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12 hours ago
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Kristen Bell, Tina Fey, Bridget Everett, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actress interviews
Over the past two months of Emmy campaigning, Gold Derby has spoken with several contenders in all categories. Now with voting underway ahead of the July 15 unveiling of the nominees, we have compiled nine interviews for stars vying for Best Comedy Actress, including: Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This), Bridget Everett (Somebody Somewhere), Tina Fey (The Four Seasons), Kate Hudson (Running Point), Margo Martindale (The Sticky), Wendi McLendon-Covey (St. Denis Medical), Melissa Rauch (Night Court), Natasha Rothwell (How to Die Alone), and Allison Tolman (St. Denis Medical). Read on for highlights from each interviews and links to watch our full video Q&As. More from GoldDerby 'Hope for the best, prepare for the worst': 'Overcompensating' breakout Wally Baram on making her acting debut, defiling prop toilet The case of Leslie Abramson vs. Marcia Clark: Ari Graynor and Sarah Paulson on 'defending' their characters In Pixar's 'Elio,' Easter eggs are literally written in the stars - will you be able to spot them all? Created by Erin Foster and inspired by her marriage, the show follows the interfaith romance between Joanne (Bell), an agnostic podcaster, and "hot rabbi" Noah (Adam Brody). "What I liked so much about the dynamic was I was able to see clearly Joanne was a child and Noah was an adult until they switch," Bell tells us. "But initially, Joanne is messy and can't really commit or doesn't know how to hold things down together. And Noah has all these adult attributes, like stability that she gravitates towards. And she wants that. She just doesn't know how to get it." Watch our complete interview with Kristen Bell. In the HBO Max comedy series, Everett plays Sam, a true Kansan on the surface, but, beneath it all, struggles to fit the hometown mold. Grappling with loss and acceptance, she discovers herself and a community of outsiders who don't fit in but don't give up. "Sam is just trying to learn to exist in these new parameters," Everett says. "You get a little bit older, people start coupling up, and if you're not one — a party of three is just a little different. That's life, so you just acclimate." Watch our complete interview with Bridget Everett. Fey is the star, producer, and writer of the Netflix comedy, which is a remake of the original 1981 film from star, director, and writer Alan Alda. 'It was a really conscious effort to work in a different tone,' Fey says. 'We wanted to evoke the tone of the original movie. At the same time, we knew we were doing eight episodes for streaming, so we felt like we needed just enough story energy to feel like we were cliff-hangering and pulling people one episode to the next. It was a challenge for all of us to be restrained about where we put jokes. The few other characters we meet can't be too absurd. We have to stay grounded, stay tethered. And that's the goal — if we were to strip some things away, would we be able to hold tinier emotional moments and small behaviors as subtler jokes.' Watch our complete video interview with Tina Fey. In the Netflix series, Hudson stars as Isla Gordon, a fictionalized version of L.A. Lakers owner Jeanie Buss. "Jeanie's approach, which was actually kind of surprising to all of us, was, 'Go, have fun, enjoy it, I'm hands-off.' She just was all trust. It was a great lesson," says Hudson. "When you give trust, we all want to honor what it is that she gifted us, which was this awesome place to tell amazing stories in so many different ways about family, about women, about high stakes sports. That allowed me to be able to create Isla and not do Jeanie. It isn't a biopic. It really allowed it to take on a life of its own, which gives us freedom in comedy to separate it from the insanely high stakes world that Jeanie lives in." Read our complete interview with Kate Hudson. The Emmy-winning star of Justified and The Americans spoke to Gold Derby about her star turn on Prime Video's The Sticky, a dark comedy about an unlikely, bumbling trio who team up to pull off a maple syrup heist. "I love acting no matter how you throw it at me," she says. "But it was an honor to lead the tone of a show, meaning not the tone of the story, but the tone of the atmosphere of the group that, everybody's kind to each other and supportive." Martindale has long been called a "character actor," but that label has no meaning for her. "Acting is character acting. You think Meryl Streep's not a character actress? She's a character actress." Watch our complete interview with Margo Martindale. The veteran sitcom star plays hospital administrator Joyce on the NBC/Peacock mockumentary comedy series. 'In my mind, she became an administrator because she got tired of being told how to practice medicine,' McLendon-Covey says of the backstory she created for her character. But now, instead of battling with insurance companies over patient care, all she does now is 'beg for money all day. ... It's the delicious line I get to walk.' Watch our complete interview with Wendi McLendon-Covey. Rauch plays Judge Abby Stone on NBC's reboot also starring John Larroquette. The first scenes during the pilot, which were shot shortly after they met in person for the first time, had a real "electricity in the air," she says. And she's been picking up nuggets of wisdom ever since — down to the way Larroquette fills in the space between when the punchline lands and the audience stops laughing. "It's otherworldly," she says. "It's sort of like riding a wave and coming to the end of it. I love it so much, getting to watch him do it. … I'm constantly just taking notes from everyone." Watch our complete interview with Melissa Rauch. Rothwell created the series, in which she plays broke, single, plus-size JFK Airport worker Mel, who is deciding she wants more out of life after nearly choking to death remains a tough pill to swallow. "That show is the most vulnerable thing I've ever put in the world, and it remains the thing that I'm the most proud of," she tells us. "And it is definitely the product of 20 years of therapy, being able to say a lot of those things out loud. That scene in particular. … I went to school for theater. It's like, let's just treat the third act like a one act play. Let's just be in it. Let's just hear this conversation. Let's see these two people talk and say the things that have gone unsaid their entire lives, and that requires room to breathe." Watch our complete interview with Natasha Rothwell. The Emmy nominee talked to Gold Derby about playing supervising nurse Alex in the NBC/Peacock comedy series, a mom with two children at home who struggles with setting work-life boundaries. 'It can be lonely to be the straight man in a comedy like this because you're not the one who gets the big moments or the big jokes or the big set pieces,' the actress says. But the role does have its unique attributes, too. 'I really feel a kinship with the audience and I really feel like the responsibility and the honor of being their touchstone. … The joy of Alex for me is that she's really aware of how all of this is coming off and she's really aware of the fact that she's being observed at all times.' Watch our complete interview with Allison Tolman. Best of GoldDerby Adam Brody, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actor interviews 'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin') Sam Rockwell on Frank's 'White Lotus' backstory, Woody Harrelson's influence, and going all in on 'this arc of Buddhist to Bad Lieutenant' Click here to read the full article.
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2 days ago
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‘Nobody Wants This' Creator Erin Foster Set Out to Make Her Own ‘Fleabag' — Her ‘Really Sweet' Rom-Com Took Her by Surprise
Welcome to It's a Hit! In this series, IndieWire speaks to creators and showrunners behind a few of our favorite television programs about the moment they realized their show was breaking big. Erin Foster is pretty organized. She'd have to be, thanks to a packed schedule that includes many personal obligations (wife, mother, sister, friend) alongside a stuffed professional calendar (which includes her hit Netflix series 'Nobody Wants This,' which she created, plus podcasting, running clothing company Favorite Daughter alongside sister Sara Foster, and much more). More from IndieWire Everything to Remember from 'Squid Game' Season 1 and 2 'Matlock' Production Designer Adam Rowe on How Two Canceled Shows Gave the CBS Hit Its Scale So when we got on Zoom a few weeks ago to talk about the smash first season of 'Nobody Wants This' in the context of the current Emmy season, Foster was thrilled to hear that there was an agenda in place, mostly hinging on chatting through a favorite IndieWire question: 'When did you know this show was a hit?' Still, all that organization and planning soon went out the window, because in addition to being organized and busy, Foster is — much like her alter-ego on the show, Kristen Bell's Joanne — disarmingly honest. ''I don't know' is the not-fun answer,' Foster said with a laugh. 'I definitely didn't know when I first watched it in editing. When I was in the editing process, I was by no means like, 'Wow, get ready, everyone. I have a hit on my hands!' At all. I remember very clearly thinking, 'It's sweet, it's really sweet. I don't think that my friends will make fun of me. But I think they're going to be like, 'It's nice.'' I didn't know if the message I was trying to get across was going to come through.' But while most people would argue that Foster did get her message across — more on that message, and the very personal experiences that inspired it, below — the creator and Season 1 co-showrunner (she shared duties with Craig DiGregorio) was initially concerned that the general genre packaging around the series was different than she was expecting. 'It's sweet and it's soft,' she said. 'I set out to make 'Fleabag' and I ended up making a sweet rom-com. I was like, 'OK, it's not the edgy thing that I thought I was making, but it's actually really sweet.' Then it turned out that was its superpower.' But while the show, which follows Adam Brody and Bell as a seemingly mismatched but extremely appealing new couple, was a hit out of the gate — with strong critical reviews and big-time viewing metrics that pushed it to the top of the streamer's top 10 in its first week — it took Foster a little longer to realize what she had made. I told her that I realized it was breaking through by way of my own metric: my mother had watched it, twice in its entirety, before I had enough time to burn through its first 10 episodes. 'For me, it happened one little step at a time. It was inch by inch,' she said. 'It's different for me than it is for you, with your mom saying that to you, because I had lots of friends' moms saying that to me, too, but it's my show, so they're always going to say that to me. They're going to say, 'I loved your show. I watched it in one night!' It's very hard to gauge outside perception when you're at the center of it.' When Foster saw other celebrities — crucially, other celebrities that she does not personally know — saying in interviews or sharing online that it was their favorite show of the summer, that struck her too. 'That's weird to me,' she said with a laugh. 'I know who you are. You don't know who I am!' While it's relatively easy to measure success by way of stuff like total hours streamed or how quickly it was renewed for a second season (just two weeks after the first season was released, not too shabby), Foster's rom-com also succeeded in other arenas. Like, oh, reminding people just how much they love Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, and giving so-called elder millennials a potent dose of teen nostalgia packaged in something brand new. 'I can't let you call us 'elder millennials,' it's so mean! It is so mean,' Foster said when asked about tapping straight into her own generation with her inspired casting. 'I know that's what we're called. Not to brag, but I had breakfast with Adam when we were offering him the role, and I was sitting across from him and I'm like, 'Damn, this could really work. He is so cute, why don't people know about this?'' That doesn't mean that casting Brody as kind and sexy rabbi Noah and Bell as his more outspoken lady love Joanne was a slam-dunk from the start. 'I was a little bit nervous about this millennial [nostalgia] thing, this 'The O.C.' meets 'Veronica Mars' [casting], because I didn't want the show to be cheesy. I wanted the show to be really well-received and not cutesy. I didn't want it to feel soapy,' Foster said. 'I was a little bit nervous about that, and hesitant about it, but luckily I have people around me who are smarter than me that were like, 'Millennials are going to eat this up and this is great.' Once I got over my fear, I just leaned into it. And when I watched him on camera with Kristen, their chemistry is psychotic. I got lucky, because you can't plan that.' While much has been made of Joanne and Noah's first kiss, for Foster, that 'psychotic' chemistry and obvious romance are on offer almost immediately. When did she know she had really made the right casting choices? 'It's the walk to the car in the pilot [episode],' Foster said. 'That scene was always really, really, really important to me, and it never changed from my original writing of it. Well, the 'Fiddler on the Roof' joke was not mine, that was added later. Originally that line was, 'Say something rabbinical,' and he says, 'Never pay retail.' We changed it to, 'There's a fiddler on the roof,' because it really made us laugh. That scene, I really felt it. I just felt like this is exactly how I wanted the show to feel.' In the first episode, written by Foster and directed by Greg Mottola, brassy podcaster Joanne meets the more strait-laced and steady Noah at a pal's dinner party. That he's a rabbi is one of many things that surprises her, along with his easy charm and clear interest in getting to know her better. When Noah walks Joanne to her car at the end of the evening, their banter is thrilling, but so is the sense that Noah gets her. Even if that means fudging on what he's actually doing. 'I tried to come up with creative ways to get him to be sexy and romantic that's not cookie-cutter,' she said. 'It was like, he's being chivalrous and walking her to her car, but she's like, 'Don't walk me to my car,' and he's like, 'No, my car is right where your car is.' He has a plan, like, I know a girl like this isn't going to want me to walk her to her car, so I have to tell her that I'm walking both of us to our cars. Then, when we get there, I'm going to be like, 'Oh no, I got a space up front.' I didn't have to draw attention to it.' Small moments like that stand out throughout the series, which is based on Foster's own romance with her husband, Simon Tikhman. While Tikhman is not a rabbi (he's in the music business), he is Jewish, and Foster converted to the religion before they married in 2019. For many characters in the series, the pair's mismatched faith is one of the biggest obstacles for their relationship (a rabbi and an agnostic podcaster?!), but Foster's own experiences inspired plenty of other elements of the show, even if not everything is directly pulled from her life. 'Whatever's the best story is what goes on screen. It's not like it has to be true to life by any means,' Foster said. 'My husband's not a rabbi, so there's many things that I have to embellish and change. But I would say that my philosophies are in the show, my philosophies on love, my philosophies on relationships.' She's not just saying that. For Foster, 'Nobody Wants This' is funny, sexy, and romantic, but it's also based on some very personal and quite hard-won life lessons. 'My husband really represents, for me, this idea of a kind of man that I didn't know existed,' she said. 'It doesn't mean that he's perfect Prince Charming or anything like that, it just means that, as modern women, we have been made to believe — because it's true a lot — that you have two options. You have a spicy, sensual, exciting, exhilarating love with a toxic person, or you have a consistent, boring, regular safe option with a nice person. I was really scared of how to make that choice. I was probably going to go with the toxic person, as most women do, because rom-coms typically show us getting the toxic person to choose you and not be toxic anymore. In my experience, you can't get the toxic person to stop being toxic.' When Foster met Tikhman — just like when Joanne meets Noah — it forever altered her perception of what a relationship could be. And she wanted to see that on the screen. 'My relationship with my husband opened my eyes to this third option, which was emotionally healthy, confident, strong, honest, truthful, funny, romantic, but not a pushover,' Foster said. 'I knew how much it blew my mind. I'm like other women, I have a strong personality, but I want an equal partner, someone I can't walk all over, but someone who lets me be myself. I was really excited to show a love story with that kind of guy, because I want every woman to end up in the same kind of marriage I ended up in, which is healthy and fun.' When translating that to the show, Foster didn't get precious about making tweaks and changes to true stories, all the better to serve Joanne and Noah's story. Consider the genesis of the sixth episode in the first season, titled 'The Ick,' in which Joanne feels turned off by Noah trying to impress her family. 'I got the ick with my husband early on because I just got spooked. I got spooked that he was being really nice, and he was trying really hard with my friends and family, and he really wanted this to work out. Those are really nice things,' she said. 'Somehow, it scared me. I had gotten the ick a million times in my life, 'Oh, he's got salad dressing on his mouth, I can't marry him.' The littlest thing can turn you off from someone because they falter in some way. But I never had a guy on the other end of it stop me and be like, 'Don't do that. What are you doing right now? That is stupid. I'm not going to feel embarrassed because I want your parents to like me. You should feel embarrassed.' He really just called me out on it. That was obviously very attractive to me.' The 'ick' that Joanne feels in that moment might be silly or stupid, but it's also deeply human and enormously relatable. That makes it both funny and worth sharing, the kind of entertainment that sticks with you, because it's pulled from the truth. 'I fell madly in love with my husband, and then this really dumb thing made me think that I actually never wanted to be with him again because I wasn't mature enough in that moment to see past the way he said 'Prego' or whatever,' Foster said. 'That's a made-up thing, but the idea of that is true. It's not that I'm proud of being that way, but that's the human experience. I was fucked up and I had bad habits, and I was lucky enough to find someone that my brand of crazy worked for.' As Foster prepares for the series' second season to hit the streamer in October — a season she already promised IndieWire won't hold back on all the stuff its audience already loves, including both romance and comedy, naturally — she's intent on keeping up that kind of honesty, even when it can be a little tough. 'I'm not all the way there, but I'm pretty comfortable exposing my flaws, and when you personalize something, it helps people connect,' Foster said. 'I am willing to do that, because it also makes me feel seen.' The first season of 'Nobody Wants This' is streaming on Netflix. Best of IndieWire 2023 Emmy Predictions: Who Will Win at the Primetime Emmy Awards? 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
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2 days ago
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‘Nobody Wants This' Season 2 Netflix Premiere Date Revealed, Creator Promises ‘Romantic and Funny' Outing
Netflix know that a lot of somebodies want this. The second season of 'Nobody Wants This' will premiere October 23. The show first dropped on the streamer last September to sparkling reviews, with IndieWire's Proma Khosla praising the chemistry between leads Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. The show, created by Erin Foster, finds Joanne (Bell, also an executive producer) and Noah (Brody) in a would-be conventional love story complicated by Noah's position as a rabbi. Popular podcaster Joanne isn't just not Jewish, she's also unreligious generally — as is her entire non-traditional family. As Noah and Joanne attempt to acclimate to each other's worlds, and Joanne explores converting, things get complicated — to put it lightly. More from IndieWire The Cast and Crew of 'St. Denis Medical' Found Joy and Warmth in the Show's Hospital Setting 'The Gilded Age' Season 3 Trailer: A New Generation Rises as Carrie Coon Tries to Secure Her Status in High Society 'Nobody Wants This' was renewed back in October, but the drop date was not revealed until the June 1 Netflix FYSEE L.A. Emmy event at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles. The evening featured a screening of the pilot followed by a live taping of Foster's 'The World's First Podcast' with Foster, Bell, Brody and fellow cast members Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, and Jackie Tohn. Stephanie Faracy, Michael Hitchcock, Tovah Feldshuh, Paul Ben-Victor, Emily Arlook, Sherry Cola, and Shiloh Berman will also return for the next batch of episodes, and guests stars will include Miles Fowler, Alex Karpovsky, Arian Moayed, and Bell's 'Gossip Girl' co-star Leighton Meester. Foster based the series on her own life. The actress, writer and podcaster converted to Judaism after falling in love with her Jewish now-husband, Simon Tikhman. Last year, Foster discussed her experience with IndieWire. 'There were about 23 people [in my conversion class] and only three were converting for marriage, which tells you there was 20 very interesting stories going on in that room!' she said. 'And I thought it was just interesting. I hadn't ever seen anybody explore that area, and I thought it'd be cool.' Last month, Foster told IndieWire that Season 2 of 'Nobody Wants This' would be 'romantic and funny.' 'I'm not in the business of depriving people of what they want on a show like this, and making some like, artistic choice to rob you of what you want to see. I really tried to stay on point with Season 1, [it] was all these firsts, first kiss, first date, and this is going to be the next four to six months of the relationship what that looks like,' she said. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
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2 days ago
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‘Nobody Wants This' Creator Erin Foster Set Out to Make Her Own ‘Fleabag' — Her ‘Really Sweet' Rom-Com Took Her by Surprise
Welcome to It's a Hit! In this series, IndieWire speaks to creators and showrunners behind a few of our favorite television programs about the moment they realized their show was breaking big. Erin Foster is pretty organized. She'd have to be, thanks to a packed schedule that includes many personal obligations (wife, mother, sister, friend) alongside a stuffed professional calendar (which includes her hit Netflix series 'Nobody Wants This,' which she created, plus podcasting, running clothing company Favorite Daughter alongside sister Sara Foster, and much more). More from IndieWire Everything to Remember from 'Squid Game' Season 1 and 2 'Matlock' Production Designer Adam Rowe on How Two Canceled Shows Gave the CBS Hit Its Scale So when we got on Zoom a few weeks ago to talk about the smash first season of 'Nobody Wants This' in the context of the current Emmy season, Foster was thrilled to hear that there was an agenda in place, mostly hinging on chatting through a favorite IndieWire question: 'When did you know this show was a hit?' Still, all that organization and planning soon went out the window, because in addition to being organized and busy, Foster is — much like her alter-ego on the show, Kristen Bell's Joanne — disarmingly honest. ''I don't know' is the not-fun answer,' Foster said with a laugh. 'I definitely didn't know when I first watched it in editing. When I was in the editing process, I was by no means like, 'Wow, get ready, everyone. I have a hit on my hands!' At all. I remember very clearly thinking, 'It's sweet, it's really sweet. I don't think that my friends will make fun of me. But I think they're going to be like, 'It's nice.'' I didn't know if the message I was trying to get across was going to come through.' But while most people would argue that Foster did get her message across — more on that message, and the very personal experiences that inspired it, below — the creator and Season 1 co-showrunner (she shared duties with Craig DiGregorio) was initially concerned that the general genre packaging around the series was different than she was expecting. 'It's sweet and it's soft,' she said. 'I set out to make 'Fleabag' and I ended up making a sweet rom-com. I was like, 'OK, it's not the edgy thing that I thought I was making, but it's actually really sweet.' Then it turned out that was its superpower.' But while the show, which follows Adam Brody and Bell as a seemingly mismatched but extremely appealing new couple, was a hit out of the gate — with strong critical reviews and big-time viewing metrics that pushed it to the top of the streamer's top 10 in its first week — it took Foster a little longer to realize what she had made. I told her that I realized it was breaking through by way of my own metric: my mother had watched it, twice in its entirety, before I had enough time to burn through its first 10 episodes. 'For me, it happened one little step at a time. It was inch by inch,' she said. 'It's different for me than it is for you, with your mom saying that to you, because I had lots of friends' moms saying that to me, too, but it's my show, so they're always going to say that to me. They're going to say, 'I loved your show. I watched it in one night!' It's very hard to gauge outside perception when you're at the center of it.' When Foster saw other celebrities — crucially, other celebrities that she does not personally know — saying in interviews or sharing online that it was their favorite show of the summer, that struck her too. 'That's weird to me,' she said with a laugh. 'I know who you are. You don't know who I am!' While it's relatively easy to measure success by way of stuff like total hours streamed or how quickly it was renewed for a second season (just two weeks after the first season was released, not too shabby), Foster's rom-com also succeeded in other arenas. Like, oh, reminding people just how much they love Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, and giving so-called elder millennials a potent dose of teen nostalgia packaged in something brand new. 'I can't let you call us 'elder millennials,' it's so mean! It is so mean,' Foster said when asked about tapping straight into her own generation with her inspired casting. 'I know that's what we're called. Not to brag, but I had breakfast with Adam when we were offering him the role, and I was sitting across from him and I'm like, 'Damn, this could really work. He is so cute, why don't people know about this?'' That doesn't mean that casting Brody as kind and sexy rabbi Noah and Bell as his more outspoken lady love Joanne was a slam-dunk from the start. 'I was a little bit nervous about this millennial [nostalgia] thing, this 'The O.C.' meets 'Veronica Mars' [casting], because I didn't want the show to be cheesy. I wanted the show to be really well-received and not cutesy. I didn't want it to feel soapy,' Foster said. 'I was a little bit nervous about that, and hesitant about it, but luckily I have people around me who are smarter than me that were like, 'Millennials are going to eat this up and this is great.' Once I got over my fear, I just leaned into it. And when I watched him on camera with Kristen, their chemistry is psychotic. I got lucky, because you can't plan that.' While much has been made of Joanne and Noah's first kiss, for Foster, that 'psychotic' chemistry and obvious romance are on offer almost immediately. When did she know she had really made the right casting choices? 'It's the walk to the car in the pilot [episode],' Foster said. 'That scene was always really, really, really important to me, and it never changed from my original writing of it. Well, the 'Fiddler on the Roof' joke was not mine, that was added later. Originally that line was, 'Say something rabbinical,' and he says, 'Never pay retail.' We changed it to, 'There's a fiddler on the roof,' because it really made us laugh. That scene, I really felt it. I just felt like this is exactly how I wanted the show to feel.' In the first episode, written by Foster and directed by Greg Mottola, brassy podcaster Joanne meets the more strait-laced and steady Noah at a pal's dinner party. That he's a rabbi is one of many things that surprises her, along with his easy charm and clear interest in getting to know her better. When Noah walks Joanne to her car at the end of the evening, their banter is thrilling, but so is the sense that Noah gets her. Even if that means fudging on what he's actually doing. 'I tried to come up with creative ways to get him to be sexy and romantic that's not cookie-cutter,' she said. 'It was like, he's being chivalrous and walking her to her car, but she's like, 'Don't walk me to my car,' and he's like, 'No, my car is right where your car is.' He has a plan, like, I know a girl like this isn't going to want me to walk her to her car, so I have to tell her that I'm walking both of us to our cars. Then, when we get there, I'm going to be like, 'Oh no, I got a space up front.' I didn't have to draw attention to it.' Small moments like that stand out throughout the series, which is based on Foster's own romance with her husband, Simon Tikhman. While Tikhman is not a rabbi (he's in the music business), he is Jewish, and Foster converted to the religion before they married in 2019. For many characters in the series, the pair's mismatched faith is one of the biggest obstacles for their relationship (a rabbi and an agnostic podcaster?!), but Foster's own experiences inspired plenty of other elements of the show, even if not everything is directly pulled from her life. 'Whatever's the best story is what goes on screen. It's not like it has to be true to life by any means,' Foster said. 'My husband's not a rabbi, so there's many things that I have to embellish and change. But I would say that my philosophies are in the show, my philosophies on love, my philosophies on relationships.' She's not just saying that. For Foster, 'Nobody Wants This' is funny, sexy, and romantic, but it's also based on some very personal and quite hard-won life lessons. 'My husband really represents, for me, this idea of a kind of man that I didn't know existed,' she said. 'It doesn't mean that he's perfect Prince Charming or anything like that, it just means that, as modern women, we have been made to believe — because it's true a lot — that you have two options. You have a spicy, sensual, exciting, exhilarating love with a toxic person, or you have a consistent, boring, regular safe option with a nice person. I was really scared of how to make that choice. I was probably going to go with the toxic person, as most women do, because rom-coms typically show us getting the toxic person to choose you and not be toxic anymore. In my experience, you can't get the toxic person to stop being toxic.' When Foster met Tikhman — just like when Joanne meets Noah — it forever altered her perception of what a relationship could be. And she wanted to see that on the screen. 'My relationship with my husband opened my eyes to this third option, which was emotionally healthy, confident, strong, honest, truthful, funny, romantic, but not a pushover,' Foster said. 'I knew how much it blew my mind. I'm like other women, I have a strong personality, but I want an equal partner, someone I can't walk all over, but someone who lets me be myself. I was really excited to show a love story with that kind of guy, because I want every woman to end up in the same kind of marriage I ended up in, which is healthy and fun.' When translating that to the show, Foster didn't get precious about making tweaks and changes to true stories, all the better to serve Joanne and Noah's story. Consider the genesis of the sixth episode in the first season, titled 'The Ick,' in which Joanne feels turned off by Noah trying to impress her family. 'I got the ick with my husband early on because I just got spooked. I got spooked that he was being really nice, and he was trying really hard with my friends and family, and he really wanted this to work out. Those are really nice things,' she said. 'Somehow, it scared me. I had gotten the ick a million times in my life, 'Oh, he's got salad dressing on his mouth, I can't marry him.' The littlest thing can turn you off from someone because they falter in some way. But I never had a guy on the other end of it stop me and be like, 'Don't do that. What are you doing right now? That is stupid. I'm not going to feel embarrassed because I want your parents to like me. You should feel embarrassed.' He really just called me out on it. That was obviously very attractive to me.' The 'ick' that Joanne feels in that moment might be silly or stupid, but it's also deeply human and enormously relatable. That makes it both funny and worth sharing, the kind of entertainment that sticks with you, because it's pulled from the truth. 'I fell madly in love with my husband, and then this really dumb thing made me think that I actually never wanted to be with him again because I wasn't mature enough in that moment to see past the way he said 'Prego' or whatever,' Foster said. 'That's a made-up thing, but the idea of that is true. It's not that I'm proud of being that way, but that's the human experience. I was fucked up and I had bad habits, and I was lucky enough to find someone that my brand of crazy worked for.' As Foster prepares for the series' second season to hit the streamer in October — a season she already promised IndieWire won't hold back on all the stuff its audience already loves, including both romance and comedy, naturally — she's intent on keeping up that kind of honesty, even when it can be a little tough. 'I'm not all the way there, but I'm pretty comfortable exposing my flaws, and when you personalize something, it helps people connect,' Foster said. 'I am willing to do that, because it also makes me feel seen.' The first season of 'Nobody Wants This' is streaming on Netflix. Best of IndieWire 2023 Emmy Predictions: Who Will Win at the Primetime Emmy Awards? 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NiCE and Kristen Bell Ignite Global Campaign to Create a NiCE World Where Experiences Are Effortless, Intelligent and Designed to Delight
In the campaign, Bell is recognized as the "Nicest Person in the World," helping to create AI-powered experiences that are smart, secure and genuinely human across service, safety and financial integrity HOBOKEN, N.J., June 17, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NiCE (Nasdaq: NICE) today unveiled its newest global campaign starring award-winning actress, producer, and entrepreneur Kristen Bell, celebrating what it means to be truly "nice" in a world driven by AI. Representing a bold new vision, NiCE empowers brands to deliver AI-powered experiences that are proactive, human-centered and intuitive – whether connecting with customers, protecting communities or combatting financial crime. For more information, click here. The campaign shines a spotlight on how NiCE is creating a "NiCE world," where AI works on behalf of people, making experiences across industries more effortless for individuals, efficient for organizations, and empowering for professionals. As part of this brand-defining campaign, Bell is honored as the "Nicest Person in the World," bringing to life NiCE's AI-powered platforms through a lens of kindness, intelligence, and seamless design. "Kristen brings a brilliant blend of warmth, relatability, and sincerity that aligns perfectly with our vision for AI that feels human," said Scott Russell, CEO, NiCE. "In today's world, it's about trust, safety, and intelligent engagement. Our platforms make that possible by delivering experiences that are proactive, predictive, and profoundly connected. And who better to help us deliver AI that's smart and genuinely nice than Kristen Bell?" Blending humor and heart, the campaign explores the idea of teaching AI to be more human with Kristen as the ultimate role model. A four-part video series highlights how NiCE solves problems before they happen and responds with empathy, context, and confidence. The campaign highlights the key pillars of powering a NiCE world: AI that predicts what people need before they ask, by design, not by chance Instant, intelligent resolution across every channel or workflow End-to-end journeys that are seamless, not siloed "I was really drawn to NiCE's concept of making AI more authentic," said Kristen Bell. "People feel the most seen when messages are wrapped in kindness. That goes for human-to-human communication in addition to technology. That's the kind of world I value and want to help foster." This campaign builds on NiCE's reimagined brand, championing a future where AI isn't just intelligent – it's connected, intuitive and working behind the scenes to make life better. In a NiCE world, problems are anticipated, not just solved. Context travels with every interaction. And professionals are empowered with AI that works the way people do. "With Kristen's help, we're showing that great AI isn't cold or robotic," added Russell. "We are creating a NiCE world where experiences are warm, smart, and effortlessly helpful, just like Kristen." Learn more about the NiCE world here. About NiCENiCE (NASDAQ: NICE) is transforming the world with AI that puts people first. Our purpose-built AI-powered platforms automate engagements into proactive, safe, intelligent actions, empowering individuals and organizations to innovate and act, from interaction to resolution. Trusted by organizations throughout 150+ countries worldwide, NiCE's platforms are widely adopted across industries connecting people, systems, and workflows to work smarter at scale, elevating performance across the organization, delivering proven measurable outcomes. Trademark Note: NiCE and the NiCE logo are trademarks of NICE Ltd. All other marks are trademarks of their respective owners. For a full list of NICE's marks, please see: Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including the statements by Mr. Russell, are based on the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of NICE Ltd. (the "Company"). In some cases, such forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as "believe," "expect," "seek," "may," "will," "intend," "should," "project," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described herein, including but not limited to the impact of changes in general economic and business conditions; competition; successful execution of the Company's growth strategy; success and growth of the Company's cloud Software-as-a-Service business; rapid changes in technology and market requirements; the implementation of AI capabilities in certain products and services, decline in demand for the Company's products; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; difficulties in making additional acquisitions or difficulties or effectively integrating acquired operations; loss of market share; an inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements; the Company's dependency on third-party cloud computing platform providers, hosting facilities and service partners; cyber security attacks or other security incidents; privacy concerns; changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, the effects of additional tax liabilities resulting from our global operations, the effect of unexpected events or geo-political conditions, including those arising from political instability or armed conflict that may disrupt our business and the global economy; our ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel; the effect of newly enacted or modified laws, regulation or standards on the Company and our products and various other factors and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company's reports filed from time to time with the SEC, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise them, except as required by law. View source version on Contacts Corporate Media ContactChristopher Irwin-Dudek, +1 201 561 4442, media@ ET InvestorsMarty Cohen, +1 551 256 5354, ir@ ETOmri Arens, +972 3 763 0127, ir@ CET Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
