Maternity Leave for Actors

[blas87]

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.

[jackfaire]

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.

[gremcint]

Amanda Tapping is mostly missing from the 1st 5 episodes of season 9 of Stargate because she is pregnant.

[Aethian]

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.

Good thing for Lucy that she practically ran the set anyways. And that her and her lovely hubby got to be pregnant on tv and then got to show little ricky on the tv because she had to be near her first born.

[jackfaire]

Good thing for Lucy that she practically ran the set anyways. And that her and her lovely hubby got to be pregnant on tv and then got to show little ricky on the tv because she had to be near her first born.

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.

[Aethian]

I understand that Jack but I was just pointing out how lucky Lucy was in her position.

[Fryk]

Good thing for Lucy that she practically ran the set anyways. And that her and her lovely hubby got to be pregnant on tv and then got to show little ricky on the tv because she had to be near her first born.

I totally skipped the "to be" part of your sentence and read it as "her and her lovely hubby got pregnant on tv..."

That would have made for a very interesting episide.

[jackfaire]

I totally skipped the "to be" part of your sentence and read it as "her and her lovely hubby got pregnant on tv..."

That would have made for a very interesting episide.

Tonight on a very special episode I rrrrreeeeeaaaalllllly Love Lucy

[bhskittykatt]

When Lexa Doig became pregnant during her role in as the ship's avatar and AI in Andromeda, they had to write in another avatar for the ship (played by Brandy Ledford) and write out Doig's since they could only film Doig's upper body (would have been too far a stretch to write in how a spaceship became pregnant...)

[Fryk]

Hey, spacecraft can have babies! Just ask Moya from FarScape.

[fireheart17]

Hey, spacecraft can have babies! Just ask Moya from FarScape.

I actually have to wonder how THAT would work at school...

"Well, when a male spacecraft and a female spacecraft love each other VERY much...."

As far as re-casting and whatnot goes, I have seen/heard the following:

-Apparently for the newest season of True Blood (that's number six) Sookie is going to be hiding behind large objects or similar (this is off the top of my head)
-I Dream of Jeannie didn't film Barbara Eden from the waist down for a while, although you could see she was visibly pregnant in some shots.
-A couple of characters on Power Rangers have been pregnant at varying points in the "universe". One of the recasts had the replacement actress not only receiving a slightly different costume, but completely changed the character.

As far as the phenomenon of wearing a fake belly goes, Australia doesn't do a whole lot better in that department. The actresses do get a fake belly, but there seems to be at least 3-4 different size bellies that are used. I don't mean the size of the actress, I mean the size of the belly! (i.e. there's a "small showing" belly, a "medium showing" belly, a "larger showing" belly and a "you're giving birth" belly)

Even better is the irony of a character who is pregnant on the show, has a miscarriage (on the show), then falls pregnant NOT on the show! She took a break once her kidlet was born.

[Ginger Tea]

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.

Not seen much andromida, but they could have tried greenscreen/CGIing her upper torso to a body double for the long shots.

I don't know that many shows where the female lead would be the be all and end all of the show (save for the afore meantioned I love Lucy).
Granted there were 3 female leads in friends and if one of them dictated she would not shoot, I am sure they would find their character on haitus than risk what was a money making show (with $million salaries per episode iir), but not do it in such a way as to open themselves to legal troubles.

[telecom_goddess]

So many times people end up being filmed around their pregnancy. They do the same thing with injuries. On The Big Bang Theory the girl who plays Penny broke her leg in a really nasty way, and they hid her cast very well. Same thing with Amy Farrah Fowler, she hurt her hand and they hid that for this season. It's just now coming into view and being used so it must be getting better.

[kaycivine]

Good thing for Lucy that she practically ran the set anyways. And that her and her lovely hubby got to be pregnant on tv and then got to show little ricky on the tv because she had to be near her first born.

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

When Lucie Arnez, the older child, was in mommy's belly, they filmed partially, whether Lucille Ball showed or not, but it wasn't mentioned, CBS thought talk of pregnancy was bad or something back then


I'm full of useles info, sorry. My mom is a bigger I Love Lucy fan than I am a Rurouni Kenshin fan. (and that says A LOT)

[Ginger Tea]

Only semi related but not worth it's own thread.

Miss Dynamite left to have a baby right when here career was high sometme in 02-04, I forget the exact time frame, just she had hit's whilst I was still living oop norf and I moved late 03. She now has recently started working again, or atleast being played on radio as guest vocalists etc, if she has released more before then I would have to look it up.
but from 04-11 she was out of the frame raising a child, so when she came back, the musical landscape has changed in some ways (but not in others) so she may have had to reinvent herself musically as what she may have had for a follow up album had she not been pregnant might not be marketable many years later.

Also she was hit with the marketing curse of her people denying she was in a relationship (let alone pregnant) just to give the male audience that slimist of chance that they too might meet up and hook up with flavour of the month celebrity.