Nobody Wants This: Adam Brody on his rabbi role and the uneasy leading man label

Nobody Wants This is a delightful little Netflix gem that you probably start watching just to kill some time. And suddenly it’s three episodes later and you're fully invested. It stars Adam Brody as Noah. He plays a thoughtful and sort of reserved rabbi. Brody brings a cozy and grounded energy to the show. He’s not the usual kind of romantic lead. But, definitely charming in his own way.

Nobody Wants This brings Noah and Joanne together at a dinner party. Joanne, played by Kristen Bell, is a bold and chatty podcaster. She is introduced to Noah through friends, and immediately, there’s this awkward, funny energy between them. She’s full of sass, and he’s full of calm. They click in a weird and unexpected way.

By the end of Nobody Wants This Season 1, everything’s hanging in the balance. The show doesn’t tie it up all neat and tidy. Joanne admits she can’t convert to Judaism and tries to step back for real. But Noah runs after her, saying she means more than any job. The season wraps on a hopeful kiss.

This brings us to Adam Brody himself, who’s been opening up about playing Noah, stepping into the faith side of the role, and how it feels to suddenly have everyone calling him their new heartthrob.

Nobody Wants This: Adam Brody gets real about Noah, faith, and that “internet boyfriend” label

Noah in Nobody Wants This is a rabbi. But he’s also charming, calm, and occasionally hilariously out of his depth. He listens more than he talks, and when he does talk, it’s often with this grounded and wise energy. But he’s not some perfect saintly figure. He’s layered, a little awkward, sometimes conflicted, and that’s why viewers connect with him.

Adam Brody says he actually relates to Noah in more ways than people might think. Speaking to Vanity Fair, he shared why he relates to the character in Nobody Wants This:

"I think this combination of boyishness and manliness. He’s at once self-assured and confident, and learned and wise. And he’s also naive and petulant and pampered. I feel both of those things, by the minute."

He also admitted that taking on a religious role was a challenge.

"The religiosity of it is far from my own worldview. That said, that part of it I sort of liked, because I thought, Well, this is what’ll make it different. This is something to sink my teeth into. This is something to study and learn about that I don’t know about. Even though I don’t have that same worldview, I have my own worldview, and it’s not so hard to transpose one onto the other. They’re different, but they’re both frameworks for looking at the world through a narrative and moral lens."

Brody said that before Nobody Wants This, he wasn't very aware and didn't have much knowledge about the religion. He had to learn and understand it. Luckily, he had some time to prepare for it.

"I knew very little about the religion, knew very little about the rituals, and knew very little about temple. And I knew very little about the history. I had a lot of time, because I got this job and then the strikes happened. As I’ve come to understand it, Judaism is so much about history and this unbroken chain for thousands of years of ritual and people and migration, and that has been fascinating to learn and study."

That learning curve became part of how he approached Noah.

When asked if there was anything from Nobody Wants This Season 1 he wanted to keep going into Season 2, Brody said,

"I watched the first season and thought, Man, I should have tried a little harder to be funnier. I know I’m supposed to be grounded; I know I’m in some ways an anchor. Yet still, I was like, I wouldn’t hate it if I was a little funnier. My fear was, one of the things that worked so well in the first season is the romance and all these firsts that are so naturally romantic and sexy: first kiss, first time being with each other, first breakup, first makeup, et cetera. Now that we’re a little more domesticated, will it still have that spark? I think it does, but we’ll see."

He also spoke about stepping into the so-called “internet boyfriend” role. He said:

"It’s very flattering. It is another thing to transcend, because that is not the be-all, end-all. It’s funny—you would think it would boost your confidence. And it does, on one hand. On the other, it makes me a little self-conscious. You’re all of a sudden like, Oh, everything I do, I gotta be hot. I haven’t changed anything, but it’s something to live up to."

Adam Brody’s take on Noah shows that even when you’re playing someone totally different from yourself or suddenly everyone wants to put you on a pedestal, it’s all about finding the balance. And if Season 2 keeps that alive, we’re all in for another fun ride with Noah, Joanne, and all those awkward, sweet, and hilarious moments that make Nobody Wants This feel so real.

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