Back in July 2005, we had then breakout star, Adam Brody, sit down with actress Amber Tamblyn to discuss his recent rise to fame. His role as the indie-rock-loving, Converse-wearing nerd on the hit teen drama The O.C. turned him into an overnight aughts heartthrob. While Brody’s long outgrown the boyish roles that gave him his start, he’s finding continued success 21 years later, only now as a single rabbi on the Netflix Original series Nobody Wants This—a role that’s earned him a Critics’ Choice Television Award. Ahead of the season 3 release, we’re returning to Brody and Tamblyn’s conversation, reminding us of just how far Brody’s come since his days as Seth Cohen.
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AMBER TAMBLYN: Okay, so for those who don’t know, tell me how you started out in acting and where people might know you from and all that stuff.
ADAM BRODY: Well, I guess most people would only know me from The O.C. I did a few episodes of Gilmore Girls before that. I was also a client on a lot of lawyer shows.
TAMBLYN: Ah, the whole lawyer-show ring.
BRODY: Yeah, I did one where my girlfriend and I both attempted suicide, except I lived. On another one, I played a mentally challenged kid who raped a woman, but it turned out that my character was forced to do it at gunpoint, so it was not his fault. And one where my parents died, so I petitioned the court to have my little brothers put in my custody.
TAMBLYN: It makes you wonder how these writers for these lawyer shows come up with those story lines. I once did an episode of Boston Public where I was a surrogate mother for my parents, and my father implanted me with his seed. [Laughs] So, tell me a little about Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
BRODY: Uh, well, as most people know, it stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Doug Liman directed it. I can’t even tell you how truly excited I was to be in one of Doug’s movies, because he did the pilot of The O.C., and Swingers actually changed my life. I really wanted Doug to like me, and I felt like he sort of didn’t when we were working on the pilot. But he called me about six months later and was like, “Hey, I’ve got a part for you.” The easiest way to explain the plot of the film is that Brad and Angelina are married assassins who work for different agencies, but neither of them knows about the other one. They’re both hired to kill me, and that’s how they discover each other.
TAMBLYN: Oh, that they’re both assassins.
BRODY: Yeah, and then I disappear for 90 minutes.
TAMBLYN: [Laughs] What about the movie you’re working on now, In the Land of Women?
BRODY: Oh, man, it’s really fun. It’s directed by Jon Kasdan. He’s my age, 25, and this is his first movie, but he’s such a fucking veteran. His dad is Lawrence Kasdan, and his brother is Jake Kasdan, the guy who did Orange County, so he grew up in a family of filmmakers. It’s an emotional and sentimental film, and you never really know if a movie like that will connect until it’s all pieced together, but it’s been a joy to work on so far.
TAMBLYN: I’m also hearing that next season is going to be a big one for your character on The O.C.
BRODY: I know nothing about what they have planned. I heard a rumor that I might hook up with a teacher. If anything, I wish we could do a little less, actually. My favorite episodes of The O.C. are the ones where not much happens, where we take it down a notch. But I don’t think the audience agrees with me.
TAMBLYN: So, okay, this is something that I have to deal with so I’m going to ask you about it. Do you ever get sick of people coming up to you and making bad jokes related to your character on The O.C .?
BRODY: Do people make Joan of Arcadia jokes?
TAMBLYN: Yeah. People will come up to me and be like, “So, did you talk to the Almighty today?”
BRODY: [Laughs] Well, unfortunately for me, it’s the same thing. I really don’t mind it at all when people under 18 come up to me, because they’re kids, and they’re fans of the show. But it’s more the people my age or older that really kill me, because they should know better. If you’re, like, 30 years old, and I don’t know you, I could give a fuck if you’re from the real O.C. [Tamblyn laughs] I really couldn’t care less. There’s no conversation more boring than talking about what it’s really like to live in Newport and how the show compares to the real thing. I just don’t care. That might sound like such a mean thing to say, but some guys have been such jerks about it. I swear, one of these days I’m going to take out all of my frustration. In like a year you’ll read about it: “Brody broke a beer bottle over some guy’s head!”
TAMBLYN: Yeah, I could really see you doing that.
BRODY: ” … and then he was beaten to death.”
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