How ‘WeCrashed’ editor Justin Krohn found the right tone for the Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway limited series [Exclusive Video Interview]

When editor Justin Krohn first read the pilot script for “WeCrashed,” the Apple TV+ limited series about the rise and fall of WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, it reminded him of “The Wolf of Wall Street” in the way it mixed comedy and drama in equal measure.

“One of the things, once we got working, was how comic would the show be? Because there certainly was a version of this you could have done where it would’ve gotten a little ridiculous,” Krohn tells Gold Derby about the series, which was created by Drew Crevello and Lee Eisenberg and stars Jared Leto as Adam and Anne Hathaway as Adam’s wife and business partner, Rebekah. “It could have gone a lot of different ways.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.

But Krohn and the creative team – including filmmakers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who served as directors on the first and second episodes – never wanted to tip the scales in one direction or another. “I thought that strictly early we should not try to gild the lily, so to speak, and try to paint them one way or another,” Krohn says. “We should present them as they are and stick to that, because some of what they just did, it just is so true-to-life, but also ridiculous, that it would just be funny on its own. There was a big sense that we needed to stay grounded with the characters, and in that, I think the things that happen, will add that tone to it.”

Set across multiple years, “WeCrashed” focuses on WeWork, the co-working space Neumann co-founded that was once valued at $40 billion before it crumbled amid controversy over Neumann’s business practices and his behavior as CEO. (Neumann was forced to step down from the company in 2019.) The eight-episode series details what made Adam such an enticing leader – Leto plays the co-founder with a relentless positivity and pollyanna worldview – as well as a problematic businessman. Leto is matched by Hathaway, who performs Rebekah as someone who, as Krohn suggests, simply had a need to be beloved in a way that came naturally to Adam. 

“You want to laugh at her and then you want to start to cry,” Krohn says of Hathaway’s portrayal. “I think her need [to be famous] is what adds to this very toxic element that has a lot of ramifications in the company. She plays it so amazingly. I cannot say enough about either of them. It was just incredible to get to cut them.”

In the end, Krohn hoped viewers of “WeCrashed” ultimately formed their own opinions about Adam and Rebekah. The series “really takes you in the mind of how self-diluted and how much self-belief these characters have and I just thought that was a very interesting tone to keep going through the whole show and we were able to establish it early on. I just thought that was a really fun thing to do, which I also haven’t seen a lot,” he says.

Thus far, he’s gotten the desired response. “I get people sending me tweets like, ‘I’m finding this weirdly inspirational.’ I was like, ‘Yeah. I hope that’s making you question your own values,’” he says. “Because you’re thinking that, but you know that Rebekah and Adam really aren’t great. And that was the hope: that people are like, ‘Wow, I feel taken in, but also knowing what I know, why is that?’”

All episodes of “WeCrashed” are streaming now on Apple TV+.

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