At an FYC event for the Netflix hit, the cast, including Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, spilled secrets about the rom-com.

“I had a feeling the world was ready for this nostalgic crossover,” Kristen Bell said at an FYC event for her Netflix rom-com smash “Nobody Wants This” December 4 in NYC. No one ever knows for sure what TV shows are going to hit the zeitgeist, but Bell explained she hoped the dreamy millennial pairing of herself (“Veronica Mars”) and Adam Brody (“The O.C.”) might at least prompt some curious eyeballs.

Boy, did it: Since its September premiere, the 10-episode show about an agnostic podcaster and a kind rabbi falling in love has been a hit for the streamer, and the kind of program that feels like real, non-industry people are actually watching it. (See also: the rise of Hot Rabbi discourse online.) When they were filming it, Brody (Noah) and Bell (Joanne) knew the success would ride on their chemistry.

“We got the script and it said: ‘The world’s best kiss that anyone’s ever experienced in the history of history,’” Bell, who is also an executive producer, said onstage about the lip-lock that ends Episode 2. “I think that I said, ‘OK, how are we gonna pull this off?’ My gut is telling me it’s everything before the kiss. The kiss is irrelevant. We need to elongate every single moment leading up to the kiss, because they can always cut it out. But it has to be so long that we feel like we’re in trouble, way too long looking into each other’s eyes, way too long looking at each other’s lips. And then [Brody] did the face-hand thing, which I was like, ‘Can we make that a consistent thing?’”

“I think that was in the script,” Brody said, humbly. “Why can’t you just take credit for it?,” Bell countered to laughs from the crowd, as well as co-stars Timothy Simons, Justine Lupe, and Jackie Tohn.

Brody went on to explain his thinking: “As a baseline, you don’t stick your tongue in the other actor’s mouth unless you’re doing something very erotic or something. But I said, ‘Look, I also don’t want to do a real movie kiss where your lips are closed for a long time. I want it to really look like I’m slipping her the tongue, so I would open my mouth big.”

“All said on set,” Bell confirmed. “Cutest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Tohn agreed.

Everyone was having a miserable time, clearly.

Elsewhere during the onstage chat prior to a screening of Episodes 1 and 2, Simons (Sasha), Lupe (Morgan), and Tohn (Esther) dove into their love triangle of sorts, noting that originally the plan was for Sasha and Morgan to kiss at the end of the season, before the team realized that really wasn’t the story they were interested in telling. (This reporter agrees: Bad idea!)

“It isn’t super funny to like, break up the family,” Simons noted. “That’s not a super fun thing for a TV show to do, but I do think that there is something interesting [there]. … There is an attraction between those two characters, whether or not it’s romantic or sexual, or just an attraction of interest, that is there, and it’s sort of complicated, and they’re trying to figure it out. I think that is a lot of what’s underneath there.”

While the cast was tight-lipped about what exactly is to come in Season 2, fans hopefully won’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next. They are set to return to set in February, with new showrunners, and per earlier remarks from Brody, Netflix is hoping to have the second installment out in fall 2025.

“Nobody Wants This” Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.