[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Nobody Wants This Season 1.]
It’s Joanne (Kristen Bell) and Noah’s (Adam Brody) world, and we’re just living it. Nobody Wants This is the delightful romantic comedy series we’ve been yearning for, and the chemistry between Bell and Brody is magic bottled into a 30-minute Netflix show. Over the course of the season, Joanne (an atheist) and Noah (a rabbi) fall in love despite the obstacles thrown their way.
At the end of the season, Noah is offered his dream position of head rabbi. Joanne is not ready to convert to Judaism and loves Noah enough to not make him choose between his lifelong dream and love. She walks away from the relationship, but he’s not ready to give up. In a Sixteen Candles homage, he’s waiting by the car when she steps off the shuttle. “You’re right. I can’t have both,” he says before kissing her.
TV Insider spoke with creator Erin Foster about being inspired by her own love story, Joanne and Noah’s future, what’s going on with Morgan and Sasha, the importance of the “ick” episode, and more.
Nobody Wants This feels so fresh but also nostalgic. How do you feel about the state of rom-coms today? Do you think we’re in a rom-com renaissance?
Erin Foster: I think that we got very lucky with the timing of this because I didn’t set out to make a nostalgic rom-com, even though I love rom-coms. I think everybody has been saying for a long time that we really missed the You’ve Got Mails and the Notting Hills, but I didn’t even know that that’s what I was making, if that makes sense. I was trying to make something that felt tonally natural. I had watched enough comedies that really didn’t feel funny to me. They felt heavy and dark, and I knew I didn’t want to make that. I watched rom-coms where you have two people that are opposite, trying to make it work. As a viewer, I always felt like these two people shouldn’t be together, and I didn’t want anyone to feel that way watching this show. I wanted to make a show where you do think these people belong together, and you do want them to end up together, so where they match up outweighs where they’re different. Those are the things that I was thinking about. I also wanted it to look really beautiful and to showcase LA in a different way than we’ve seen before. But then, it’s like all the puzzle pieces come together, and then you sit back and take a look, and you’re like, oh, I made a nostalgic rom-com and didn’t even realize it.
Was it difficult to cast Noah, or was Adam Brody your first choice?
Foster: It was a difficult role to cast because, very early on, Kristen said, “This is Adam Brody. I know it is.” I really wanted the opportunity to audition a bunch of guys because I didn’t know if I wanted Noah to be traditionally handsome. In some ways, I wondered if it would be interesting to have someone you don’t expect in that role, to have someone who felt more Jewish, or someone who was a stand-up comedian that you didn’t expect in the role, playing against type, or playing against Kristen. I just didn’t know. I took time to explore that, and we auditioned literally every Jewish actor across the world it felt like. Honestly, none of them had it. None of them. There was not one audition where I felt like, oh, this could be it. I think this is him, and then we had the conversation with Adam. We brought him in. He met with Kristen, and it was so obvious it was him. It was so important for this character to have a real warmth about him and a charm, but also confident and and no darkness to him like my husband, who the role is inspired by. He doesn’t have darkness. He doesn’t have this inner turmoil or inner anger. He doesn’t have a bitterness about him. It was really important to find someone who can show that as a romantic lead because Joanne, as a character, has a real edge, and you don’t want to have two people with that same edge because then it’s too cynical. But it was really important for the Noah role to be played by someone who could play very, very confident and secure. That was super important to me because that’s something my husband has that I just haven’t experienced before. He’s someone who’s really warm and generous and thoughtful and romantic, but also really holds his own in an argument and in a conversation because you never want a strong female character to be like eating him alive.
Stefania Rosini / Netflix
How did you feel seeing Kristen and Adam’s chemistry for the first time?
Foster: I mean, we got so lucky because you’ve got two people who don’t audition. Adam Brody and Kristen Bell are not people who audition, right? They’re offer only. So you kind of have to just take a leap of faith. I met with Adam, but it was like a Zoom, just me and him, so I didn’t get a chance to see them, to see what the chemistry was like. When we filmed the first scene with them, it blew my mind. I was like, “Oh, wow. Holy sh*t.”
One of the best episodes is the “ick” episode. Was this inspired by a situation in your life?
Foster: It was so important to do the “ick” episode. The women in the room and writers really connected to it. The men did not connect to it and didn’t get it at all, but the women did. I think it probably happens to women maybe more often than it happens to men. It was definitely important to me, and it did happen in real life. My husband, Simon, was like all the things that I was looking for a partner and I didn’t even realize it, but he was also really emotionally available to me. He wasn’t playing games. There was a point where it freaked me out because, in the past, every guy who was ready to settle down with me, I kind of lost respect for them or lost attraction to them because I was not ready to be with someone who isn’t toxic. I think that’s the struggle that most women who are dating in their 30s are dealing with. It’s like, I’m drawn to this person who I know is bad for me, and I’m repulsed by this person who I know is good for me. That push-pull is so interesting to me. Early on, Simon did get sunflowers that were really big when he met my mom. I was like, he’s trying so hard, and it embarrassed me, and I kind of got weird. Simon, similar to the episode, pulled me aside and was like, “You need to get your sh*t together because I’m not going to let you ruin us over something like that. I’m not gonna be embarrassed that I got your mom flowers. I want to be with you. I want to impress your mom. And if you think that’s lame, that’s something you need to figure out.” There was something about it that just woke me up. I was like, this person’s right, and he can handle me. He can put me in my place when I need it.
When it comes to romance and rom-coms, there’s almost always the guarantee of a happy ending. Given that the show is inspired by your own love story, would you say that Joanne and Noah are going to get a happy ending?
Foster: I think there won’t be a straight road there if that’s how they end up. I think that if you remove all complications, there’s no show. But I do feel like this is the type of the show where I’m not going to make some artistic choice to rob the viewers of what they want to see, right?
Were there alternate versions of the ending you considered for the finale, or were you always set on Noah reuniting with Joanne?
Foster: We really played with different versions of the ending, and we even shot different versions of the ending. We played in the edit with different versions, not different scenes, but how much we wanted to tell. There was one version where we just revealed that he was standing in front of her car, we cut out, and we don’t really know what’s going to happen. And then there’s another version where she walks up to him and sort of challenges him, like, “Wait, 10 minutes ago, we had a conversation about how this could never work. So what are we doing here?” We really landed in the middle where you get that romantic ending you want, but there’s still questions hovering the air of how it’s going to work.
Related‘Nobody Wants This’: Can Noah & Joanne Make It Work? Adam Brody Weighs In
Do you have Season 2 plans already?
Foster: The only thing I really think about is that Season 1 moves really slowly, and I think that’s the really positive thing. I would want to continue that and kind of pick it up around the area where we left off, and keep it kind of moving slow and not jump ahead too fas if we got a Season 2.
Do you see a certain number of seasons with Nobody Wants This?
Foster: I’m definitely taking it as it goes. You never know what could happen or when the right time to stop is. But I mean, I’m here for as many as they want to give me.
What was your goal with the Morgan and Sasha dynamic? It rides that fine line of are they just friends, or do they have feelings for each other?
Foster: It is definitely a very fine line. I think that Joanne in Season 1 is growing and maturing and evolving, and I think it it really makes Morgan feel abandoned. It’s kind of a human instinct that she has, which is, well, I’m going to f**k sh*t up then. I’m going to make bad decisions because I thought that we were in this thing together, and now my sister is suddenly changing herself into a conventional relationship. I think Morgan’s instinct, whether it’s subconscious or not, is to double down on making unhealthy choices. That’s what she is doing when she’s drawn to and attracted to someone who a) is not available, and b) is he even someone she can see herself with?
Nobody Wants This, Season 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
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