Leto and Hathaway recreate the rise and fall of WeWork

NEW YORK (AP) — When Jared Leto last appeared in a television series it was in 1995 and he played the boy Claire Danes was in love with in high school, Jordan Catalano, in ABC's “My So-Called Life”. His character was the typical bad boyfriend who leaves angsty Angela Chase (Danes) analyzing every encounter they had.

The series lasted only one season, but it became entrenched in the pop culture of the 1990s along with the character Catalano. Leto eventually became an Oscar winner for his work in the 2013 film “Dallas Buyers Club” (“The Club of the Evicted”) and a rock with his band 30 Seconds to Mars.

Twenty-eight years later, Leto will return to television on Friday in the Apple TV+ limited series “WeCrashed” and said the experience felt more like making a movie than making television.

“The approach was the same. It was just a lot more material, it was like making six films. I loved it. I loved the opportunity to live with a character a little longer, I love the challenge. It was almost done with me, but it was exactly what I needed to happen,” he said.

“WeCrashed” follows the rise and fall of Adam Neumann (Leto), co-founder of the shared office company WeWork. It also tells the love story between Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, played by another Oscar winner, Anne Hathaway. Rebekah has a great personality with big dreams, she is a yogi who believes in the manifestation of dreams and feng shui. She was in charge of the WeWork brand and founded its spin-off school, WeGrow.

To play Neumann, Leto immersed himself in the character. He adopted a “different way of walking, talking, laughing, an accent, a different tone of voice — there are many things to shuffle,” the actor said.

Kyle Marvin, who plays WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey, said that all his interactions with Leto during the making of the series were with him in character.

“From the first day I met Jared, Miguel told me, even when we ran into each other off stage or talked. It was always Adam and Miguel. That was really fascinating because it put me in the right place mentally.”

Leto says he's not a “method” actor, but he does have a more immersive approach.

“I reject the term method because it has been so perverted. I mean, the method was actually used to describe a certain type of acting school, a certain approach, but it has become the automatic word for describing extreme approaches to acting or something that people think is weird. I love immersive work. I love getting deep into the character. I think it's really fascinating to work like this and rewarding. What was needed for this character was transformation,” he said.

Hathaway also said that Leto remained focused on the connection of her characters while they were on set, although in her case she says that she stopped taking work home after she had children.

“Between the shots there wasn't much gossip. We would get to the set and we were in that area for hours and hours, and then we would go home and text each other and say something like thumbs up or something.”

A board of investors pressured Neumann to resign as CEO of WeWork in 2019 because of his exorbitant expenses and erratic behavior, and plans for an IPO of the company were abandoned. Rebekah closed WeGrow, which was the project she was passionate about. He wanted to have a holistic approach to education and also teach his students (who in some cases were only 2 years old) to be young entrepreneurs.

Despite the couple's public defeats, Leto and Hathaway noted that they are not interested in shaming or judging their counterparts in real life.

“When I read the pilot I didn't know anything about WeWork so I googled Rebekah and the narrative in the media is that they made her the villain,” Hathaway said.

“I quickly called (the creators) Lee (Eisenberg) and Drew (Crevello) and said 'Are you trying to tear someone down? , because I have no interest in that. ' And they said 'No, we're actually trying to do the opposite. We want to see how complicated it is. '”

Leto added: “It's important for me to really put a life on screen, even if it's imperfect.”

Hathaway said she has compassion for Rebekah Neumann.

“I don't want to drag anyone. I don't want to humiliate anyone. We need dreamers in this world. We need people who want to do good things. I've thought a lot about this. Maybe I'm going to an extreme in saying this, but I do think his intentions were good and I think it must have been bleak to realize that you didn't execute your good intentions in a way that you would have wanted.”