- Nobody Wants This took Netflix by storm last year
- But fans may be unaware that the series is actually based on a true story
- As we wait for the second season, here’s the details of creator Erin Foster and her husband Simon Tikhman’s relationship
Nobody Wants This burst onto our screens back in September last year, and fans fell in love with agnostic podcaster Joanne and Rabbi Noah, as they navigated their inter-faith relationship (and meddling friends and family!).
But what viewers may not realize is that the Netflix series is actually based on a true story… sort of.
While it may not be exactly how it went down for her, creator Erin Foster based Joanne and Noah’s relationship on the early days of courting her now-husband, Simon Tikhman.
Like Noah, Tikhman is Jewish – and Foster (who, FYI, also hosts The World’s First Podcast with her sister, Sara) converted to the religion so they could be married. “It all worked out,” she said. “I love being Jewish.”
Although Tikhman may not be a Rabbi (he is the founder of The Core Entertainment, an artist management company in partnership with Live Nation), there are several similarities between him and Noah – including their love of basketball.
The couple got engaged after just one year of dating in August 2019 – in a classic Noah move, Tikhman proposed to Foster during a ‘fake wedding’ ceremony that he had engineered for the occasion – and they were married just four months later on New Year’s Eve. They welcomed their daughter, Noa Mimi Tikhman, on May 17 last year.
Tikhman was unsure about the Nobody Wants This script
Foster, who is the daughter of record producer David Foster, described Nobody Wants This as a “rom-Com born out of me falling for a nice Jewish boy and never looking back.”
But when she originally sold the script, Tikhman was unaware of the project and later expressed his concerns about showcasing their relationship and the Jewish culture on the small screen.
“I’m from a very private family,” he revealed. “My mom would always tell us stories about how if you said the wrong thing in the Soviet Union as a Jew, you could be taken to jail. I really respect my parents and know the adversity they went through because they were Jewish. I wouldn’t want to disappoint them.”
However, Tikhman’s fears were eased after his parents gave Foster their blessing. And, much like Joanne, it seems his wife has a way of charming her in-laws – as while filming, his mother Marina even made an appearance in the pilot episode.
Did Erin Foster want to star in Nobody Wants This?
In short… yes. Awkward.
While promoting the show, Foster admitted that she had first hoped to play the lead role of Joanne for herself – before Netflix stepped in and insisted it go to Kristen Bell.
“I wanted an actress who would fall into it in a really relaxed, natural way. And from our first meeting at Netflix, after they bought the idea, immediately for them, it was like, ‘It’s Kristen Bell. It’s Kristen Bell no matter what. It is Kristen Bell. That is who it is’,” Foster recalled.
“They have worked with her many times before, and they are obsessed with her. They love her.”
She continued, “We had a meeting, and she was so respectful, nice, and complimentary, and she very clearly, very quickly said, ‘Erin, I know you wrote this for yourself to be in. I’m not comfortable taking this role away from you’. And I said, ‘Well, first of all, it doesn’t sound like I really have a choice – so let’s do this.’”
It was for the best, though…
However, it all worked out in the end – as Foster was trying to get pregnant (and has since welcomed Noa).
“I said to her, ‘The truth is, I want to be a mum. I’m trying to get pregnant, and that’s really my life focus right now, becoming a mum. I don’t want to be sitting in a hair and make-up trailer at 5am’,” she said.
“It would’ve been way too much. I was really trying to get pregnant, and I knew that those two things happening at the same time wasn’t going to work. And so I was kind of giving her my blessing. Like, ‘I want it to be you. I don’t want it to be me’.
“And after that, it just sort of all fell into place. She really wanted us to cast Adam, too. They had a personal relationship, outside of it, a friendship. She felt really confident that they would have great chemistry. And she was right. She’s got a really great instinct for casting. She had really good ideas.”
Will Nobody Wants This return for a second season?
Yes, the show will return for a second series!
While we don’t have an exact date just yet, fans of the Nobody Wants This don’t have too long to wait until the next season.
On October 10 last year, Netflix renewed the show for a second series – and like season one, we imagine that season two will also have ten 20-30 minute episodes.
Just four months later on February 7, Jackie Tohn (who plays Esther in the show) revealed that filming is scheduled to begin on March 3, 2025 – with the second season also premiering this year.
