For many young Jewish millennial boys, our generation’s greatest onscreen representation was Seth Cohen on the Fox teen drama “The O.C.” As played by Adam Brody, Seth was quirky, awkward, but also cool in his own way, having great cultural taste and an earnest heart. He also wore his Judaism proudly and since Brody himself is Jewish, it was nice to have a character I could feel proud of. In his new Netflix rom-com series , “Nobody Wants This,” Brody is embracing this part of himself once more, playing a “hot rabbi” who falls for Kristen Bell’s non-semitic podcaster, Joanne. However, in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times , he acknowledged that his own sense of Judaism was never that strong and taking on this part required new levels of study.
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“I initially winced at the religiosity of it,” Brody said of being offered the part. “But I came around to being excited by that aspect and going, ‘Well, that’s the different part than me, and that’s what will be fun stuff to research and explore and commit to and play.'”
Bell, also interviewed by the LA Times, gave Brody much credit for that commitment and pointed to multiple occasions where she’d find him taking on his character’s practices.
“Every time I would come up to him, he would be listening to some Jewish podcast, or reading some very Jewish book, really putting in the work,” Bell said. “And I put in about zero work. I was like, I’m going to show up, that’s what I’ll do. But Adam was impressive.”
In playing a rabbi in Los Angeles, Brody wanted to make sure he was behaving as a “scholar” would, especially since his own understanding of Judaism was somewhat novice. He’d been bar mitzvahed and celebrated certain holidays as a child, but there was still a lot of knowledge to fill in.
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“By and large, I didn’t know the first thing about Judaism — even having been bar mitzvahed, having played Jewish characters before ,” said Brody to the LA Times. “It was important because I could speak with some authority on it, both in the character and even outside of the character, as someone who’s going to play a community leader of a specific creed and race. It did unlock a much deeper knowledge and appreciation for the history of a people and a culture.”
During a recent interview with IndieWire , the show’s creator, Erin Foster, who based the story on certain aspects of her own life, shared that many Jewish actors, perhaps some that can be considered more Jewish than Brody, auditioned, but failed to carry the charm and optimism Brody has carried throughout his career.
“You can’t name a Jewish actor who didn’t audition,” Foster said. “There was this kind of cynicism in all these guys that this character couldn’t have. He needed to have a genuine warmth about him, and he needed to have a softness [and] sweetness. Adam just has that. The character is inspired by my husband, and my husband is someone who can’t make you feel bad, like it’s not possible. He just shines this sweetness and goodness and makes people feel seen, and makes you laugh, and I was trying to capture that feeling to pair him with this cynical character, and Adam was the only one who had that purity about him.”
“Nobody Wants This” is currently streaming on Netflix.
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