The dark side of disruption. The new Apple TV+ series We crashed is a fictional version of the downfall of WeWork – and Adam Neumannthe man behind the curtain.
Based on David BrownThe Wondery Podcast of “WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork,” New Series Features Jared Leto as co-founder of the startup and Anne Hathaway like his wife, Rebecca Neumann.
Adam co-founded the company with Miguel McKelvey in 2010, but WeWork really started making headlines in 2019 when it was forced to postpone its IPO after journalists questioned the company’s ability to become profitable. By the end of that year, WeWork laid off 2,400 employees, a total of 20% of its global workforce, and Adam stepped down as CEO.
Rebekah, who served as WeWork’s head of brand and impact until September 2019, was also not exempt from criticism. In 2017, she founded WeGrow, a private school in New York, but two years later the school announced it would close at the end of the school year.
Although the Neumanns have garnered their fair share of controversy, Hathaway said she approached the role of Rebekah with a non-judgmental attitude.
“I appreciate that the world has kind of come to a decision on [Rebekah]”said the Oscar-winning actor Restlessness in an interview published Friday, March 18. “But what if I could approach this experience with fresh eyes? What if I judge her favorably? The end result is always the same, but what if I [embrace] his good intentions? It opened up the character to me in a way that felt very honest and authentic to me.
Leto, for his part, met Adam before playing him – and later suggested the businessman shouldn’t watch the show about his life. “He told me not to,” Adam said during a panel discussion in November 2021. “When someone says to you, ‘I’m going to play you, and you shouldn’t be watching it. …what happened in the world so that we could take a person, look exactly like them, put on prosthetics, put his wife and kids on a show, and then do a show on a … one-sided story I tell you n isn’t really true in a lot of things? »
the princess diaries The actress had never heard of WeWork before signing on to the show, but she spoke to Rebekah’s acquaintances to get some insight into her character. “Based on the media angle on her, people almost felt like they had to judge her harshly,” she explained. “But when you actually look at the things she was saying, a lot of them make sense. That doesn’t mean their practice was perfect.
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