Pregnant pause? No thanks:
There’s no such thing as a pregnant pause as far as some of the entertainment industry’s big names are concerned. Kerry Harvey takes a look at actors who continue to work while pregnant.
How the stars hide their pregnancies on screen.
When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern fell pregnant, it was business as usual, but impending motherhood is not always as straightforward for actors who often go to great lengths to hide their growing baby bumps.
Some, like Carey Mulligan, who discovered she was expecting just as she started filming the BBC crime drama Collateral, are lucky enough to have their condition written into the storyline.
The British actor, who says playing a pregnant detective was “mega-uncomfortable”, started filming with a fake bump but was seven months’ pregnant by the time shooting ended.
Closer to home, Shortland Street’s Amelia Meredith spent a lot of time hiding behind the clinic’s front desk, despite her pregnancy being written into her character Bella’s storyline.
However, when 800 Words’ Anna Jullienne was pregnant with her second son, Jude, during the show’s second series, her character Katie, was not. As a consequence, Jullienne spent a lot of time carrying boxes during that series.
SVU star Kelli Giddish was also relieved when the producers decided to write her pending baby into the storyline of her character Detective Amanda Rollins. They even cast her newborn son, Ludo, to play Rollins’ baby daughter, Jesse.
However, many others have tackled the challenge of hiding those burgeoning bellies by resorting to the strategic use of large
handbags, loose tops and strategically placed couches or, in some cases, inventive storylines. Here are just a few of the cover-ups used to hide pregnancies.
JAIME PRESSLY: When the Mom actress was expecting twins, the show’s writers decided her character – the normally svelte Jill – would develop an eating disorder. They built her a fat suit and added a few double chins and no one was the wiser.
ZOOEY DESCHANEL: When she became pregnant while playing New Girl’s Jess, the solution was simple. The writers hid the actress’ pregnant belly behind a jurors’ bench during a long-running trial.
MELISSA FUMERO: Brooklyn Nine-Nine bypassed all of the usual issues by just showing their star’s pregnant belly on the show – but with a twist. Fumero’s character, Amy, was sent undercover in a women’s prison and, as part of her disguise, she pretended to be pregnant.
HELEN GEORGE: Call The Midwife might be all about babies but there was no way George’s character, glamorous nurse Trixie Franklin, could be pregnant. Instead, the actress – whose daughter with co-star Jack Ashton (he plays Reverend Tom) was born last September – wore a lot of capes and geometric prints. When the bump could no longer be concealed, a storyline had her being sent off for treatment for alcohol addiction. CHRISTIAN SERRATOS: The Walking Dead writers brought in the big guns – literally – when Serratos, who plays Rosita, became pregnant during the show’s sixth season. She went on the run, hid behind objects and was hospitalised after being injured. However, the most inventive – and somewhat bizarre – method of hiding her baby bump was to put it behind giant guns.
KERI RUSSELL: When The Americans star was pregnant with her co-star Matthew Rhys’ baby during the drama’s fourth season, the producers hid her baby bump with groceries, baskets, large coats and, at times, even resorted to computer-generated graphics to take out the bump entirely.
ALYSON HANNIGAN: The How I Met Your Mother star was pregnant twice during the show’s run and while the first time it was hidden, the second coincided with her character Lily’s pregnancy. The first time around, the creators hid her behind basketballs and globes, and once showed her full belly, pretending it was the after-effect of a hot-dog eating competition.
ADA NICODEMOU: There was no way the Home And Away veteran’s baby bump could be written into the series given her character Leah Patterson Baker is