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Louise Thomas
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As thousands tune in to Erin Foster’s culture-clash romcom Nobody Wants This, some viewers will be left questioning whether it’s based on a true story.
The plot and characters are inspired by creator and producer Foster’s real-life love story with her husband, the music executive Simon Tikhman.
Warning: spoilers for Nobody Wants This are below.
The newly-released romcom series follows an unlikely romance between Joanne (Kristen Bell), a serial dater who overshares about her risque love life as part of the podcast she hosts with her sister, and Noah (Adam Brody), a progressive rabbi who has just come out of a long-term relationship.
As the series progresses and their bond grows stronger, the pair spend months navigating how to balance their intense chemistry and their incompatible lifestyles – as well as fend off the naysayers in their families.
There are huge crossovers between the love story behind Foster’s own marriage and the series, including her husband’s background, her journey towards converting to Judaism and how they navigated their differing lifestyles.
Though Foster describes the series as a “love letter” to her marriage, there are also some huge differences – her husband isn’t a rabbi and in reality, they faced fewer obstacles compared to what Joanne and Noah encounter in the series.
Find out the biggest similarities and differences below.
Foster has a podcast with her sister in real-life
In the series, Joanne bears all about her love life on her podcast with her sister as she recounts her failed dates and biggest icks.
Foster actually hosts a podcast with her sister, Sara Foster, called The World’s First Podcast. There are several easter eggs pulled from the original podcast that have been added into the series, like when Joanne and her sister Morgan (played by Justine Lupe) list things a potential romantic partner can do to give them the immediate “ick”, such as “running with a backpack”.
Both comments were drawn from the Foster sisters’ real-life ick, which were discussed on an episode of their podcast earlier this year.
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Noah is based on Foster’s husband
Speaking on her real-life podcast, Foster explained she based Noah entirely on her husband because she wanted to create a character who was “emotionally available, chivalrous, old-fashioned ... but also really funny and confident.” She also added that Noah needed to have “rizz” – a word for “charisma” that relates to a person’s ability to attract a romantic partner.
Foster also based Noah’s family background on Tikhman’s own upbringing, since he is the son of Jewish Russian immigrants.
“We didn’t come from similar backgrounds,” Foster said of her husband on her podcast. “He came from a much more traditional place. I came from a more unconventional place. When we got together we were like, ‘How’s this gonna work?”
However, the real-life couple didn’t face pushback from their families like Joanne and Noah do in the series.
The real meet-cute didn’t happen at a party
While viewers see Joanne and Noah meet and hit it off at a dinner party, Foster and Tikhman’s meet-cute happened at a Los Angeles gym in 2018.
The real-life couple got engaged the following year and wed during a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2019. They welcomed their first child together, a daughter, in May.
Foster converted to Judaism before marrying her husband
At the end of the series, viewers watch as Joanne tells Noah that she’s not ready to commit to converting to Judaism, which is a non-negotiable for him as someone dedicated to his religion.
This aspect has been pulled right out of Foster’s own love story. Foster actually wrote the idea down for Nobody Wants This while in the middle of the process of converting to Judaism ahead of their marriage.
In the series finale, we don’t find out whether Joanne ends up converting to Judaism, but Foster herself did end up coverting ahead of their New Year’s Eve wedding in 2019.
During her own conversion process, Foster’s producing partner and manager suggested she write a show about her experience, and she came up with the concept for Nobody Wants This.
The Sunflower scene did happen – minus the gym gear
In episode six, titled “The Ick”, a frantic Noah scrambles to get ready to meet Joanne’s parents for the first time. Awkwardly, he arrives wearing his gym kit clutching an oversized bunch of sunflowers. In the series, this scenario puts Joanne off Noah, and she seems ready to call off the relationship altogether as she develops “the ick”.
A similar thing did happen in Foster and Tikhman’s early days. When the two started dating in 2018, Tikhman arrived to meet Foster’s mother for the first time carrying a huge bouquet of sunflowers and it freaked Foster out slightly.
Speaking to New York Magazine, Foster recalled: “The flowers were so long, and they kept falling over. Sitting there, I was like, ‘Well, if someone cares this much, then that feels like a weakness.’”
However, Tikhman defended himself, saying: “I personally don’t remember the sunflowers being that big.”
