Let the “Nobody Wants This” season two press tour begin!
Following the announcement last week that the new season of the hit Netflix show will arrive on Oct. 23, Variety dropped a new “Actors on Actors” conversation between hot rabbi actor Adam Brody and his “Jennifer’s Body” co-star Amanda Seyfried. The nearly 45-minute conversation was wide-ranging, touching on Amanda’s show “Long Bright River,” the most iconic quotations from “Jennifer’s Body,” reminisces of “Mean Girls” and “The O.C.” and, naturally, the astounding success of “Nobody Wants This.”
In the latter part of the conversation, the 45-year-old Brody gushed about the show and his cast-mates and even revealed that he liked the show’s original title, “Shiksa.” But Brody also took a second to share his thoughts on what a Jewish TV show means in this moment.
“Now is a particularly sensitive time for literally everyone,” he acknowledged. “But certainly Jewish people. And I think this being a sort of safe, celebratory space for [the Jewish community] has been very well-received.”
When Variety shared this clip to their social media channels, the responses were… varied. On Instagram and X, the comments ranged from antisemitic statements about Jews in Hollywood and holding all Jews responsible for the actions of Israel to harsh critique of Brody’s words (though Variety actually seems to misquote Adam as saying it’s a “tough time” when he actually says “a sensitive time”) to support for Brody to Jews critiquing “Nobody Wants This” as less-than-desirable representation.
Oy.
Other Jewish moments in the conversation included Brody reflecting on the interfaith representation “Nobody Wants This” offers. “In terms of the interfaith relationship, I think it’s been relatable. So many people have come up to me and said, ‘My wife is a shiksa,'” he told Seyfried. “We’re a great stand-in for any differences between two people, philosophical or cultural. When you merge two individuals, growth and compromise is what you have to navigate.”
Brody also briefly touched on how the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes gave him more time to research his role. He discussed this more in-depth, however, in a Vanity Fair profile which came out today. “It was a big learning curve,” Brody, who is Jewish, explained of his research process. “I grew up with very little Jews. My parents’ friends had all moved from the East Coast in Michigan in the ’70s, and my parents and their friends were Jewish. But no one was particularly religious.”
“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,” he added. “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.”
Adam Brody, your understanding is completely correct and I cannot wait to see what you do with it in “Nobody Wants This” season two.
