Maternity Leave for Actors

[jackfaire]

If you were to take maternity leave depending on your job either someone would temporarily replace you or your coworkers would just cover down.

If your an actor that is decidedly more difficult. If the character you play is integral to the show and you insist on Maternity leave putting the show on hold should you be allowed to do that?

Thoughts?

[AdminAssistant]

An issue like maternity leave presents a writing challenge. However, you phrased that in a very interesting way. "Allowed"? If the actor is pregnant....yes, maternity leave should be "allowed." In fact, I'm pretty sure Equity/AFTRA/SAG have rules in effect for maternity leave.

[jackfaire]

An issue like maternity leave presents a writing challenge. However, you phrased that in a very interesting way. "Allowed"? If the actor is pregnant....yes, maternity leave should be "allowed." In fact, I'm pretty sure Equity/AFTRA/SAG have rules in effect for maternity leave.

Let me clarify I mean in that should the show be entitled to write the actor out of the show without being able to be sued.

If for example your job let you go because you weren't going to be there because you were on Maternity leave they would be sued.

Some shows cannot air without certain characters being there. Ideally in an ensemble show one of the actors could leave the show for awhile for maternity show. Other shows take a very long break.

But what obligation does the show have to keep your character in if you have to be written out while you go on Maternity leave.

[AdminAssistant]

But what obligation does the show have to keep your character in if you have to be written out while you go on Maternity leave.

It depends on the contract that the actor has with the producers and executives of the show. However, being 'written out of the show' amounts to being fired. IF a show chose to write a character out of a show, because the actor involved committed the horrible crime of getting pregnant, they would have to buy out their entire contract. And even that's iffy legal ground. Remember, every professional actor on TV is a member of SAG and/or AFTRA and has quite a bit of legal protection.

Or, they could do what every other place I know of does, and write around it, and pray the kid is born during a sabbatical. Actors, even TV actors, should be allowed to have families, and producers are usually happy to make allowances to make a particular actor happy. For example, if Cote de Pablo (Ziva, NCIS) decided she wanted to have a baby, Shane Brennan would bend over backwards to keep her on the show.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Or, they could write it into the storyline. I think one of the soaps did that at one point.

[BlaqueKatt]

Or, they could do what every other place I know of does, and write around it, and pray the kid is born during a sabbatical. <snip>For example, if Cote de Pablo (Ziva, NCIS) decided she wanted to have a baby, Shane Brennan would bend over backwards to keep her on the show.

How many people here watch Law and order SVU-how many know that Mariska Hargitay had a son on June 28, 2006-yup she filmed while pregnant-just wore very bulky jackets.....And Noah Wyle from ER had his character "written out" for a season(went to rehab for drug addiction)to spend time with his wife and newborn son.

[AdminAssistant]

How many people here watch Law and order SVU-how many know that Mariska Hargitay had a son on June 28, 2006-yup she filmed while pregnant-just wore very bulky jackets.....And Noah Wyle from ER had his character "written out" for a season(went to rehab for drug addiction)to spend time with his wife and newborn son.

Yep, happens all the time! I mean, you wouldn't advocate other places firing people because they were pregnant, why should actors be any different?

[IDrinkaRum]

On the show, Leverage (it's on TNT channel I think), one of the actresses on the show got pregnant. She didn't want to work full time whilst pregnant, so they brought in another character onto the show. They still show Pregnant Actress (she's the brunette from the Brit show Coupling), on the laptop the peoples use, but you only see her from the shoulders up and she's not there for every show (I think).

As for soap operas, they'd either write the prenancy into the show, or you'd see an actress all of a sudden being shot from behind a couch, a chair, sitting at a table, standing behind a table with a lare bouquet of flowers in front of the person, or carrying files. It was obvious they were trying to hide pregnancies.

As for writing a character out of the show because the actress is pregnant? That can be done with an open-ended writing out. ("i'm going away until I figure out if I want to stay with the group or whatever" - like in Leverage).

[crashhelmet]

If I remember right, Hunter Tylo was fired from Melrose Place after she got pregnant. Ended up suing Aaron Spelling and won. I just don't remember if they took her character out of the show or if they replaced her with someone else.

Many other shows have found ways to either cover up the pregnancies or write them into the story lines. Night Court and Married With Children were both famous for that.

CH

[draggar]

I know a lot of sports stars have clauses in their contracts that forbid them from doing activities that could be considered "dangerous" (bungee jumping, hang gliding etc..). I'm sure most actresses have a similar clause in their contracts in regards to pregnancy.

[Ree]

I still recall Family Ties from the 80's when the mother, played by Meredith Baxter, was allegedly upstairs on bed rest for several episodes.

I believe she had actually just given birth to twins in real life, but they did write her pregnancy into the storyline.

For Phylicia Rashad on the Cosby Show, they filmed around her pregnancy and at one point, they even cut a hole in the mattress so her pregnant belly wouldn't stick up when the family visited her in her bedroom where she was allegedly confined to bed with a pinched nerve.

A lot of shows write around the pregnancy. Characters are suddenly called away to go an visit an ailing relative, and they are kept in the storyline through one-sided phone calls to the family.

Some do write the pregnancy in.

Then there was X-Files, where Gillian Anderson's pregnancy was disguised through the wonders of digital enhancement.

[jackfaire]

I guess mostly I was thinking about shows where like say the title character gets pregnant insists on maternity leave and refuses to film anything during that time.

[McDreidel09]

It shouldn't matter if you are a fast food worker, office worker,manager,CEO,actress, or (insert job or career here), a woman who is pregnant should have maternity leave. Writers write around that all of the time.

For a cop or detective show, normally, they are undercover for a short amount of time or temporarily are transferred to a different department.

Or what others have said about "leaving to see an ailing relative".

Why should an actress (even though she plays a main character) not have maternity leave?

[jackfaire]

I

Why should an actress (even though she plays a main character) not have maternity leave?

Not saying she shouldn't but I am pointing out situations where you can't write around the person. She refuses to do the show while on maternity leave and the show is I love Lucy without lucy, Mary Tyler Moore without Mary etc. A show where she is the reason for the show she is the lead and if she refuses to film there is no show.

[AdminAssistant]

In that very specific case, jack, I'm sure there would be negotiations between producers, executives, the actor, and her agent and attorney. It would also depend on the specifics of her contract with the production company. The actor may be legally obligated to film a specific number of episodes, but that would differ by each individual's contract.

Frankly, I don't see why an actor wouldn't film in the early stages of pregnancy, unless it was a show involving a lot of stunt work, in which case the production company wouldn't want the actor to put her or the fetus at risk.

Draggar, one can actively choose to not participate in dangerous activity. However, no matter how careful you are, sometimes pregnancy happens. Or are you suggesting female actors remain celibate?