What can we say about Adam Neumann? He’s obviously brilliant, and he must be one heck of a salesman because his business ideas are worth almost fifty billion dollars. The incredibly controversial and charismatic former CEO of WeWork went from life on a kibbutz near the Gaza strip to a tiny New York apartment and on to own around eighty million dollars worth of real estate. That’s a significant change. Moreover, he managed to take home a $1.7 Billion severance package to step down from the board at WeWork, leaving them concerned about paying the severance packages of four thousand workers. Casting someone to play a real person is always an exciting proposal. Here are the top five actors we think should play Adam Neumann in a Lifetime Movie. To portray a guy who’s famous for his charisma, most actors already have what it takes. However, not every actor has the same open smile, and there are plenty of male leads who just can’t rock a shoulder-length hairdo. For our list, we decided to go looking for actors who had fabulous stage presence and the ability to wear Adam’s iconic hair.
1. Ashton Kutcher
We know you don’t see as many Ashton Kutcher movies and shows as we once did, but he’s a busy guy. Ashton has plenty to keep him occupied outside of a sound stage, so we’re not even sure he’d take the role if we offered it, but he’s still our first pick. This incredibly handsome and brainier-than-he-seems actor is the perfect choice to play Neumann for several reasons. First, we know he can rock the mid-length dark hair exceptionally well. That’s important because even the best film would be ruined by the visual disconnect of having a male lead who looks like he’s wearing a wig. Secondly, no other actor can pull off the role so well because Ashton and Adam are friends in real life. Playing someone you know is undoubtedly even harder than playing a stranger, but we’re not worried about it. Third and finally, Kutcher knows the company because he’s worked with Adam on the Creator Awards.
2. Josh Holloway
Josh Holloway may seem like an odd choice at first glance, but we assure you, there’s more to it than you might think. If you’re a fan of Lost, then you probably think of Josh as a blonde island dweller. That’s a fair assessment since he spent a long time rocking that look, but josh has naturally brown hair, even if it might need some darker dye and a bit more wave to pull off Adam’s signature look. Josh and Adam have more than a little in common, as well. Casting requires you to look deeper than what the surface might show to find the best possible matches for a role. Both men have been poor. While Adam lived in a minuscule NYC apartment after moving around several times as a child, Josh was raised in a trailer in Georgia. Making your way to the top from humble roots isn’t something that just anyone can understand on a deeper level. An actor with some similar experience to the person they need to portray is going to have a much deeper well of emotion to pull from to make the part believable.
3. Jesse Spencer
Born just a few months before Adam, Jesse Spencer is another actor who we think could pull off the controversial CEO with aplomb. He can wear the hair, and he seems to have the same natural tan as Adam. Both Spencer and Neumann are originally from abroad. Of course, in some ways, the two couldn’t be more different. There’s a big difference between Israel and Australia. Moreover, Adam has a noticeable accent, while Aussie actor Jesse can pull off a flawless American accent. More than just a handsome face and a ton of talent, Jesse has something in common with Adam, just like our previous two choices. In this case, they both have doctors in the family but chose not to pursue medicine. When he was young, Neumann’s mother, a doctor, worked at a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, Spencer’s whole family is in medicine. He even considered going into the field himself. Maybe that’s why he was such a great physician on House.
4. Stephen R. McQueen
When we started looking for someone to play a slightly younger version of Adam Neumann, this actor immediately came to mind. Stephen is incredibly talented, though I think it might be awkward if our theoretical movie ever became real because he shares some common ground with our number three pick on this list. Both have starred on Chicago Fire. There’s no doubt the darkly attractive, black wearing CEO might have fit in perfectly on the set of The Vampire Diaries if he’d been an actor. We think the former TVD star would do just as well fitting into the world of business and public speaking. We love Stephen’s intensity and charisma, so we think he’d play a fantastic infamous real-life character like Adam.
5. Taylor Kitsch
Canadian actor and model Taylor Kitsch is already familiar with playing a real-life person. Last year he was a part of the Waco miniseries, where he played cult leader David Koresh. Though the motivation is very different from playing someone like Adam, clearly, Taylor isn’t afraid to play a real person that a lot of the audience already dislikes because of his personal history. His ability to get inside the mind of a very real, very charismatic, and entirely controversial person like Koresh is why we picked Taylor to round out our list of actors we think would do a stellar job as Adam Neumann.
Final Thoughts
Whatever you may think of Adam Neumann, there’s one thing none of us can deny; His story is compelling. We can admire anyone who works their way up from almost nothing to become a well-known billionaire. Choosing a cast for any theoretical movie about a real person is one of our favorite pastimes. Who would you want to see starring as Adam in a Lifetime Movie? Let us know who and why in the comments section below.
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