Jared Leto at the world premiere of WeCrashed at the South by Southwest Film Festival.Credit:Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP
Leto was moving between the nexus of start-ups,venture capital,and Wall Street,where ideas are valued and the goal is to be involved with a “unicorn” – a privately owned company worth more than $1 billion that can be launched publicly with a profitable share offering. He couldn’t help but notice WeWork,which the charismatic and wildly confident Neumann co-founded in New York in 2010 and rapidly expanded from a single Soho building.
“I had heard of Adam,” Leto says. “I always wondered,if I had met him early on enough,would I have been compelled – or seduced – to invest? I remember at one point hearing about the company and I asked a couple of very smart investor friends of mine about it and the opinion was that the[cash] burn rate was a bit high,and to be cautious. I heard that and I had the information I needed at that point.”
Neumann is at the centre ofWeCrashed,an eight-part recreation of WeWork’s staggering growth. In 2018 the company,spearheaded by Neumann’s messianic drive,had over four million square metres of office space leased around the world and claimed a valuation of $65 billion. The only thing that could match those figures was the hubris of Neumann and his wife Rebekah,played in the show by Leto’s fellow Academy Award recipient Anne Hathaway. The couple’s excess was palatial,their interviews imperial.
“I know a guy who runs one of the biggest companies in the world and I watched him grow it from virtually nothing to taking it public,” Leto says. “I talked to him and he had met Adam and he said Adam was one of the most compelling and confident people he had ever sat with in his entire life when they had a meeting. He was blown away by the guy. He was a unique persona and it was a pleasure to jump into that complexity.”
Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as Adam and Rebekah Neumann in WeCrashed.Credit:Apple TV+
The Neumann’s came unstuck in 2019,when WeWork’s investment-fuelled growth came up against the fiduciary responsibilities and business media scrutiny of taking the company public. The spreadsheets didn’t add up,Neumann had to resign as CEO,and the company subsequently floated at far less value,although Neumann departed with a handy 10-figure sum. But behind those numbers inWeCrashed is the drama of creating something from virtually nothing,the evangelical zeal,the risk-taking,and the addiction of using mere words to bend the will of others to your own.
“It’s almost like an action film and the words are the action. Adam’s words were so powerful for him. At the end of every day I felt like I was going to collapse,because it was such an onslaught,” Leto says. “Of course,when he gave a speech he gave it once,but when you’re filming you might deliver it 100 times. He spoke with such conviction and so physically – it was incredibly challenging. Sometimes I was in physical pain,but I loved it. I thought it was a great experience.”