Creator Erin Foster, Kristen Bell, and Adam Brody experience a creative meet-cute with the romantic comedy series Nobody Wants This.
In the pursuit of love, many thoughtful gestures like sending flowers or leaving handwritten notes can leave a lasting impression. But showing up unannounced at a romantic interest’s synagogue, where he happens to be conducting a service, isn’t one that immediately comes to mind. Yet in creator and writer Erin Foster’s new rom-com series Nobody Wants This, Joanne, an agnostic woman played by Kristen Bell, does exactly that when she escapes a bad date to pursue a witty rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody), after they meet at a friend’s dinner party.
With the city of Los Angeles as its backdrop, the series tracks Joanne and Noah’s burgeoning relationship with glee and nuance. Joanne is coming off a succession of lackluster matches and dead-end relationships, which she candidly and hysterically details on the sex and dating podcast she co-hosts with her sister. Noah’s only recently ended a long-term relationship, and his reputation as the “Hot Rabbi” climbing the ranks at his synagogue precedes him. Despite their instant chemistry, things get complicated quickly, with meddling families, contrasting cultural backgrounds, and Joanne’s own self-sabotaging tendencies threatening to pull them apart.
Sasha (Timothy Simons) and Noah (Adam Brody)
Erin’s real-life love story provided the creative spark for Nobody Wants This and Joanne’s skeptical nature. “When I met my husband Simon, I was almost 36 years old. I was a fully formed person,” reflects Erin. “Then all of a sudden, I meet this person who comes from this wholesome good family who is not cynical and has a healthy idea of love and relationships. It totally just stopped me in my tracks. It felt like interesting and ripe territory for a show.”
Anchored by Bell and Brody, the comedy’s talent features a hilarious ensemble, including Justine Lupe (Succession) as Joanne’s feisty sister Morgan, Timothy Simons (VEEP) as Noah’s nosy brother Sasha, and Tovah Feldshuh (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Paul Ben-Victor (The Irishman) as Noah’s parents, whose dreams of their son marrying a Jewish woman are dashed when the agnostic Joanne enters the picture.
From a synagogue-set (sort of) first date to a (somewhat) romantic getaway to the Jewish summer camp Noah chaperones, Joanne finds herself venturing into the world of Noah’s faith, and his more optimistic view of love and relationships. “We started talking about this show and its storylines five years ago,” says executive producer Sara Foster, who is Erin’s sister and her co-host on The World’s First Podcast with Erin & Sara Foster. “All these characters have taken such different shapes and sizes and journeys from when we started.”
Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Joanne (Kristen Bell)
Yet the sisters knew from the start that Nobody Wants This would require a special type of performer to breathe life into the dynamic Joanne. Bell, who adds the podcaster to her iconic list of unconventional heroines from Veronica Mars to The Good Place’s Eleanor, was the “perfect person to play her,” explains Erin. “We needed to cast someone that had this gritty, edgy opposition to the wholesome Noah character. When [we] talked about Kristen, it made so much sense because she’s got such a likeability that when she plays someone who’s maybe doing unlikable things, I think people [would still] root for her.”
Once Bell boarded the project as both star and executive producer, she had an instinct about who the only choice for the charismatic Noah was. “Kristen was adamant from day one, ‘It’s Adam Brody.’ And she knew, she just freaking knew, and we all trusted Kristen,” Sara remembers. The actor, who initially charmed audiences as Seth Cohen in The O.C. and recently stole the scene in the Oscar-winning film American Fiction, brings signature appeal to the reserved yet emotionally open Noah, whose dedication to his faith does not stop him from pursuing Joanne.
Together, Bell and Brody are an irresistible pair, and, in Erin’s words, “It’s like the millennial dream.” Nobody Wants This evokes a canon of romantic comedy couples that are impossible not to fall for, love stories of partners that may not work on paper but share a connection that jumps off the page. The series shows that, sometimes, the right relationship is the challenging one, and it requires both a strong sense of self and ultimate selflessness. “If you want to be with somebody great, then you have to be somebody great,” muses the writer. The captivating romance she has crafted just so happens to be something great too.
