In terms of presentation, the Apple TV+ limited series WeCrashed is comparable to fictional corporate dramas like Succession. But that doesn’t mean the show is entirely made up just because the drama is exaggerated and the characters seem bizarre to be real. Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, who played Adam and Rebekah Neumann, gave their all to the parts.
However, this fictional world’s characters, like Elishia Kennedy, are wholly unique. Elishia is inspired by important characters in light of what occurred. What you should know about America Ferrera’s Elishia.
In the movie “WeCrashed,” Elishia Kennedy blurs the distinction between fact and fiction.
In WeCrashed, the infamous WeWork Scandal is dramatized. Adam and Rebekah Neumann promised to forever change the world of remote work by providing rentable office spaces that creative professionals could use on their way to big ideas. However, there was one snag. Adam lacked the financial resources he had claimed to possess. As the company’s value increased, so did the value of the impossibly impossible things he promised.
The story was covered by podcasts, journalists, documentarians, and news organizations everywhere. WeCrashed aims to conflate what happened and what WeWork stands for with its slightly inaccurate portrayal of the infamous events. Many of the supporting characters, including those played by Anne Hathaway and J.R. Leto, are made up.
Elishia Kennedy of American Ferrera was already a successful businesswoman before joining the WeWork family. She was, nonetheless, seduced by Adam and Rebekah’s natural charisma and impending success, as were a lot of other people both on and off-screen. Kennedy established a lucrative juice company that introduced her to the Neumanns.
People who are familiar with the WeWork saga will be able to identify Kennedy’s inspirations even though the name and story are different.
In “We Crashed,” who is the real Elishia Kennedy?
Julie Rice, the creator of SoulCycle, got involved in the WeWork scandal when it was still young. There are some similarities, even though Elishia Kennedy’s story isn’t exactly like anyone else’s. Ferrera recently spoke to Vogue Fear about how she acted her made-up character using Rice.
“I became aware of Julie and the role she played,” Ferrera said. But to me, Elishia is more about witnessing an honorable, intelligent, and well-intentioned person succumb to the allure and machinations of the tale that was being told, despite her better judgment.
Kennedy, like Rice, decides to leave WeWork after seeing the “fat boy” culture and the founders’ inflated egos. According to The Cinemaholic, Rice is best known for co-founding SoulCycle, but she also made a significant investment in the well-known beverage Izze, a fact that Kennedy was inspired by. Rice was named the brand’s Chief Brand and Impact Officer, just like Kennedy.
On the other hand, the same people who set WeWork on fire hated the founder of SoulCycle. What makes WeCrashed effective is the combination of what happened and what seems plausible to have happened. Some creative licenses are available. Because they remain true to actual events, they feel less faffing around and more attuned to the world around them.
The creators of WeCrashed were real-life WeWork leaders.
This fictitious reality allows the series to address problems that it otherwise would not have been able to. By portraying characters like Elishia Kennedy as representations of ideas rather than actual people, they can get to the heart of why tales like these succeed so spectacularly. There were others besides Kennedy who suffered from this.
Adam Lautner, a character who flirts with WeWork early on, is based on several wealthy venture capitalists who the Neumanns had early conversations with. crashed and Ferrera’s producers wanted to tell a relatable story about people who were impacted by the tragedy. She explained to Vanity Fair her viewpoint as follows:
Why shouldn’t you be the one to become a millionaire or billionaire first? “So mаny of those people [at WeWork] were hardworking, well-intentioned, quite intelligent humаn beings who succumbed to а lаrger culturаl desire to believe thаt the next gаme-chаnging stаrt-up is unаvoidable.”
Ferrera’s presence astounded viewers and revealed the Superstore star’s dedication to using her work to depict real-life issues. The emotions and struggles she portrays in her portrayal of Elishia Kennedy seem natural because they are true to life. Contrarily, Ferrera gave her character more personality by changing her name, something she would not have been able to do in real life.