What if the story of how you met your husband became a runaway hitNetflixseries starring Kristen Bell andAdam Brody?
This is the current reality forNobody Wants ThiscreatorErin Foster.
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ERIN FOSTER:Thank you!
Adam Brody and Kristen Bell in ‘Nobody Wants This’Netflix
Im in the writers room, so were working on making magic happen again.
Hi Adam, did you not know I would be here?
ADAM BODY:No!
Erin Foster and Adam BrodyCharley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
FOSTER:Now youre probably really nervous.
BRODY:I know.
Holy sh*t.
FOSTER:You really pulled yourself together.
BRODY:Ill rip up my notes [literally tears up a stack of papers].
DEADLINE:Oh, boy.
Tell me how you both first connected?
FOSTER:Netflix was, I think, pretty actively looking for something for Kristen.
Then pretty much right away, Kristen was like, I know who the guy is.
She just knew right away.
BRODY:What did you say?
FOSTER:I was like, I dont think so.
[Laughs] No.
Id seen him recently inFleishmanisin Trouble, and I really loved him in it.
BRODY:Surely you couldnt audition every Jewish man?
FOSTER:I got to most of them.
BRODY:Youll have to tell me about that sometime.
I had to hope theres chemistry, hope the vibe is there.
BRODY:Did she read with people?
FOSTER:No, she never read with anyone.
She would have, but there was not one single audition that felt right.
DEADLINE:So, then you had to take this massive risk.
Adam, has Kristen told you why she knew it was you?
BRODY:Only subsequently through interviews Ive done with her, when shes telling a third party.
Its a combination of, I dont know…
FOSTER:You dont have to say it.
You dont have to compliment yourself, Ill compliment you.
The character is a very specific thing that we needed and we were looking for.
The character shouldnt have a chip on his shoulder, or an inner, angsty anger.
You dont want to feel that.
You want to feel this lightness from this person, and thats hard to find.
Adam had all of that.
BRODY:Yeah, I had no edge.
I was all round.
FOSTER:Not like an edge of bad, but you have a cool edge.
A bitterness, if you will.
DEADLINE: Yeah, exactly.
So how do you cast someone effectively inspired by your experience of finding a needle in a haystack?
I think, like anything, theres a thousand ways that this could have gone wrong.
Casting the wrong person is probably the top of that list.
I think its a thousand happy circumstances coming together.
Adam being the right person for it.
Adam being at the exact point in his career where he wanted to do something like this.
You hadnt wanted to do romantic comedies before, right?
BRODY:I wouldnt say that exactly.
Its just this was better than what had come my way in a long time.
It wasnt so much I was avoiding the genre, I was just looking for quality.
DEADLINE: Adam, what was it about this script that made you say yes?
Ive worked with her before.
Ive had very great experiences with her.
Shes a real light.
Then when the script, months later, finally came to me, I was immediately charmed.
I loved the misfit of him being a rabbi.
It starts, and you dont think hes a rabbi.
Then the audience finds out when she does that hes a rabbi as hes exhaling pot smoke.
Thats such a trailer moment.
But then, very quickly I thought, No, thats what makes this different.
Thats what makes it fun.
Thats what makes it interesting.
Itll be a whole lot of, 3000 years of history and culture to sink my teeth into.
Thats what makes it extra and what I got excited about, actually.
DEADLINE: I know your family is Jewish, but you werent really raised deeply involved with the faith.
What would you say has been the impact on you doing all of the research work?
You obviously read a lot, studied a lot.
I dont want to talk out of turn.
It connects you to something.
Theres something comforting about it.
How did you navigate that with him and your family?
FOSTER:It was really complicated for Simon and I for a while.
Hes a really private person, or at least he used to be.
Also for Simon, me converting to Judaism was an enormous big deal for him and his family.
But its weird for him out in the world.
People think hes a rabbi.
In some ways, its amplified his Judaism in a way that hes not trying to have it amplified.
Hes just a Jewish guy in LA.
Hes like, Im not a rabbi.
Im just a guy who went to temple growing up.
Hes very happy for me, but he would love to not be at the center of it.
DEADLINE: I imagine theres a lot of funny conversations where people think that hes Noah on every level?
FOSTER:Thats the other thing.
He feels a little bit like hes been put on a pedestal because Noah represents this perfect man.
Even with his flaws, the flaws are still very palatable.
BRODY:It would come up if I had a question about the script.
I wasnt seeking out Erin to go, What really happened?
How did it feel to just let Adam and Kristen tell that particularly important story taken from your life?
FOSTER:For sure.
Early on, I remember Kristen came in to read with actresses for the part of Morgan.
I didnt really realize she was studying me.
That wasnt something I was expecting.
It was really important to me that Noah played basketball.
I really wanted that roughness and the softness to come together.
Then two writers, Lindsay Golder and Jane Becker, came into my office last year.
We really want to make those episodes, because theyre important to you.
It feels so rational in the moment and you cant unsee the thing you saw.
I think that that happens a lot, maybe more to women.
DEADLINE: They didnt?
Adam, do men not understand the ick?
That, to me, actually doesnt resonate in the same way, I have to say.
Thats a good thing.
Youre messed up, not me.
Im not doing anything wrong.
You should want to be with someone that brings your mom flowers.
But this was the first time ever anyone had ever not let me make them feel bad about it.
Simon was like, No, Im not going to let you make me feel bad.
I like you and Im trying to impress your parents.
Thats a good thing and youre f*cked up.
DEADLINE: It lands hard for everyone Ive ever spoken to about this show.
Now, about Season 2: Adam, where you would love to see Noahs character go?
I still think theres a reckoning coming in terms of, these people have very different worldviews.
Again, its not just his religion.
Its his job and its his lifes work.
Therein lies a big crux of the drama.
I hear were going to pick up almost immediately where we left off, is thats still the plan?
FOSTER:Yeah, its not the same night, but just more or less a continuation.
DEADLINE:Youre shooting this in February, right?
What can you hint at in terms of where Joanne and Noah are headed?
It should feel like a continuation of the same dynamics, the same feel, the same cadence.
Like you said, originally they ended in getting engaged, they ended in getting married, maybe.
It was way too fast.
We slowed it all down.
When you watch the season, it feels like youre really with them in real time, dating.
It spans the course of what, three months in Season 1 maybe?
DEADLINE: Can you envisage staying with this for four or five seasons?
You could tell a whole family story.
FOSTER:Adam, are you available?
BRODY:Four or five feels right.
This doesnt feel like anIts Always Sunnysituation.
This feels like four or five.
Obviously, it was such a success, I thought, Thatll never happen and thats fine.
It is weird for the conversations to not come up about having kids and getting married.
Thats the point in your life that these people are.
We dont want to rush it along, but were also not going to stall.
Nobody Wants Thisis streaming on Netflix now.
