituality and a trained yogi, a rare report that did circulate about Rebekah in the press was one that cited her firing a WeWork mechanic just minutes after meeting them as she \u201cdidn\u2019t like their <\/em>energy\u201d, a moment that pops up in the new series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very lucky to speak to a lot of people who knew Rebekah and based on media reports of her, I kind of thought I knew what to expect when speaking with them,\u201d admits Hathaway. \u201cThe word that almost everyone used to describe her was \u2018sweet\u2019 and you could have knocked me over with a feather. I was so surprised to hear that!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember thinking \u2018this is a very complex person\u2019 and I felt an even greater resolve on a human-to-human level to give her the dimensionality that she does have, and to respect the truth where it lay, and honour the fact that the behaviour was what it was, and the outcome of the story is what it is. When you speak to people to who know Rebekah, they all say the same thing which is: she is sincere, she didn\u2019t mean everything that she said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WeCrashed\"
Credit: Apple TV+<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The difference in this bad entrepreneur story is undoubtedly the love story at the centre of it. On Adam and Rebekah\u2019s first date, she famously told him his ideas were no good. (These included kneepads for toddlers and stilettos with collapsible heels.)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trying to strike it rich and he meets this woman, who by Adam\u2019s own account on their first date says, \u2018you\u2019re never going to succeed. These companies aren\u2019t going to work because you don\u2019t care about them,\u2019\u201d says Crevello. \u201cIt was important to show what he was doing wrong and how Rebekah was the catalyst that essentially led to the creation WeWork.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRebekah says, \u2018if you do what you love, the money will follow,\u2019\u201d Eisenberg chimes in. \u201cAnd all of those lines end up becoming the DNA of WeWork.\u201d<\/p>\n

This precise point is cemented in one fiery scene in episode seven, a moment which sees Hathaway at her very best.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really think you built this alone? Really?\u201d Hathaway\u2019s Rebekah seethes as she screams through tears at Leto\u2019s Adam in WeWork\u2019s New York office. \u201cWhat about what you took? You took my father\u2019s money, you took everything that I believe in and put it in a shiny wrapper to package your bullshit. You even took my words. \u2018Elevating the world\u2019s consciousness?\u2019 Who came up with that? You? You couldn\u2019t have built shit without me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d Adam meekly replies.<\/p>\n