“Nobody Wants That” creator Erin Foster talks hit Netflix show

For Erin Foster, creator of Nobody Wants This, art seems to imitate life.

In 2019, as Foster neared the end of her Jewish conversion journey, she immersed herself in mikveh at American Jewish University. Having just completed a 10-week conversion course at AJU, the Los Angeles native expected this moment to be one in which she would finally feel Jewish and be literally touched by God’s presence.

Unfortunately, the mikveh water didn’t feel all that different from being in a hot tub, she said.

“And it really scared me because I thought, ‘Should I feel something?'” Foster recalled while speaking to The Journal in a recent Zoom interview.

While Foster’s new Netflix series Nobody Wants This unfortunately doesn’t contain a mikveh scene, it does draw on many other moments from Foster’s real life for inspiration. In the hot Netflix romantic comedy, which premiered last month and is currently the highest-rated show on the streaming platform, Joanne, an outgoing, non-Jewish podcast host in her mid-30s living in Los Angeles, begins a relationship with Noah, a charming, good-looking guy from LA who happens to be a rabbi.

The show created by Foster – originally titled “Shiksa” – is loosely inspired by Foster’s real-life experience of meeting, eventually marrying, and converting to Judaism to a Jew.

Since its release, the program has provoked a variety of opinions and reactions in the Jewish community. While many viewers say they enjoyed spending time with Joanne and Noah – the two characters are played by actors Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, who have natural chemistry – others have criticized the way the series portrays theirs represents Jewish women. This includes Noah’s overbearing mother, played by Tovah Feldshuh, who disapproves of her son’s relationship with Joanne and once tells Noah’s Jewish ex-girlfriend Rebecca, “Everyone knows shiksas are just for practice.”

In addition to “Nobody Wants This,” Foster also wrote the first two episodes of the ten-part series. Speaking to the Journal, the 42-year-old responded to the criticism and explained that the show was intended to promote positive Jewish images.

“Anyone who focuses on the stereotypes brought up, I hope they’re also paying attention to all the stereotypes I’m trying to break in this show by introducing us to a ‘hot rabbi’ who isn’t neurotic, or you know, a nebbish Jewish guy. “There’s nothing about it that feels like it’s something you’ve seen over and over again, and like it’s a Jewish metaphor, and that was really intentional,” Foster said. “And the whole show is meant to be a love letter to Judaism and the Jewish community that welcomes me.”

“Anyone who focuses on the stereotypes that are brought up… I hope that they also pay attention to all the stereotypes that I’m trying to break in this show… [by] Give us a hot rabbi who isn’t neurotic or, you know, a nebbish Jew.” – Erin Foster

The show was five years in the making, and Foster and her team of creative collaborators—including Steve Leder, senior rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, who served as a consultant—worked hard to ensure that the show’s Jewish moments felt authentic and accurate . Midway through the season, Noah introduces Joanne to a Friday night Shabbat experience—albeit a shortened one where they only recite the blessing over the candles. While the scene was repeatedly cut out during the editing process, Foster insisted that it remain in the show.

“I really wanted to have a scene where he explains to her what Shabbat is,” she said.

For the fictional character Joanne, Shabbat – similar to Foster in real life – is one of the first elements of Judaism that appeals to her. During the season, the Noah character tries to interest Joanne in converting to Judaism one day and tries to introduce her to fun aspects of the religion, and he follows Havdalah.

Some situations, while far-fetched, are played for laughs, such as when Joanne crosses herself while standing in a synagogue – filmed at Sinai Temple in Westwood. There’s also a disastrous brunch with Noah’s parents, where Joanne brings ham for the family, thinking it’s beef and not pork. Would a woman from LA, even a non-Jewish woman, make this mistake? Probably not. “But from the beginning of the series, Foster’s goal was to make a ‘mainstream rom-com’… and so I think the positives really outweigh any perceived negatives,” she said.

At the time of her interview with The Journal, Foster wasn’t sure if there would be a second season of the series, but she’s hoping for one. Among other things, this would allow her to explore more deeply some of the series’ characters, including those that some viewers found disturbing.

“I think all signs point to a second season, and so we hope we get one,” Foster said. “I’d like to do one.”

Foster, who grew up in Calabasas and Malibu and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, music executive Simon Tikhman, and their four-month-old daughter, co-hosts “The World’s First Podcast” with her sister. She is the daughter of musician David Foster and former model Rebecca Dyer and converted to Judaism in 2019 under the supervision of a Reform rabbi.

Speaking to the Journal ahead of the High Holidays, Foster shared what her family’s traditions typically involve. She described it as an “inclusive” experience in which both Jewish and non-Jewish family members and friends eat dinner together.

In real life, Foster has spoken out strongly against anti-Semitism. Her Netflix show makes no political statements, but after October 7, she used her considerable platform to advocate for Jews. In fact, it wasn’t until she saw how widespread anti-Semitism was that she began to develop the sense of Jewishness she expected when she entered the waters of the mikveh several years ago.

“When I was exposed to anti-Semitism as a Jewish person, I started to feel Jewish,” she said. “You know, learning about it is so different than living it. So the mikveh didn’t make me feel Jewish, and the conversion didn’t make me feel Jewish either. To really experience the world the way a Jewish person did.”

And who knows? If there’s a second season, maybe we’ll get a mikveh scene.