15 “Nobody Wants This” Behind-The-Scenes Facts That You Might Not Know
Kristen Bell was the one who suggested the series cast Adam Brody in Nobody Wants This. The duo have been friends for years.
1. First, Nobody Wants This is actually based on series creator Erin Foster’s real-life relationship and marriage to music executive Simon Tikhman. In an interview with the LA Times, Erin said that during their first conversation “over juice at the gym,” Simon mentioned that anyone he marries “has to be Jewish.” Erin converted to Judaism for Simon.
Erin Foster / Instagram / Via instagram.com
Part of the conversion process included attending a 10-week program at American Jewish University. Before their wedding, Erin and Simon both attended an eight-week Choosing Judaism class.
The duo got married on New Year’s Eve in 2019. In May 2024, they welcomed their first child together. A daughter named Noa.
2. Erin Foster initially wrote the series intending to play the leading role of Joanne. However, when Netflix bought the series, they suggested Kristen Bell for the lead. Erin said it was a “really easy decision” to give up starring in the show, telling the LA Times, she “was not desperate to be acting in something.”
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Erin also explained that she needed her two leads to have incredible chemistry and great senses of humor, and casting the correct people for that was more important than her starring in the series herself.
Kristen said she talked with Erin extensively before taking the role because she wanted to make sure Erin was comfortable not playing a role initially written for herself.
3. Kristen Bell was the one who suggested that Adam Brody play Noah. She told the LA Times, “The second I read it, I was like, ‘Well, this is Brody, of course.'” The duo has previously worked together in Scream 4 and House of Lies. They’ve also been friends for years.
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Kristen continued, saying, “In the very first meetings, I was like, ‘OK, yeah, I’d love to do this. And, also, Adam Brody is the guy.'”
4. The original title for the series was Shiksa, a nod to what Joanne is referred to in the series. In an interview on Armchair Expert, Adam Brody said they changed the title because not enough people knew the word.
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5. Adam Brody, who grew up Jewish but “barely got bar mitzvahed,” studied a lot before playing a rabbi in Nobody Wants This. He told the Hollywood Reporter that he “watched and listened to things like books, podcasts, movies, and documentaries” and even “dabbled” in attending a temple to prepare.
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He continued, saying, “For whatever role that I’m doing, I will read related materials that appeal to me and help me think of some psychological ideas as well as performative ideas. With this, there’s such a real history representing a real culture and religion, and I felt more of an obligation to get it right.”
Adam also added, “I really did learn so much about the history of Judaism, and both this mythology that has affected and shaped a lot of our culture for millennia, and also so much about the people and their travels throughout history.”
6. “The Ick” episode of Nobody Wants This is based on a real situation that happened with Erin Foster and her husband, Simon. When Simon met Erin’s mom for the first time, he brought a large bouquet of sunflowers to a restaurant where they were meeting. She told Vulture, “The flowers were so long, and they kept falling over. Sitting there, I was like, Well, if someone cares this much, then that feels like a weakness.“
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Erin said when she told the sunflower story in the Nobody Wants This writers’ room, “the men were baffled, but the women immediately got it.” She added, “That made me feel like it was a good story to tell.”
7. When Joanne and Noah first meet at the party, and Noah struggles to open the bottle of wine, that is actually Adam Brody struggling. Kristen Bell told the LA Times, “Talk about lightning in a bottle. He was supposed to have been able to open it, flawlessly. He could not do it.”
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Kristen said Adam’s struggle to open the wine bottle went on for so long that the original cut of the pilot was longer because Kristen and the other executive producers fought for “like, a six-minute version of that scene.”
Joanne laughing at Noah was all unscripted, too, as Kristen was genuinely laughing at Adam having such a hard time.
8. Justine Lupe, who stars as Morgan, was pregnant while filming Nobody Wants This Season 1. In an Instagram caption celebrating the release of the show, Justine revealed she even hid her pregnancy from some of the cast and crew while filming. She said, “And a cast and crew who supported me from the moment my Gucci skirt ripped open in both the front and backsides on set at 2am when they had no idea I was pregnant and thought I was just rapidly falling apart…”
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Justine said she told Kristen Bell first, and Justine still remembers the conversation. She told the Jennifer Hudson Show, “[Kristen said, ‘It’s the most important thing, it’s the only thing — you can go anywhere in the world, you can have anything on your bucket list, but you’re about to go on the most special endeavor.'” Justine was five months pregnant when filming wrapped.
Series creator Erin Foster was also pregnant during filming.
9. Jackie Tohn, who plays Esther, originally auditioned for the role of Rebecca, who was eventually played by Emily Arlook. Kristen Bell, who has been friends with Jackie IRL for a very long time, was the one who suggested she actually go out for the role of Esther.
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Jackie told People, “So I texted Kristen and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have an audition for Rebecca on your show.’ And she was like, ‘You’re much more of an Esther if you want to read for that instead.’ I didn’t find out I got it until January 2024.”
10. The first scene Adam Brody filmed for the show was the scene in the restaurant where Noah and Joanne meet, and she’s unsure if she’ll stay for dinner.
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Adam told the LA Times, “If anything, that’s the only scene I felt the pressure because it’s the first day, and you’re like, ‘Lemme put this on film and see if it flies.'”
11. The whole show was filmed on location in Los Angeles. So, in the lead-up to Noah and Joanne’s first kiss, they are actually walking down Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz.
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Speaking about filming the moment, Adam Brody told the LA Times, “What was somewhat surreal to me was walking down Vermont Avenue for the kiss scene. Just having spent so much of my 20s on that street, so now to be on it thinking, ‘If you knew you’d be back here filming a series and doing a walk and talk down the street of your youth’— that was a surreal moment that was cool.”
12. Kristen Bell told MTV that she “wasn’t prepared” for Adam Brody to put his hands on her face during Noah and Joanne’s first kiss. The moment got such a reaction from the crew that for all of their subsequent kisses, Noah puts his hands on Joanne’s face.
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Kristen recalled the moment to MTV, saying, “And I remember audibly hearing all of the women, and some men, at video village, when he did it, and just kind of held my face, go— [gasps].”
She said this is when she realized that their chemistry was going to work.
When Joanne breaks up with Noah in the Season 1 finale, you’ll notice she puts her hand on his cheek instead.
13. The little moment when Noah sneaks in another kiss right before Joanne leaves wasn’t scripted; it was something Adam Brody and Kristen Bell added in while filming. Adam said it was “the most real” thing they did during the whole kiss scene.
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He continued, telling Harper’s Bazaar, “That, to me, feels so organic, true to life — the first time you’re making out with somebody, and it’s so great, and you don’t want to say goodbye, and it’s like you’re kissing until the last second.”
14. Creator Erin Foster said Adam Brody “didn’t want” to tell Joanne to put her ice cream down during the scene because he felt Noah was “bossing her around,” while Erin explained that “it is hot. It’s so sexy.”
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She continued, telling TVLine, “It’s so sexy because you are this sweet guy, and you’re emotionally available, and you’re kind, and you need to be able to say to her, ‘Okay, you want me to kiss you? Put your shit down. I’m about to give you the best fucking kiss of your life.'”
Erin added, “It was really important to me. And, I, like, basically made him do it.”
15. And finally, they filmed Noah and Joanne’s first kiss a few times, with Adam Brody and Kristen Bell even making the lead-up to the actual kiss even longer in a few takes.
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Kristen explained to Harper’s Bazaar, “We [did] a couple of takes where one of us was like, ‘Let’s just make it doubly as long — not the actual kiss, but the lead-up.’ Like, ‘Let’s just stretch out staring at each other for as long as we possibly can before we feel like we really should have wrapped already.'”
