He was a Rabbi. She was a podcaster. Can we make it any more obvious? Nobody Wants This is Netflix‘s newest and hottest rom-com about two unlikely people falling in love. And Adam Brody‘s portrayal of a hot and cool rabbi is making the rounds.
Adam Brody graced the small screen in the early 2000s as one of America’s favorite (half) Jewish teenagers Seth Cohen in The O.C. The character coined the term Chrismukkah which celebrates both traditions of Hannukkah and Christmas. Fast forward to now, the actor stars as Noah in Nobody Wants This, a Rabbi who falls in love with a gentile woman Joanne (Kristen Bell) who navigates the ups and downs of love and religious and cultural differences.
Related: Nobody Wants This is Based on a True Story—Here’s What the Real People Look Like
For creator Erin Foster, it was a no-brainer to cast Adam in the role. “I think when you have that teen heartthrob career when you’re young, you then become an adult who wants to be taken seriously,” Foster told Netflix’s Tudum. “He’s been so careful with what he’s done. For him to feel like this was his leading man comeback onto the scene in TV was a huge honor for me.”
Is Adam Brody Jewish?
Adam Brody is Jewish, but he considers himself “non-religious.” He told Variety, “I’m not religious in any way, shape or form, but I try to be a student of history, of culture, of stories, of myth and literature. It’s all fascinating, and it’s all part of the human experience. I construct my own mythology and meaning for life. It’s not to say that I’m a nihilist — I have my own romantic way of looking at the world. ‘Leave it better than you found it’ — that’s a human construct. I could say, ‘Well, the universe doesn’t care,’ but it’s a human notion and I subscribe to it.”
His family was Jewish and he had his Bar Mitzvah six months late. “I don’t believe I went to a Bar Mitzvah except my own,” the actor told Vanity Fair. The site reported that he learned about the religion and Jewish culture from his parents and friends he made in his 20s and past that age.
As to what attracted him to the role, he told Variety that it wasn’t just the religiousness of the role, but something even greater. “He’s an Angeleno, he’s at a dinner party, he’s hip, he’s not your typical rabbi,” he said. “But the truth is, after five minutes of thinking about it, he’s a rabbi, and that means you’re not going to shy away from the religiosity of it. He is a deeply spiritual, devout Jew who has studied the Torah and the Talmud for most of his life, and lives his life in the best way he can according to it. He thinks about it daily, hourly, and that part became exciting to me. I thought, ‘Well, I’m an actor and that’s the part that I’m not. That’ll be a fun thing to go study and learn about and stretch and act.’ I do feel a responsibility — I hope Jewish people like it. Simply put, I want to do them and us proud.”
