Jared Leto: His biggest challenge on the set of the Apple TV + series WeCrashed

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Take a look at the history of startup WeWork and its CEO, Adam Neumann. The company was on the verge of an IPO before it suddenly collapsed …

WeCrashed creators Drew Crevel and Lee Eisenberg and lead actor Jared Leto answered our questions about the Apple TV + series.

AlloCiné: What was your intention with the crash of this WeWork series and its creator, Adam Neumann?

Drew Krevelo: It all started with a Wondery podcast. It was just fascinating to hear the history of WeWork. But what particularly surprised us was the lightning success of the founders and the equally dramatic fall: this mythical couple formed by Adam and Rebecca Neumann. The overwhelming idea was to do his series. In the foreground is the story of WeWork, but behind it stands this sulfurous relationship between Adam and his wife that really intrigued us.

Lee Eisenberg: For me, what attracted me were the characters. The characters are at the heart of any story I work on. Some people are fascinated by the story, but for me I have to have a connection with the individual. It was the difficulty of Adam and Rebecca that fascinated me from the beginning of our adventures on this show. The beginning of their company made such an impression on them that I would probably invest in WeWork. But in the end I wanted to warn them about their own ambitions, the illusions of majesty.

We really looked at their psychology, which led them on a crazy journey. We conducted extensive research on their childhood and their ascents. We literally created a psychological profile to understand what happened to their accident. And why do we have a guy like Adam Neumann who not only has to be a billionaire but also a trillionaire! What drives someone to this madness?

Why did you choose Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway to play this catastrophic couple?

Drew Krevelo: Adam is one of the best dream vendors of our time. It can save more than $ 4 billion in minutes by showing people around its offices. We needed someone with a unique charisma and magnetism. For us, Jared Leto was the perfect actor with the charisma of a rock star like he is and who could merge into Adam Neumann’s skin. He was our final choice and did not believe in our fate when he agreed to play this role.

And for us the shock was even stronger when Anne Hathaway agreed to play Rebecca Neumann. Anna knows how to show seriousness, reality, unparalleled. He had never played with the clichés characteristic of Rebecca, but he knew how to give it a surreal and comic dimension. For example, in the last episode of the series, there is a scene where an assistant makes Rebecca green juice. And Rebecca / Anna ignores the assistant as if she does not like the medicine; it is funny. A few actors could shoot this scene, but Anna was ideal.

Lee Eisenberg: Especially since we did not want to put a position on who Adam really is: is he a swindler? Is he an opportunist? Is he really sincere and blinded by his passion? So we needed an actor who could play with this ambiguity of identity. Jared was outstanding in his interpretation. We really wanted to create a TV series that shows that life is not easy, neither black nor white, but everything develops in shades of gray, for better and sometimes worse.

It was a truly unique challenge.

Jared, how do you get into Adam Neumann’s shoes?

Jared Leto: I really invested a lot to learn everything I could about this charming character, Adam Neumann. I read books about her, listened to Wondery podcasts, and also watched a documentary about them. And I talked to a lot of people who knew him and worked for him. We have all worked hard to understand who he is and what drives him. It was a unique and powerful experience.

Tell us about your collaboration with Anne Hathaway.

Jared Leto: It was a really unique challenge for both of them to portray such complex characters. It was a wonderful collaboration to re-create Adam and Rebecca and their unique and explosive relationship, full of passion.

What were the biggest challenges to becoming Adam Neumann?

Jared Leto: The biggest challenge of becoming Adam was his physical appearance and taking his place. He is always passionate and always bigger than the room he occupies. It was not easy to maintain this intensity, especially since we were taking it for more than six months. It was as if we were making six films at a time and it was tiring.

But I liked playing this character for so long because I could really follow him. Not to mention that his Israeli accent created some problems for him because copying his voice and maintaining his tone during filming was not easy. All of this was an important key to the perfect performance of this role.

For you, what are the topics raised in this series, what messages should be protected?

Jared Leto: This is a series about what dreams an individual can have and how he manages to fulfill them. I think dreaming is important in life, even if you sometimes find yourself. It is also the pride that sleeps in all of us and how Adam struggles to deal with it. Sometimes you have to know to go back to earth and stay in reality.

It is also a metaphor for the trap created by success, money and power. Ultimately, it is a study of the imperfections of our humanity. We are all a little overly fascinated by money, we are all greedy. But we also have, in all of us, a sense of generosity. It was fascinating for me to study all these aspects of our human condition.

How do you explain that we all want to become rock stars and have our “15 minutes of curiosity,” as Andy Warhol put it? We have become such narcissists and delusions, right?

Jared Leto: Yes, of course, that’s a good question. For me, who is in a rock band as well as an actor, it helped me a lot to play the role of Adam Neumann. He is a kind of rock star. I think we are all attracted to heights, to flying to the sun. But be careful not to burn the wings! This is the eternal message of the myth of Icarus.