Maternity Leave for Actors

[Fire_on_High]

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.

They also wrote in one of the nurse's RL pregnancy as the character being preggo as well.

[Aethian]

[QUOTE="kaycivine;130662"]

The baby born in the show was her second child though ^^
Unless you meant "first born" for the tv show Lucy, then yes xD/QUOTE]

Yea I meant first born for the show.

[fireheart17]

They also wrote in one of the nurse's RL pregnancy as the character being preggo as well.

Which one was that???

Only characters I can think of that were preggo over the course of the series were:

-Susan (season 10)
-Abby (Season 12/first ep of 13)
-Elizabeth (season 7)
-Carol (mid-way/end of Season 4-middle of Season 5)
-Chen (Season 7? I think her pregnancy was a lot more accelerated though compared to Elizabeths, so it's likely)

The only other regular characters that fell pregnant (or were preggo in RL) were Abby Keaton (pregnant in real life, not on the show-they had to use clever camera angles, giant scrubs and whatnot to hide the bump), Kerry/Sandy (Sandy about partway through Season 10) and Kem (season 10?)

So I'm not sure which one you're referring to

[lordlundar]

There have been a number of shows and movies that have had female leads who have been pregnant. Either the pregnancy is written into the story (with mixed results) or the actress is temporarily written out of the show until they can return. If the female lead is so pivotal to the show then it's usually the former and it's often written in as a romantic involvement with someone causing it. I don't recall a single TV show that had a female lead so pivotal that the pregnancy would force a suspension in filming.

Say what you will about hollywood writers, to them, they are creative enough that a pregnancy is usually pretty easy for them to write around.

[fireheart17]

Or they might recast the actress temporarily if they can find a lookalike.

Even THAT has mixed results.

[Andara Bledin]

Say what you will about hollywood writers, to them, they are creative enough that a pregnancy is usually pretty easy for them to write around.

I would imagine that shows with major female leads have 'pregnancy contingency' stories on the back burner.

[Ginger Tea]

The adaptation of Y the last man might not

Not that I am aware of one in the pipeline, but it would stick out like a sore thumb a lady bump on a main character that never interacts with the only male lead.

iir most sperm banks were destroyed and those that weren't might not have been able to fertilise an egg in the lab.

Or "my girlfriends so butch she got me pregnant"

[lordlundar]

I would imagine that shows with major female leads have 'pregnancy contingency' stories on the back burner.

Wouldn't surprise me.

See, what allows TV stars maternity/paternity leave is SAG having it as part of contract agreements and no one in the TV/film industry wants to mess with them.

The catch is that while SAG is powerful, it has it's limits. It can't favour one member over another (the union wouldn't have lasted long otherwise) so maternity/paternity would not warrant a show being put on hold. Doing so would penalize the other cast to satisfy the one on leave which is against SAG rules.

[Daskinor]

Star Trek Voyager handled it the worst. Belanna was pregnant they put her in a "lab coat" that was designed much like pregnancy BDUs and no one else in the show in her department was wearing them. It didn't hide the pregnancy it pointed it out.

They couldn't make the starfleet uniform fit right, so they had to hide parts of it.

[fireheart17]

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.

the "rehab for drug addiction" bit was the last ep of Season six and the first ep of Season 7. The bit you're thinking of had him off in Africa.

as for Mariska, from memory, once she hit a certain point, she took maternity leave and the character of Dani Beck was introduced (and she actually got me watching SVU in the first place .)

I have to laugh at how bad soap operas are about hiding pregancies when they don't write it into the show.....and when a not pregnant star has to play a pregnant woman, she blows up within a month to almost due-size.

I'm not a big Days fan these days anymore, but when the actress who played Nicole was pregnant, they never showed her from below her chest, if they did she was wearing clothes several sizes too big, and she always held her purse or something in front of her.

I think they're giving sookie that treatment for True Blood.

As for the bellies, apparently on Neighbours (very ongoing running soap in Australia) two characters recently were pregnant at around the same time. They remarked that from a certain point in their pregnancy (since the show aired daily), they would be wearing the bellies, which were adjusted every so often to LOOK realistic. So instead of having the small/medium/large/oop you're about to pop bellies, they just had the one for the entire pregnancy.

I do think wardrobe also played a part in it, since for the most part, they could hide the characters belly with creative dressing. (empire-line tops/dresses* or bulky jackets)

*=on a number of dresses, there's the seam at the waist where the top and bottom halves meet. On an empire-line dress, the seam is right under the bust)

[draco664]

I was referring to a situation where the star themselves refuse to be on tv during the pregnancy and the birth and then maternity thus effectivly keeping the show off the air.

I doubt it would happen, if only because it would effectively kill their career. Who'd want to invest in a project with them again?

[Ginger Tea]

I watched the first semi of Eurovision cos I was bored and it was on bbc iPlayer, watched pt2 last night, well skipped a tonne of it and frankly was only watching for the pretty girl singers.
One of them was due to drop and wore a dress that hid it well, not sure exactly how far gone she was, but it wasn't till she moved that I realised she had a pregnant waddle about her, the dress itself was unflattering, but outside of the preggers aspect it was simple and that could have been a theme.

And as stated before hand SAG and other countries equivalent's won't be too keen on one actor disrupting the show that had dozen's more on a regular basis, or a core of 5 others for sitcoms.

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

I do want to make the point that most working actors got to where they are by being available at the producer's whim. When you hear about hated actors, it's usually LiLo types that don't work.

So I don't think an actress refusing to work would be the problem. In a show that doesn't have a long term strategy that needs to be followed, they'll probably just write it in or work around it through costuming and camera angles. For a show that's adhering to an overall arc that needs to be followed, they would probably delay, replace temporarily (if it's feasible), rework the shooting schedule, or recast.

The thing about a production is, there are a LOT of moving parts and shutting down a production comes very close to unconscionable in that profession. It's not just the writers and directors that get affected. You also have camera men, grips, sound technicians, directors of photography, catering, production assistants, drivers, visual effects artists, carpenters, painters, costuming, make-up, etc. that don't have a job when actors halt a production. So actually no, I don't think actors should be allowed to do it. If you have a movie upcoming, you can schedule or decline it. If you have a TV show, you know when you'll be shooting and when you won't so you just have to coordinate with the showrunner. If it's a surprise pregnancy, chances are the production will work with you. If the attitude was, "I'm an actor and I'm pregnant because fuck you, that's why" anything can happen and they may find themselves unable to secure the same level of work going forward. Losing the producers money is a BAD idea.

[wolfie]

Appropriate angles can work wonders. Admittedly it's easier in stills than in movies/TV, but in the famous "looking over her shoulder" pinup photo, Betty Grable was 7 months pregnant.

[Gravekeeper]

Also Gillian Anderson was abducted for most of a season too, so she filmed whilst pregnant then did bit parts when heavily showing then the main drive of the season was finding her.

Funny part is the show's success is directly because she was pregnant. Because they had to find a way to write her out of the show temporarily they came up with the abduction idea. Which in turn lead to the creation of the show's major mythos. There wasn't suppose to be an overall major plot before that. It was just suppose to be episodic.