Production designer Claire Bennett ‘wanted to show off L.A.’ in ‘Nobody Wants This’
“We wanted to show off L.A.,” states Claire Bennett about her production design work on “Nobody Wants This.” She continues, “It sometimes has a reputation. One of the goals of this show was to show it as a vibrant city for a background of this love story. There are lots of different types of styles and architecture going on and I think we were trying to find a somewhat aspirational vein in everything. Even though the title is ‘Nobody Wants This,’ we wanted to provide a very positive environment for the story.” She joined our recent “Meet the Experts” panel for production design awards contenders (watch above).
In the Netflix Series, an agnostic sex podcaster (Kristen Bell) and a newly single rabbi (Adam Brody) fall in love. The romantic comedy is created by Erin Foster based loosely on her real-life experiences. It explores whether the relationship can survive their stark differences and opinionated families. Bennett says, “In the pilot all the locations and sets are about the characters. We’re not just going by what’s on the page, we’re talking to the writers and Erin. We are constantly going back and asking to be told more. Where did these people go to school? What are their interests? What jobs did they have? That’s a critical part of production design, to add these layers to make it feel real.”
The season finale involves Joanna crashing a Bat Mitzvah. The production designer explains, “We scouted so many places for the finale. A lot of people don’t understand the quick pace we are trying to film at. Sometimes one week to the next we don’t know where the locations are. We are having to scout and design very quickly. We ended up filming at Wilshire Temple in Korea Town. Another area I don’t think gets shot very often. It’s quite a traditional building. We shot the finale big event at a very contemporary piece of architecture that’s right next to the temple. The juxtaposition between those two pierces of architecture was a delight. I think it also represented the relationship very well of the two characters that come from two very different worlds.”
Bennett worked in the art department for the entire run of Emmy champ “Modern Family.” Throughout that time, she received nominations from the Art Director Guild and Emmys for her efforts. She reflects, “’Nobody Wants This’ is more of a rom-com than the traditional comedy that I have worked on in the past. But in general, you want to make sure nothing on set is going to draw the attention away from when the joke is delivered.”