Nobody Wants This Editor Maura Corey On Charm, Chemistry & Chumbawumba

Nobody Wants This is a Netflix rom-com based on the life of creator and writer Erin Foster. The series tells the story of Joanne (Kristen Bell), an agnostic sex and relationship podcaster, who falls for a young rabbi named Noah (Adam Brody). Across the 10 episodes of the show’s first season, Nobody Wants This showcases the fateful and often uncomfortable collision of its two primary characters’ lives—with plenty of humor along the way.

To turn the jokes, romance, and drama that was captured on set into a cohesive and charming story, the filmmakers turned to Gen V editor Maura Corey. Corey worked on Nobody Wants This episodes 1, 3, 7 and 9, helping to land key moments like the first meeting between Joanne and Noah, Joanne’s attempts to befriend the women in Noah’s life, and a consequential dinner between Joanne and Noah’s family. Through working on the pilot episode, Corey also shaped the tone of the series and informed the work every other editor then did.

Screen Rant spoke with Maura Corey about her work on Nobody Wants This. Corey reflected on how she enhanced the chemistry of the series’ romantic leads through editing, discussed the most important aspects of creating the show’s tone, and revealed key moments from the show that were improvised. The editor also weighed in on the original Nobody Wants This ending plans and briefly shared her excitement about Gen V season 2.

Maura Corey Reveals How She Helped Craft The Tone And Feel Of Nobody Wants This

Corey Worked With Other Editors To See The Season From Start To Finish

Screen Rant: You have done so many different things. Gen V is a perfect example. What was the most unique aspect of this show that was exciting for you as an editor?

Maura Corey: I love the fact that it was grounded in real personalities, and [we were] trying to make it feel like real relationships. One of the things that I found with the script and in talking to producers, first off, was making sure that the funny was funny but also felt really real. It’s about two people finding each other and accepting each other’s crazy, so having those nuanced moments and making the romance part of this work was something I was really excited to tackle. It really gave time to let these characters develop as three-dimensional people.

How do you do that? I know little about editing, but I know comedy has a certain rhythm, romance has a certain rhythm, and drama has a certain rhythm. How did you combine all of those to create the tone of this?

Maura Corey: The tone was super important on this one, for sure. We wanted to make sure that it was funny without being schtick, that we didn’t lean into tropes, and that the comedy was coming from real places. Comedy and drama are cut very differently. Comedy is cut with a faster pace so you can really get the rhythm of the jokes, and drama tends to be more drawn out to make sure you’re landing the emotions with the characters. When you combine those two, it’s more just being true to the moments that are happening. If it’s a comedic moment, you lean into those to heighten the comedy and cut it faster—but also, comedy works when you disrupt rhythm, so something can have a machine gun pace, and then a pause, and then the punchline. Sometimes, that’s what makes something funny. It’s all about finding the moments that are genuine and exploiting them in a way that heightens what they’re supposed to be.

You did the pilot and then you jumped back in later. As other episodes are getting handed off to other editors, was there anything other editors did that you then had to pick up when you came back later?

Maura Corey: Yeah, especially with this one. My edit partner, Keenan (Hiett), is such a great collaborator. As I was doing the pilot, we did some discussion on what we thought the music should be, how we should score, making sure we weren’t using too much music to set the tone, and making sure the lightness of their relationship came through.

It’s a pretty long meet cute. The first two episodes they have a meet cute, but then they get into this almost half date. We talked about how we wanted it to look stylistically. One of the things in the pilot that I found insanely fun was [that] Greg Mottola, the director, shot it in such a way that it felt almost like verité, with a documentary kind of feel—like it was handheld.

It felt like we were catching moments in somebody’s real life, and we wanted to maintain that level of, “We’re in a real world, and maybe we’re just catching glimpses of what these two are going through.” So, there is communication. As everybody’s seeing the pilot, people are leaning into some jump-cut stuff, [but] we didn’t want it to have a sitcom feel. So, a lot of that was discussed as we were working as a group. Not only the director, but Erin Foster, the creator, and me and everyone were trying to mold this idea of how to create a romantic comedy that is funny, edgy, and [felt real].

Corey Details How She Amped Up The Chemistry In Nobody Wants This

“Editing Has A Lot To Do With Creating Those Sizzle Moments”

Every romantic comedy survives on the strength of its chemistry. Kristen Bell and Adam Brody are great together in this, but in terms of your job, how much are you able to amp up the chemistry in a moment where you’re maybe noticing it’s not there as much as it should be?

Maura Corey: I believe they had worked with each other before, so they did have an ease with each other, and I think for acting partners that’s so important. So, the performances were great, but when you’re doing a romantic comedy, editing has a lot to do with creating those sizzle moments. And those [moments] are them staring into each other’s eyes smokily, like, “She might be the one.”

If you think about it, if you did that in real life, it would be the most uncomfortable five seconds of your life. “Why is this person staring?” But the whole purpose of editing is to express emotionally what people feel on the inside using visual language, so when you have two characters who stare at each other, like, “Oh, this could be something,” we’re supposed to feel the spark of it because, in your head, it feels like a moment.

That is done through cheating shots. A lot of what you see in the dinner table scene [in the pilot episode] where they’re outside and they steal glances at each other—those are all stolen moments from different sections to make sure that I, as an editor, can connect them looking at each other, or [make moments where] he is not looking, she’s looking, and then she turns away. Those are all constructed. Sometimes they’re in the moment, but most of the time it’s taking them from all over the place to create this moment of fancy and romance.

So that’s not in the script, and those are moments you’re interpreting?

Maura Corey: Yes. I’m going, “Well, if I’m meeting this cute boy for the first time, I want that stare,” and, “Oh my goodness, he’s so cute.” And, obviously, it works because Adam Brody and Kristen Bell are such great performers that I have that material. I can’t make an actor do that. They really do look like they’re falling in love. It feels natural because they are such good performers. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

Corey Is To Thank For The Show’s Basketball Game Drinking Montage

And Her Co-Editor Was Behind The Scene’s Song Choice

Speaking of things that aren’t specifically in the script, how are Adam Brody and Timothy Simons at basketball, and how was it to put that together?

Maura Corey: [Laughs] Oh, my God. Okay. They’re probably what you saw on screen. They weren’t terrible, they weren’t great. That specific episode, to me… talk about something that wasn’t in the script. [When] the WAGs are in the bleachers and they decide to play a drinking game which is, “Why don’t we take a drink every time they don’t make a basket?” there was [originally] no basketball montage written in there. When I put the first assembly together, I was like, “This screams for a montage of a bunch of people missing. Let’s see what we can do.” I wasn’t even asked to do this. It was just me swinging for the fences.

We did a bunch of takes with Adam missing the final shot, so all of that is cobbled together from different angles of the same thing. We decided, “Well, we need a song.” [I ask] my co-editor, Jen Rosenthal, and go, “You’re around the age of these guys. What do you think?” She goes, “Chumbawumba.” We tried it, it was funny, and nobody asked us not to put it in after that. It just stayed, so I was like, “I guess this works.”

Nobody Wants This’ Episode 1 Meet Cute Was Improvised

All Because Adam Brody Couldn’t Open A Bottle Of Wine

You might have just answered this, but are there any scenes where you felt like you got to be extra creative in building and putting together?

Maura Corey: There are a couple. One is in episode nine where she meets his

mom for the first time and there’s all that tension. We did a lot of work on that and tried to make it as delicate, funny, and awkward as possible.

Then, the other one was their meet cute at the bar where she hands him the bottle of wine and he can’t open it. That really happened. Adam could not figure out how to work that wine bottle. It was hilarious. There were a lot of takes where he was having trouble and we’re like, “This feels like something that would happen.” He improvised a lot of the stuff in there, like, “I’m a sommelier.” That was literally them just going back and forth, and why not use something when it works so well? So, we did definitely work that scene to be long enough to be funny and short enough not to be annoying [while] keeping both of their improv in there.

[Was he meant to] just open the bottle immediately?

Maura Corey: Yeah. There was other dialogue. He was supposed to open it and say something else, and it was fun and funny. We just found this funnier. On set, they were like, “Oh my God, Maura, we just saw this thing. I hope it’s as funny as we thought it was,” and it’s pretty funny. You’ve just got to make sure it’s not so long that you lose this chemistry, so there’s where the balancing act comes in.

Corey Is Glad Nobody Wants This Season 1 Didn’t End With An Engagement

“I Love That They Didn’t”

I had read that the first season was going to potentially end with them getting engaged or married.

Maura Corey: Yeah. We had a lot of rewrites. I don’t know what the intention was. I love that they didn’t put it that way because that’s a huge decision—to convert. What I loved about the whole season is [how] they put emphasis on this being a real relationship versus just a fling or a rebound or a novelty. You really get a feeling for these characters as they’re moving through this relationship, even going up to the camp [where] he’s trying to hide her a little bit and then realizes it’s such a stupid move—like, “What are we doing?” And I think that’s really reflective in a lot of how people deal with the stressors of a new relationship, so I’m glad it was shaped the way it was.

Corey Shares Her Hopes For Nobody Wants This Season 2

She Wants More Exploration Of Joanne & Noah’s Family Lives

We’re getting a season 2. Do you feel like these people belong together, and is there anything you want to see when the show comes back?

Maura Corey: I have wild fantasies of the siblings doing something crazy, but for me, it’s about seeing where they want to take these characters. There are so many avenues that they have [available] to grow, not only with the romantic relationship, but [with] the supporting characters who are so interesting, have their own arcs, and are such a big part of the whole experience. That’s one of the things I loved about season one—not only did Joanne have this relationship with Noah, but you really get a sense of her relationship with her sister, and you get Noah’s relationship with his brother and how they are as families. It creates a bigger dynamic than just our heroes. I hope that continues, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t.

Gen V Season 2 Is “Picking Up Right Where It Should”

Though Corey Can’t Give Anything Away

I watched The Boys last season, and saw Cate and Sam pop up. Can you say anything about how that sets up where we see them when Gen V returns?

Maura Corey: I can’t give any plot secrets away. I’ll say this, though. For me, Gen V is picking up right where it should and not missing a beat. I think it’s going to be a really exciting season for everybody. But I can’t [say anything]. I would go to editor jail.

About Nobody Wants This

A loud, agnostic sex podcaster and a newly single rabbi unexpectedly fall in love, forcing them to navigate the complexities of their clashing beliefs, families, and careers. Their relationship faces constant tension as they balance their personal lives with societal pressures, leading to a series of humorous and heartfelt challenges.

Nobody Wants This is out on Netflix now.

A loud, agnostic sex podcaster and a newly single rabbi unexpectedly fall in love, forcing them to navigate the complexities of their clashing beliefs, families, and careers. Their relationship faces constant tension as they balance their personal lives with societal pressures, leading to a series of humorous and heartfelt challenges.

Cast

Kristen Bell , Adam Brody​ , Justine Lupe , Timothy Simons , Jackie Tohn , Tovah Feldshuh , Paul Ben-Victor , Sherry Cola , Stephanie Faracy , Emily Arlook , Shiloh Bearman , Stephen Tobolowsky , Michael Hitchcock , D’Arcy Carden , Eric Satterberg

Character(s)

Joanne , Noah Roklov , Morgan , Sasha Roklov , Esther Roklov , Bina Roklov , Ilan Roklov , Ashley , Lynn , Rebecca , Miriam Roklov , Rabbi Cohen , Henry , Ryann , Gary

Release Date

September 6, 2024

Seasons

1

Writers

Erin Foster

Showrunner

Erin Foster , Craig DiGregorio

Creator(s)

Erin Foster

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