“WeCrashed”, the series that explains how a romance led to bankruptcy WeWork | VIDEO

When screenwriters Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello heard the name of WeWork, the million-dollar co-working space company, on a podcast called “WeCrashed: The Fall and the Rise of WW” they instantly had the idea to do a series. But not because of how original its business model could be, but because of the love story that lies in its origins. So they called Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto to undertake the characterization of Adam and Rebekah Neumann, the owners of the company who, in the midst of their love disputes, made it fail.

In just one decade, WeWork managed to be valued at 47 billion dollars, but, as we said at the beginning, that was not the “strongest interest” of the creatives of the series, but the particular relationship of the couple. As Lee Eisenberg commented at a press conference in which Skip Intro of “El Comercio” participated, he had never before heard “of a financial failure as romantic as this one”, which involved everything from the philosophy of the Dalai Lama and the ego to ambition. of net income and the love of a millennial family. A set of reasons that, finally, led investors to separate the owners of the company.

Understanding the Neumanns

Brilliant minds are hard to figure out, and understanding the Neumanns raised many questions for Drew and Eisenberg. “Why does a person want to be a trillionaire? Why is being a billionaire not enough?” they asked. “We read everything we could find. We listened to each interview, hired an investigator who put us in touch with friends of theirs and company employees, roommates and potential investors. From there, we started building. Almost the way you build a character: you trace his origin and use that background to extrapolate how he would react in different situations. With the story we built of Adam and Rebekah, we got a sense of who we think these people are,” Drew Crevello told this website.

A little nervous about shooting a project without a finalized script, Anne Hathaway made sure to shine once she accepted the challenge. She hired a private investigator to provide her with relevant information about Rebekah Neuman to gain the sensitivity of a spiritual woman who led the company with a healthy vision. “We didn’t get to touch on it in the series, but Kabbalah meditation was very important to her. I read books about Kabbalah and I found this phrase: ‘judging people favorably’”, commented the actress.

In her first leading role in a television series, Hathaway learned “not to pass harsh judgment on someone” and created her character with a holistic perspective like working in a co-working space, a non-traditional place in which to work. that highlights the atmosphere of community, a social “movement”, as Adam Neuman finally conceived the idea. The Israeli was the main support to carry out WeWork, in addition to the push of Rebekah’s millionaire father who gave her a large sum of money for her wedding.

“I think a lot of women don’t have the same resources that Rebekah has, or the same support. It would be more like a fight for women who didn’t have the same resources that she had,” Hathaway told Skip Intro during the press conference.

Becoming WeWork’s spiritual guide was a new experience for the Oscar winner. After all, this is a character who has lived a long time: a woman who traveled to India to learn how human well-being works, studied Economics and Buddhism at Cornell University in New York, and worked as a yoga instructor in the city. . She soon became the mother of five children and changed her last name to Neuman, after her husband. She also traded her dream of being an actress, like her first cousin Gwyneth Paltrow, to be an entrepreneur in the family business and founder of the educational program WeGrow, which took a playful approach to teaching children.

Hathaway knew that the element that would add value to her portrayal of Rebekah would be Jared Leto. She knew it from the moment she saw him transformed into a charismatic and brilliant salesman who never wore shoes to work. And she, of course, she was anchored to Leto’s immersive process as an actor. Hathaway instantly ‘clicked’ with him on their first day of shooting together. And Jared was so committed to the role that he left his real name off the set. As the actor told El Comercio, to get the role, he asked the team to call him “Adam” during the four months of filming.

“Everyone referred to me as Adam, because that was the character I was playing all the time. And I love hearing that. The character’s name on set reminds me of where I am and the job I’m doing. You better learn to hear your own name. That name. Because that person has heard him all his life. I remember saying a character’s name on set in one scene, while improvising, and the person didn’t turn around, because they didn’t know his name. Even now, if I were walking down the street and someone said Adam!, the character would probably jump out of my skin, ”Jared Leto replied to El Comercio, which had the work of the Oscar winner Kazu Hiro in makeup to finish his transformation .

Without a doubt, the stars of “WeCrashed” put the icing on the cake and achieved the realistic breath of the romance of two visionaries who, in eight chapters of almost an hour each, show how far one person can go to win and win. why they don’t know when to stop despite having already put the flag on the top.