Part of the charm of “Nobody Wants This” lies in the specificity of its characters. We know who mismatched couple podcaster Joanne (played by Kristen Bell) and rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) are as soon as we meet them in the first episode. And that came across even in creator Erin Foster’s scripts.
” I read the pilot, and I was obsessed,” costume designer Negar Ali Kline told IndieWire. “I connected to it immediately because I am from L. A. I had to do it! I just felt like this was the story I had to tell. The pilot was written so brilliantly, and Erin’s point of view was so clear in the pilot that I knew who Joanne was from the very first read.”
It helped that the pilot of “Nobody Wants This” finds Joanne walking into a party wearing a faux chinchilla coat that makes her look like the most sophisticated thrice-divorced divorcee to ever live: We know exactly who Joanne is in that moment, and like Noah, we’re beguiled. Kline added that the coat was difficult to source because chinchilla was specified in the script, and eventually they found it in a wardrobe house and tied in up with elastic in the back to fit Bell (and later Brody).
Conversations with Bell and Brody solidified the characters as an It Girl and a “professor” (“Not conservative, but reserved,” Kline said), and Kline prepared extensive mood boards for both. “Some of those original picks in the mood board were made it right onto screen,” Kline said. “I created this color palette for Joanne’s world. So it was Joanne, Morgan, her parents. It was these poppy, pastel colors. She had this really live-out-loud personality, really exuberant, really sparkly, and so we thought that the colors in her world should represent that. And then in contrast, the [Noah’s family the] Roklovs, the color palette that I envisioned for them were these regal jewel tones, the maroons that we use throughout Noah’s world. The navies and more neutral colors and nice rich browns.”
As the series progressed, Kline also had fun dressing Joanne and Noah in clothes more in keeping with the other’s style, pointing to the scene where Noah meets Joanne’s friends. “I don’t know if people notice this — it’s so subtle, it’s probably just something that’s in my head. She was dressed a bit more like him, in a crew neck sweater and a button-down shirt. And he was dressed a bit more like her; his button-down shirt was unbuttoned, and he had layers, and he was loosening up a bit. Those were very small things that I don’t know that the audience picks up on.”
One thing the audience did pick up on? The “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” homage in the finale’s bar mitzvah scene, in which Joanne and her sister, Morgan, arrive unannounced — though that wasn’t entirely intentional.
“It’s so funny that people picked up on that,” Kline said. “I made that dress for [Justine Lupe, who plays Joanne’s sister] because we had to come up with something that would conceal [her baby] bump. We made it backless so that it was still alluring. I don’t know that it was written for us to take literally for the wardrobe choices. The color, to be honest with you, that was a coincidence. But it was written that it was going to be this epic, jaw-dropping entrance.”
That slo-mo entrance is just one of the instant classic scenes in “Nobody Wants This,” and Kline is quick to praise Foster for them. “Throughout the entire show, Erin’s so brilliant about creating these moments that feel really cinematic. That resonate with us because it’s these cinematic TV moments that we love that she’s really able to capture. And so we wanted the costumes to fit those moments.”
“Nobody Wants This” is now streaming on Netflix.
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