Tovah Feldshuh, Adam Brody’s on-screen mother in Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This,” pushed back Saturday on speculation that their public disagreement over Israel and Gaza have led to on-set friction between cast and crew.
“Tensions are not rising. Profound differences of opinion are,” Feldshuh wrote in a statement on Threads. “Please do not conflate the two — and none of it will be brought to the set. I deeply enjoy filming ‘NWT’ and hope we are chosen to go on for a fourth season.”
The actress, 77, was responding at the time to a post from Armenian media company Azat TV that claimed, “tensions are emerging on the set … following public comments by Adam Brody expressing support for a free Palestine and labeling the Gaza conflict a genocide.”
Earlier in the week, Feldshuh lambasted Brody’s public support of Gaza and said his comments were “right out of Hitler’s playbook.” Feldshuh plays Bina Roklov (the mother of Brody’s Rabbi Noah Roklov) on Erin Foster’s Netflix series, and spoke out in an interview with the New York Post against the actor’s GQ interview in which he said of the Gaza war, “Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine.”
“To accuse the Jewish people of genocide is wild,” Feldshuh said in response. “It’s right out of Hitler’s playbook. You take the victim and you make the victim the perpetrator.”
Feldshuh did not mince words in her comments about her on-screen son, stating that it “makes a difference to the (Jewish) community” when accusations of genocide are made by Jewish actors like Brody. She also cited the political theory of the horseshoe effect, saying that “socialism and antisemitism are trying to meet” in the current political climate.
Series creator and co-showrunner Foster also publicly broke with Brody’s candor against Israel’s military action, admitting on the Oct. 27 episode of the podcast “Not Skinny But Not Fat” that her feelings about the actor’s comments were “complicated.”
“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. “And while I love Adam, I also disagree with him — and that’s OK.”
