Nobody Wants This star Timothy Simons has entered the chat after costar Adam Brody and creator Erin Foster’s recent political drama.
“Adam and Erin are both immensely passionate about the views they’ve spoken to,” Simons, 48, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Tuesday, November 10. “And I do think the way Erin said it … they work together really well.”
Brody, 46, sparked a debate among the Nobody Wants This cast in October when he voiced support for Palestine amid the region’s conflict with Israel.
“Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide,” he told GQ. “Put me down as wanting a free Palestine.”
The O.C. alum, who portrays Rabbi Noah in Netflix’s hit romantic comedy series, continued, “It’s awful that it’s taken so much death and misery, but it does feel like it’s reaching a breaking point that it should have a while ago. I’m hopeful that another administration can really do some good and correct some of these policies that are helping that situation be as awful as it is.”
Foster, 44, has stated that she disagrees with Brody.
“I think our work environment, our set is very similar to dinner tables around the world where people are having debate and discussion and disagreeing,” she said on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast after Brody’s comments.
Nobody Wants This star Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Noah’s mother, has also weighed in, telling the New York Post, “To accuse the Jewish people of genocide is wild.” However, she noted that she has not yet experienced political disagreements on the show’s set.
Simons said on Tuesday that he knows Foster and Brody have always remained cordial when debating the political topic.
“I know they have spoken personally about it before,” he explained. “It’s always respectful, and that’s one of the great things about Adam is that he is kind and thoughtful and empathetic and will talk to anybody, even if their views don’t align with his, to try to fight for a safer world for everybody. That’s what’s underneath all of it.”
Foster, who converted to Judaism before marrying music executive Simon Tikhman, has also reflected on how her personal experience with the religion inspired the show.
“I think that as the creator of the show, all I can say is that I want our Jewish fans to know that I see you and I hear you and I understand how you feel. And the show has always been and always will be a love letter to Judaism,” she said on the podcast. “That is why I made this show. It’s because of how beautiful of an experience I’ve had becoming Jewish and being a Jewish person, and sitting here right now at this time in the world where there is almost zero positive representation of Jewish people, I think it’s so important to have that.”
Sharing his own experience with Judaism, Simons told THR that although he has never “been a religious person,” he was able to take part in a beautiful tradition when he was invited by a neighbor to attend Shabbat at a local temple after his father died.
“There’s a mourner’s circle [the Kaddish], and it was incredible to go to a temple and be welcomed in and be able to say my dad’s name out loud and a rabbi told me, ‘May his memory be a blessing,’” he recalled. “Even as a nonreligious person — I’m certainly not a scholar — there are a lot of rituals surrounding death and mourning and grief that I have learned through this experience of learning more about Judaism that even if I am not religious, have given me a lot of comfort.”
