‘WeCrashed’: America Ferrera’s Elishia Kennedy Is a Mix of Real-Life WeWork Employees, Including SoulCycle Founder Julie Rice
Apple TV+‘s prestigious limited series WeCrashed presents similarly to fictional corporate dramas like Succession. However, just because the drama is amplified and the characters seem too quirky to be true doesn’t mean the show is an entire work of fiction. Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway invested all of their acting abilities into becoming Adam and Rebekah Neumann.
However, characters like Elishia Kennedy are wholly unique to this fictional world. Elishia is inspired by key players regarding what truly happened in real life. Here’s what you need to know about America Ferrera‘s Elishia.
‘WeCrashed’ blurs the line between fact and fiction, including the character Elishia Kennedy
WeCrashed is a dramatic retelling of the infamous WeWork Scandal. Adam and Rebekah Neumann promised to change the world of remote work forever through rentable office spaces that creative professionals could use en route to big ideas. However, there was a problem. Adam lacked his advertised finances. While the company’s worth went up, so did the impossible things he promised.
The whole ordeal was fodder for podcasts, journalists, documentarians, and newshounds worldwide. WeCrashed aims to blur the line between what happened and what WeWork represents with their not-quite-accurate portrayal of the infamous events. While the Neumanns, played by Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto, are real, many supporting characters are not.
America Ferrera’s Elishia Kennedy was already a successful businesswoman before she joined the WeWork family. However, like so many other people both on-screen and in real life, she was caught up in Adam and Rebekah’s natural charisma and impending success. Kennedy started a successful juice company that eventually led her to the Neumanns.
While the name and story are different, those who know the WeWork saga can likely pinpoint who Kennedy’s inspiration.
Who is the real Elishia Kennedy in ‘WeCrashed’?
When WeWork was in its early stages, SoulCycle founder Julie Rice got caught up in the WeWork saga. While her story is not a cookie-cutter for Elishia Kennedy, the similarities are apparent. This was no mistake, Ferrera recently told Vanity Fair about how she used Rice to portray her own fictitious character.
“I made myself aware of Julie and the role she played,” Ferrera explained. “But for me, Elishia is much more about seeing someone who is honest and smart and well-meaning, against her own better judgment, get swept up in the pull and magnetism and the gravity of the story that was being told.”
Like Rice, Kennedy ends up leaving WeWork after seeing the frat boy environment and delusional egos of the founders. The Cinemaholic notes that while Rice is best known for co-founding SoulCycle, she also invested heavily in the popular beverage Izze — a detail that inspired Kennedy’s juice investment. Like Kennedy, Rice became the brand’s Chief Brand and Impact Officer.
However, the SoulCycle founder was out of favor with the same people who burned WeWork to the ground. A cross between what happened and what sounds like something that could’ve occurred — this makes WeCrashed work. Yes, there are creative liberties. But by keeping true to actual events, they feel less fabricated and more adjusted to the world at hand.
‘WeCrashed’ is inspired by real-life WeWork leaders
This fictionalized reality helps the series cover broader questions it otherwise couldn’t have shown. By making characters like Elishia Kennedy amalgamations of ideas more so than people, they can get to the heart of why stories like this achieve their stature. Kennedy wasn’t the only case of this.
Adam Lautner, a character who flirts with WeWork early, is based on several deep-pocketed venture capitalists whom the Neumanns spoke to early on. WeCrashed producers and Ferrera wanted to make this story about the relatable people affected by the scandal. She told Vanity Fair how she saw it:
“So many of those people [at WeWork] were hardworking, well-meaning, quite intelligent human beings who fell victim to a larger cultural tendency to want to believe that the next world-changing start-up is inevitable. And why shouldn’t it be you who becomes a millionaire or billionaire, getting in on the ground floor?”
Ferrera’s turn delighted fans and spoke to the Superstore actor’s commitment to using her work to convey real-life issues through TV. Her portrayal of Elishia Kennedy seems natural because the emotions and struggles behind it are real. However, by changing her name, Ferrera added more personality than she could have as a real-life person.
