Created by executive producers and showrunners Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevellothe Apple TV+ series limited to eight episodes We crashed tells the story of Adam (Jared Leto) and Rebecca Neumann (Anne Hathaway), a power couple who started out with the best of intentions, only to quickly become so power hungry it led to the dramatic crash of one of the world’s most valuable startups. As CEO of WeWork, Adam’s natural charisma coupled with Rebekah’s spiritual lifestyle sold a brand that people bought and rose to success until greed caused it to blow up spectacularly.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Hathaway spoke about why she was immediately intrigued by Rebekah, how she got closer to learn more about the woman beneath the surface, and aside from the media portrayal, working with the showrunners to developing the character partnership she formed working with Leto and how much she loved the experience of doing this series so much that she would be interested in doing another TV project if she did is attracted to another character.
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Collider: Phenomenal work on it. This is a fascinating woman and an irresistible couple. What was your first impression of Rebekah when this project came your way, and what ultimately convinced you to want to play her?
ANNE HATHAWAY: Thank you for your kind words on that. It was an incredible experience making it. I was intrigued by Rebekah from the start. I didn’t know the WeWork story. I wasn’t familiar with it. I had never heard of anyone involved in this. I guess my area of interest didn’t fit. So I met Rebekah through the pilot episode of what I was reading and then I googled her and met her through the media reactions. And then I realized I knew someone who also knew her and I called that person and the person they were describing wasn’t quite like any of those people. I thought, “Here’s something really interesting about someone who comes off differently depending on who’s talking to her.”
So I started working with (show creator) Lee [Eisenberg] and Drew [Crevello] and I said, “I think what you have here is really promising and really quite good, but maybe we could focus on that and dig that a little bit deeper and see where their story goes.” While I have them as collaborators As I got to know her better and built this character, I realized that they were people I could trust, who weren’t there to humiliate or pull anyone, and that they were actually very interested in the complexity and nuance of who she is , as a person, and her story. The icing on the cake was working with Jared Leto. So everything just aligned to be a yes.
Image via Apple TV+
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How did you deal with playing a character whose life is drama but is perceived as comedy by the outside world? How did you figure out what she was feeling as she lived each moment separate from how everyone else saw her?
HATHAWAY: One of the main things I found out when I spoke to people who knew her was that everyone kept saying, ‘Oh, she’s so cute. She’s such a sweetheart.” I thought, “Oh, that’s really interesting,” because that adjective never made it into press coverage of her. This was just very interesting for me to add a layer to her. I looked at everything and thought this thing that is happening doesn’t seem very nice from the outside, what if it was a sweet person doing it with good intentions but it just went wrong? It just added a dimension that really got me interested. But as far as comedy and drama go at the same time, that’s how I experience life anyway. That part was easy for me because that’s how I see things anyway.
It sounds like you haven’t met Rebekah, but you’ve clearly studied her. You had material to watch and read, and you spoke to people around you. would you have wanted to meet her Are there any questions you would have liked to ask her, or does it feel like finding them out for yourself has worked more to your advantage?
HATHAWAY: Given the approach taken by creators Lee and Drew, I didn’t think it would be that helpful. And being only mildly aware of this part of the process that I’ve lived through several times, I just thought it would stay cleaner if we never met. This was just my interpretation of an experience as opposed to the accurate observations I made about someone I met.
What makes, special with someone like this. She seems so layered, and while I feel for her at the same time, I also feel like she’s still a complete mystery.
HATHAWAY: I think she’s a person. At the end of the day, I just wanted to treat her with the same level of respect and grace that I would hope I would be treated with if someone were playing with me, meaning she’s human. We’re all human. Nobody is better than anyone else. I find that people are a mixture of admirable traits, but there are also aspects of us that develop. We’re not always the most idealized version of ourselves, at any given point in time. That’s what interested me, all of that, and exploring that and playing a character that to me is very, very human.
Image via Apple TV+
What was it like having this partnership with Jared Leto during the making of this series? Her performance is so intertwined with his.
HATHAWAY: Yes.
It really feels like this was a real collaboration between the two of you.
HATHAWAY: Yes. Don’t get me wrong, I work very, very hard and take what I do very seriously, but any part of my achievement that you enjoyed would not have been there without it. We were total partners in that. I was so inspired by him. He sets himself such a high bar. It is exciting. It’s really. Given the nature of our characters’ relationships and the importance they hold for each other, we really opened up to just depicting their love. We treated each other with respect and gratitude and it was a beautiful experience. It was wild and really fun to just throw yourself down and be prepared for anything. I hope I’m not flattering myself, but I think we complemented each other in a way that was very meaningful to me.
How do you think Rebekah viewed Adam during all of this?
HATHAWAY: I think she saw him, but she didn’t see him the way you see him and she didn’t see him the way I see him. She saw him as she sees him. Sure, at first she saw greatness in him right away. And I don’t know if other people have seen it.
You haven’t done a TV series since Get Real, that’s when I first found out about you and I loved that series.
HATHAWAY: Oh wow.
I loved this show and was devastated when it was cancelled.
HATHAWAY: You must have been two years old.
Image via Apple TV+
You did an episode or two here and there and I love the episode of solos you did.
HATHAWAY: Thank you.
It really makes you live longer in a character. Are you willing to do that again when you’re attracted to a character whose story can’t be told in the length of a movie?
HATHAWAY: Absolutely. I loved this experience. I loved spending six months with a character, just shooting it, let alone the prep that you do with it to develop that level of intimacy and sense of it. Also, I just loved the people I worked with on this project, so it was a real pleasure to do it. When I first started out as an actress, I always observed that British actors weren’t film actors and they weren’t TV actors and they weren’t theater actors, they were actors. Someone like Helen Mirren and there aren’t really any adjectives to describe Helen Mirren because she’s just Helen Mirren, she would do limited series, she would do movies and she would be on stage. That always seemed like the most exciting way to be an actor, so I’m really excited now that that seems to have found its way to America.
WeCrashed can be streamed on Apple TV+.
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About the author
Christina Radish (5199 published articles)
Christina Radish is a senior reporter at Collider. Having worked at Collider for over a decade (since 2009), her primary focus is interviewing film and television with talent in front of and behind the camera. She’s an amusement park fanatic, which has led to her covering various Land and Ride openings, and a huge music fan, for whom she judges life after the pre-Pearl Jam and post-Pearl Jam era. She is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association.
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