Acting Up: Adam Brody and Kristen Bell Teach a Chemistry Masterclass in Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This'

The Snapshot

In Netflix’s new romantic comedy series Nobody Wants This, Adam Brody and Kristen Bell star as a rabbi and an agnostic woman who improbably fall for each other, and then have to deal with the consequences.

(All episodes of Nobody Wants This are airing on Netflix.)

The Performances of Adam Brody and Kristen Bell

Adam Brody talking to a friend on the couch inside an apartment in Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This.'

Photo courtesy of Netflix.Chemistry is a tricky thing, both in real life and on screen. You can stare across the table from someone who, on paper, should be a perfect match for you, and feel nothing. Conversely, you can know, fundamentally and in every cell of your body, that the person walking down the street with you is a bad fit, and yet you’re undeniably drawn to them. There’s no way to define it, it’s just a feeling. Pheromones, maybe. Or something else we can’t explain.

It’s sort of like the old standard line uttered by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964, when he was asked to describe his test for obscenity: “I know it when I see it.”

Well, the same is true for chemistry. You can tell when you have it with someone else, and you can see it when it’s in front of you. You can also tell, very clearly, when it’s not. Good chemistry can turn solid writing into something amazing, but bad chemistry can turn a great script into a sodden mess.

In this case, we’re very much talking about the former, as Adam Brody and Kristen Bell take the standard romantic comedy formula set out in Netflix’s new series Nobody Wants This, and lift it to another level entirely with their onscreen chemistry.

Kristen Bell doing a podcast episode in Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This.'

Photo courtesy of Netflix.Taking nothing away from the writing of the show’s creator Erin Foster and her team of writers, because it all starts with the written word. That is, after all, what drew first Bell, then Brody to the project. But it’s still a pretty straightforward romantic comedy, with all the tropes involved. Two people from different backgrounds — Brody is a rabbi named Noah, and Bell is an agnostic shiksa podcaster named Joanne — fall for each other and have to overcome certain obstacles to make it work.

It’s textbook rom-com, but the show is special not just because the characters are strong and there is good banter and funny situations. It’s because when Brody and Bell are on screen individually, it’s interesting, fun and easy to watch. When they’re together, though, you can’t take your eyes off them.

In the pilot, after they’ve had a meet-cute at a dinner party, he walks her to her car and they get to know each other and flirt on the way. In most scenes like this, we cut back and forth between the two characters, often in single shots that isolate them from the other person, to speed up the pace of the conversation to make it seem jazzier than it is.

In Nobody Wants This, because the pair play off each other so well, it’s all one single shot, no cuts, from the moment they walk out the door to when they get to Joanne’s car. It’s several minutes of casual conversation, and in that time, the audience falls in love with both of them, because we can see they’re already falling for each other.

On their first date, their back-and-forth flirtation makes you sit forward in your seat. Without getting too spoilery, after the two have their first kiss when Joanne later says it was the best kiss of her life, we believe it.

Lessons in Chemistry

Adam Brody and Kristen Bell talking to someone in a store in Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This.'

Photo courtesy of Netflix. Photo courtesy of Netflix.It’s hard to talk about chemistry and explain how it is two people have it. Sometimes, it’s just as simple as “they have it.” You can’t teach chemistry and you can’t fake it.

Brody and Bell knew each other in real life a little before this show but were hardly great friends. Bell was attached to the project first, and while she wanted Brody as her co-star, she didn’t approach him directly. As he explained to The Hollywood Reporter, his agent’s wife “has been Kristen’s stylist and good friend for a long time. We have well-traveled back channels, so I heard about it through him.”

Interestingly, he went on to say, “We’ve been together in different shows and nobody said, ‘Your chemistry is amazing,’” so something else to consider is the context. Again, Foster and her writers have written something smart and funny, but it’s the intangible quality of two people who get each other and can showcase that on camera that turns smart and funny into special.

What to take from this? How do you make magic with someone? It’s not necessarily about liking each other. One of the most legendary stories of such chemistry is from 1983’s An Officer and a Gentleman, whose two stars, Richard Gere and Debra Winger, hated each other, but were a fiery and sexy onscreen pair. There are plenty of examples of costars who got along swimmingly, but had the onscreen spark of a wet noodle.

So how do you create chemistry? How do you predict it? The sad thing is, you can’t. It just has to happen. But if you want to see it in action, spend just a few minutes with Nobody Wants This. You’ll find those few minutes will get you hooked.

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