baruch hashem

Adam Brody Has Entered His “Hot Rabbi” Era

The actor sees a few similarities between Seth Cohen and his part on the new Netflix comedy Nobody Wants This: “They both have my bone structure, they both are Southern Californian, and theoretically they’re the same age.”

By Ilana Kaplan

September 26, 2024

Adam Brody in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on July 26, 2024.By ADALI SCHELL/The New York Times/Redux.

After Adam Brody signed on to play a rabbi in the TV series Nobody Wants This, he studied. He pored over Art Spiegelman’s Maus, watched the documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust,, read Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock, and listened to podcasts from Rabbi David Sacks. Then he watched Yentl and Fiddler on the Roof for the first time and embarked on a Jewish-quarter tour in Venice. “I had time because the strikes happened between when we filmed it and when I signed on,” he recalls over Zoom. “I had my ear open, my radar up for that year of where if I was somewhere, I would try and partake in the Jewish experience.”

Truthfully, Brody studied because he “wasn’t confident in my authority” when it came to Judaism. Though his family is Jewish, he didn’t grow up knowing many other Jewish people. “I don’t believe I went to a Bar Mitzvah except my own,” the 44-year-old actor laughs. Most of what he learned about the religion and Jewish culture came from his parents and friends he made in his 20s and beyond. So when it came to his latest role, he relied on the authority of his colleagues. “We had a lot of other Jewish people writing or directing, or there were other Jews around to help inform,” he says.

On paper, the Netflix rom-com series Nobody Wants This, which premieres September 26, sounds like a millennial fever dream. Brody, who starred in the soapy teen drama The O.C. plays opposite Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl fame—the former as Noah, a witty but traditional basketball-playing rabbi, and the latter as Joanne, an agnostic podcaster who recounts her chaotic dating life and sexcapades on air. Of course, the pair must contend with their religious differences—as well as their respective chaotic family dynamics.

Even though he and his costar headlined two of the most popular teen soaps in the early aughts, Brody has never watched Veronica Mars and Bell has never seen The O.C. Still, one of the main reasons Brody signed on to the project was to work with Bell. “She’s a wonderful talent, a wonderful person and creates a wonderful environment,” he says. “Having worked with her before [in CHIPS], I know this, and I was flattered that she wanted me to do it.” He was also drawn to the script—he loves working on rom-coms, which are a “very comfortable space for me tonally.” And the rabbi portion? “It was its own fun challenge,” he laughs. “There was a lot there to chew on.”

Since his breakout role as nerdy Death Cab for Cutie–loving heartthrob Seth Cohen in The O.C., Brody has leaned into diversifying his résumé. He’s played Nikolai Wolf, the satanic frontman of Low Shoulder in the horror cult classic Jennifer’s Body; Nick Talman, a morally conflicted financier who launders money to help save a tech company in the crime drama StartUp; Abe Applebaum, a formerly distinguished but now washed-up Nancy Drew type in the noir-esque whodunit The Kid Detective; Daniel Le Domas, the antihero brother of the groom in the wedding-themed horror-comedy Ready or Not; the adult superhero version of Freddy Freeman in Shazam!; and Seth Morris, smoldering finance bro and Toby’s best friend in the midlife crisis satire Fleishman Is in Trouble.

While it’s been a long time since Brody played Seth Cohen, he’s aware that fans of his old show may be tempted to compare Noah to his breakout character. Of course, Brody also sees a few superficial similarities in part because it’s him playing those characters. “They both have my bone structure, they both are Southern Californian and theoretically they’re the same age, if Seth Cohen carried on,” Brody says. But he ultimately feels like Noah is a much more conventional person. “I think Noah is somebody who has known exactly what he wanted to do since he was very young, and has led a life—while having fun and being a fun person—of rigorous study and in ancient texts. Which is, I think, a marked difference,” he says. On the show, Noah is also referred to as “hot rabbi,” an apparent nod to Fleabag’s hot priest.

“The kids call him that,” Brody demures. “I wouldn’t be so bold.” Ultimately, he’ll “let the people decide” if hot rabbi or hot priest is superior.

Beyond Nobody Wants This, Brody is still looking to flex his creative muscles. He’d love to collaborate with Steven Soderbergh and is also a huge Tim Heidecker fan. “Don’t know what I bring to the table of squishy sounds, sound effects, but just think he’s brilliant,” he says. Brody would always be open to working with Jennifer’s Body writer and executive producer Diablo Cody again too. “I wonder if there’d be a place for me in a Jennifer’s Body 2. I feel like this character, while he does set the plot in motion, isn’t so central to the story and the themes, and feels like it may not be an organic fit for a sequel,” he says of Nikolai, the film’s main antagonist, who kidnaps the titular Jennifer so he can sacrifice her to the devil. “But I mean, if she was so inspired and wanted a 40-something dead rock star, okay!”

So that’s on the table. Brody is now some 20 years removed from his time as Seth Cohen. Would he ever step back into the role that catapulted him to fame too?

“Anything’s certainly possible,” Brody says. “I think it’s perfectly valid to take anything that people like and say, ‘Is there any life left in this? Would anyone care to see more? Would the band like to get back together?’” But for a number of reasons, he struggles to see a relevant way forward for an O.C. reboot from a creative perspective.

While a reboot may remain up in the air, Brody says fans can expect his characters to be “progressively more generous and self-aware” as the actor himself gets older. “This could either be because I’m old and I’m slowing down,” he says with a self-deprecating edge. “Or because I’m wise and I’m grounded and confident.”