Kristen Bell and Adam Brody photographed on Oct. 6 at The Ebell of Los Angeles for The Hollywood Reporter's Oct. 22 cover story. Photographed by Guy Aroch; Fashion Assistants: Elliott Pearson, Jose Santiago, Ilona Waters. Tailor: Tatyana Cassanelli. PA: Savanna Trujillo-Poelma. By all accounts, Nobody Wants This is a rom-com starring Kristen Bell, as Joanne, an agnostic, sex-and-relationship podcaster, and Adam Brody, as Noah, a laid-back Rabbi. And while their crackling chemistry is central to every critical rave, the larger ensemble - featuring Justine Lupe (Morgan), Timothy Simons (Sasha) and Jackie Tohn (Esther) - has become increasingly core to the hit formula. Now, with the second season here, that supporting trio has considerably more real estate and emotional heft in season two than any one of them did in season one. Tohn, who was promoted to a series regular between seasons, suggests the show has been altogether career altering, and Lupe doesn't disagree. "It's a show about these two love interests and their romance, so I was shocked they were going to give so much to me," she says, teary as she reflects on her second season load: "It's not something I take lightly." But how did the five actors - an exceedingly close group, featured in this week's THR cover story - find themselves in Netflix's runaway hit? Creator Erin Foster and her stars tell all. Kristen Bell (Joanne) Image Credit: Photographed by Guy Aroch; Artistic + Fashion Director: Alison Edmond Bell will tell you she doesn't read many scripts, but that's primarily because very few pass her initial test. When considering a new project, Bell's criteria is as follows: The project must film in Los Angeles, and ideally in an area of L.A. that's convenient. "And if you think Marina del Rey is Los Angeles, we are not on the same page," Bell says with a laugh. It can't have excessively long hours. "My long hours still allow me to either wake up with my children or put my children to bed," she clarifies. The series can't be too dark. At least, she says, "not an extremely dark project that will weigh on my heart when I come home." Once it was clear Nobody Wants This would pass said test, Bell blew through the script. "And I felt warm and cozy reading it," she says. "That feeling I used to get in high school, when I saw my first rom-com love stories - and yet it felt almost too real in a way that was exciting." Netflix was desperate for Bell to star, but first she wanted to be sure Foster was really okay with her stepping into the role. "I didn't want there to be any bad blood," she says. "And knowing that Erin wrote this for herself and was out there selling it for herself, and then I became a linchpin, it was only appropriate that I have an honest side conversation with her." But Foster insisted she was good with the plan; in fact, she told Bell that staying behind the scenes would allow her to have the show move forward and have a baby at the same time. So, Bell signed on - the first one in the cast to do so - and in the months that followed, she studied Foster closely. "I watched her way more than she knew," she says, noting how she also saved images of Foster's various looks and tacked them up on the walls of her hair and makeup room as inspiration. She jokes: "It was full Single White Female." Adam Brody (Noah) Image Credit: Photographed by Guy Aroch; Artistic + Fashion Director: Alison Edmond Jackie Tohn was at Bell's house when her best friend and the other producers happened to be discussing potential actors to play Rabbi Noah. Tohn, a self-described "Jew from New York," who was later cast as Noah's sister-in-law Esther, couldn't help but weigh in. "I'm like, 'Okay, you got your Max Greenfield, but he might be a little old,'" she remembers saying, "'You got your Skylar Astin, but he might be a little young. You got your [Jason] Biggs, who plays Jewish but isn't. And then you got your Adam Brody, who's obviously going to be the tippy top.'" Indeed, Brody was Bell's first and only pick to play opposite her. In fact, she even threw together a reel of their previous work in Showtime's House of Lies and the 2013 film Some Girls to showcase their chemistry. "I was like, 'Trust me, Adam knows how to stare dopily at someone and so do I, and that's kind of all you need,'" she says. "I mean, I'd love to tell you that it's real. It's not. We both just know how to do it." So, they sent Brody the script, and he agreed to a meeting with Foster. He had questions about where the show was headed, many of which Foster couldn't answer. Still, she was charming, and so was the script. "I was like, 'Well, fuck it,'" says Brody. "'I really like her, I like this episode and I love Kristen and it's Netflix and there's a lot of reasons to just roll the dice.'" So, he signed on, then threw himself into prep. Brody went to a Shabbat service and devoured a collection of relevant books, podcasts and films. Later, he'd pick up a few pointers from one of the rabbis who wor