Josh Nadler

What About Me? is the queer story of a twin named Josh who loses his brother Jake and learns to deal with life on his own. The tale is told through short episodes surrounding the five stages of grief and mixes in just the right amount of humor.

Josh Nadler plays a bakery supervisor with the same name and the series stars a barrage of talent including Helene Udy, Sandra Cruz and Ethan Corn, among others.

Nadler and his partner, Sam Wasserman co-produce the six-episode series together and the dynamic gay duo met up for coffee to discuss the project during Pride month.

Jerry Nunn: How did you two meet in the first place?

Sam Wasserman: On Bumble.

Josh Nadler: We matched about eight years ago and one of us ghosted the other; I can’t remember who, then we rematched and went from there.

Sam Wasserman: It’s about to be seven years that we have been together.

Jerry Nunn: Congratulations.

Josh Nadler: That’s 43 years in gay years!

Sam Wasserman: Yes, I think so, you carry the two and so on…

Jerry Nunn: What About Me? is divided into sections of grief?

Josh Nadler: Yes, each episode of the series is a stage of grief, but the whole first season takes place in one day. Realistically, no one is going through all stages in one day, but we wanted to lean into each aspect as part of a day.

Jerry Nunn: Talk about your inspiration for this series.

Josh Nadler: I lost my brother to an overdose right before Sam and I met. The thing that stuck out to me most about that process was how alike we were to other people. I grew up thinking that my brother is very different than me.

At his funeral service, people came up to me and said it was like seeing a ghost when they looked at me and how I was just like my brother. I would look in the mirror and see if my features matched his. It really messed with my mind.

I have always been creative and I work through feelings like this when they pop up. What started as a treatment for a play turned into a pilot. I gathered a cast around the time of the strikes, so people were itching to work on something. It snowballed from there!

Jerry Nunn: You hadn’t made a series before this one?

Josh Nadler: No. My background is in theater and I have worked on television commercial sets.  Since this city is hard to crack into, I decided to do it myself.

Jerry Nunn: You are both co-producing this show, which can mean all different kinds of things. What were your producer duties?

Sam Wasserman: We were both heavily involved in every single aspect of it. This was really important for Josh because such a personal event for him inspired it. He wanted to have a hand in how it would come to life.

I was fortunate to be at the right time and place. I was able to jump in and use the business side of myself to help out. I developed the contracts and obtained the rights to things on the show. I build many relationships with companies to get our name out there.

Josh Nadler: Sam was there for the inception of the project. We were sitting on the gym floor one day and spitballing random ideas, such as grief, identity and what that would look like.

It made sense as the project moved down the line to get him more involved. I couldn’t have done it without him!

Jerry Nunn: What a love letter this is. Have you seen the movie Twinless yet?

Josh Nadler: No. I have heard about it and it shows there’s a space for the subject.

Jerry Nunn: Josh, how difficult was it performing the emotional scene at the church?

Josh Nadler: That was one of the first scenes we shot, which was a blessing in itself. Everyone knew that scene was coming and they were sweet about giving me space. They would check in on me.

I am music-focused, so I created a playlist of songs that reminded me of my own brother. That allowed me to lock in emotionally. After an hour of listening to that, it put me in a meditative state. I just went for it in an empty synagogue with 15 crew members on that stage.

We just used the first take, even though we did another one for safety.

Jerry Nunn: Was that because you didn’t want to keep going through it emotionally?

Josh Nadler: I could have done more, but we were feeling good with the first take. The director was comfortable with what we filmed. To conserve my sanity and the truth of the project, it just felt right.

Jerry Nunn: The house that the series is filmed in is beautiful. Is it your house?

Sam Wasserman: No. If it were our house, we would have you over to visit!

Josh Nadler: We were riddled with location problems every step of the way. That was our third synagogue and the house was the third one too that finally worked. That’s Hollywood!

Sam Wasserman: We are good friends with the person living in the final house we chose and she’s been a big supporter of the series. It’s funny how location scouting can create a community.

Josh Nadler: We used her dog in one of the shots.

Sam Wasserman: It’s a gorgeous house.

Jerry Nunn: How do you feel about queer Jewish representation in media?

Josh Nadler: I wish there were more representation. Since making the show, I have been keeping my eyes out there and have only seen a short queer, Jewish film at a festival recently. I have not seen a huge intersection.

There are Jewish elements to our story. It is not a prevalent theme, but it is our identity and important to us. Even if there is a glimpse of it, representation is important the same as it is for our queer identity. Josh, the character, is gay, but it’s not the most important part of the story and the same goes for his being Jewish.

Sam Wasserman: Someone just asked us about the yarmulke falling in one scene of the series. These are opportunities to educate others about the religion of Judaism.

Josh Nadler: Little things like that make me feel seen.

Sam Wasserman: The meetup app in one episode was another moment of representation.

Jerry Nunn: What About Me? is playing on YouTube for the month of June?

Sam Wasserman: Yes. It was important to us to give this project to the queer community without asking them to pay for another streaming service during Pride month. We are talking to other platforms for the future of season one.

Jerry Nunn: Where would you like to see the series go now?

Josh Nadler: The original dream was to see it go as a full series with 30-minute episodes. People have given us feedback on this format and they want more. We are working on season two and we have been throwing around ideas. Our cast is excited to hop back in. I would love to get started filming before I age out of my own role! [laughs]