Kristen Bell has revealed that she spent months trying to persuade Adam Brody to play her love interest in Nobody Wants This, as she opened up on their electric onscreen chemistry.
The actress, 45, is gearing up for the release of the second season of the hit Netflix series, which sees her playing an agnostic sex podcaster who falls for a rabbi, played by Adam.
Series one of the romantic comedy – loosely based on creator Erin Foster’s real-life love story with her husband – was a huge success, racking up 15.9 million views in a week alone and claiming the number one slot on Netflix.
But in a new interview with Red magazine, Kristen explained that she had to work hard at convincing Adam to star in the show, admitting she was ‘still shocked he said yes.’
She insisted she ‘knew it was him’ as soon as she read the script, after working together previously on projects including House of Lies, Some Girl(S) and Scream 4.
The Frozen star praised her co-star as ‘so appealing to watch’ and ‘endlessly charming’, but explained he had been reluctant to play a romantic lead.
Kristen Bell has revealed that she spent months trying to persuade Adam Brody to play her love interest in Nobody Wants This, as she opened up on their electric onscreen chemistry
The actress, 45, is gearing up for the release of the second season of the hit Netflix series, which sees her playing an agnostic sex podcaster who falls for a rabbi, played by Adam
She said: ‘I tried to convince Adam to do it for months, but he wasn’t interested in playing a romantic lead. I’m still shocked he said yes.
‘He’s kind of cookie-cutter, yet he’s not, and he sort of defies all of the things you think he is – he’ll pop up in weird projects here and there, and only does work he feels is meaningful.
‘But he’s so appealing to watch – because of Seth from The O.C., people already feel he’s a good guy. Even when he’s playing a pessimistic character, he’s endlessly charming, which is very hard to do.’
Confessing she hadn’t anticipated how much their chemistry would resonate with viewers, Kristen added: ‘I don’t know why people like seeing us together so much. All I can say is that when I read the script, I knew it was him, and I knew people would feel that, too.’
While she also gave some insight into the filming of the iconic first kiss between their characters Joanne and Noah in the second episode, which quickly sent the internet ablaze due to its passion and realism.
The Veronica Mars star said: ‘We decided everything before the kiss should be 10 times the length it should be.
‘And then Adam put his hands on my face and I was like, “Oh, okay.” And it just became entangled and beautiful.”
Last year, Kristen admitted that she believed the epic smooch was ‘probably the best on-screen kiss I’ve ever done.’
But in a new interview with Red magazine , Kristen explained that she had to work hard at convincing Adam to star in the show, admitting she was ‘still shocked he said yes’
The Frozen star praised her co-star as ‘so appealing to watch’ and ‘endlessly charming’, but explained he had been reluctant to play a romantic lead (seen last week)
She told TVLine: ‘You don’t know it when you’re in it, I guess, but you know it when you watch it, and I can always sort of, like, just take myself out of it and go, like, “Oh, yeah, that was a good one”.’
While she said that a lot had gone into making the scene so memorable, with focus on the buildup more than the actual snog.
‘We really wanted to, like, pump up the anticipatory value of it. Like, the actual lip-lock wasn’t nearly as important as all the elements that led up to it,’ she explained.
‘And we wanted to extend that for as long as we possibly could, because I think we all were in agreement that, like, yes, once you’re watching someone kiss, they’re just kissing, but it’s all the tiny things that lead up.
‘It’s the eye contact. It’s the hands on the face. It’s when you blink. It’s when you breathe. It’s how your bodies are touching or your shoulders are touching… We really gilded the lily there, and they kept every single moment, and then it worked.[
While creator Erin added that the scene had been a ‘point of discussion’ with Adam, as she had a very distinctive idea of how he needed to go about planting one on Kristen.
In the scene, Noah and Joanne are talking on the street about how they haven’t yet kissed, when he directs her to put down her ice cream and bag before putting his hand on her face and leaning in.
Erin told the publication: ‘Adam really didn’t want to tell her to put her ice cream down, and it was really important to me, and I, like, basically made him do it.
While she also gave some insight into the filming of the iconic first kiss between their characters Joanne and Noah in the second episode, which quickly sent the internet ablaze due to its passion and realism (pictured)
In August, Kristen revealed that even her husband Dax Shephard had been obsessed with the kiss, sending her a hilarious voice note to show his support (pictured last week)
‘Because he thought that it was like, “Why am I, like, bossing her around and being a d**k and telling her what to do?” and I was like, “No, no, no, it is hot. It is so sexy, because you’re this sweet guy, and you’re emotionally available, and you’re kind, and you need to be able to say to her, OK, you want me to kiss you? Put your s–t down. I’m about to give you the best f–king kiss of your life.”
The December issue of Red is on sale from 23 October
‘And then, once we did it, I think he really understood why it was so important to me, and it really worked.’
In August, Kristen revealed that even her husband Dax Shephard had been obsessed with the kiss, sending her a hilarious voice note to show his support.
Speaking at the inaugural Televerse event in Los Angeles, she described hearing Dax and his friends ‘screaming’ and cheering ‘Oh my god!’ while the scene played in the background.
Kristen – how has been married to the actor for 12 years and shares two daughters together – said his excitement ‘says a lot’ about how invested he was in the fictional couple’s romance.
While she joked that the scene came with ‘max pressure’, with her and Adam determined to do it justice.
She said: ‘In the moment, it is meant to give the audience the passion of these two people and their comfort together, because comfort can be incredibly passionate.
‘It’s a deep, beautiful emotion, and we don’t associate it with kissing very much.’
Nobody Wants This season two is set to premiere on October 23 and consists of 10 thirty-minute episodes.
Nobody Wants This season two is set to premiere on October 23 and consists of 10 thirty-minute episodes (Adam and Kristen seen in series 2)
The synopsis for the next chapter teases: ‘First comes love, then comes life. The last time we saw agnostic podcast host Joanne and unconventional (hot) rabbi Noah, their unmatched chemistry surprised everyone in their lives, including her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), his brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) and sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn), and even themselves.
‘Their spark proved stronger than all of the obstacles trying to keep them apart. Now, they’re back and fully committed to merging their lives – and loved ones -together.
‘But their differences still exist and can’t be ignored. The challenge now is not just falling in love against all odds, but staying together in spite of them.’
Guest stars for season two include Seth Rogen, Kate Berlant Miles Fowler, Alex Karpovsky, Arian Moayed and Adam’s real-life wife, Leighton Meester.
The December issue of Red is on sale from 23 October.
