Women really can do anything including grow a human while also thriving in competitive careers.
Sometimes, however, an actress is pregnant in real life while the character she plays isn’t. In these cases, the pregnancy has to be hidden on the screen.
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From Gal Gadot and Claire Danes to multiple How I Met Your Mother actresses, here are 10+ celebrities who had to hide their pregnancies during filming.
Claire Danes while filming *Homeland.*
Claire Danes was really pregnant while filming the second season of Homeland and had to film some pretty intense scenes, making the situation uncomfortable.
Danes told The Hollywood Reporter ,”This sucks…I had to do love scenes pregnant. That was really unpleasant.”
Ellen Pompeo for *Grey’s Anatomy.*
The creators of Grey’s Anatomy have had to hide many actresses’ pregnancies over the years , so they’ve gotten creative.
At one point, they even created a storyline where Meredith Grey donated her liver so Pompeo could have some time off.
Angelina Jolie while filming *Changeling.*
This film was an intense drama about a grieving mother, and Jolie filmed part of the movie while pregnant. With twins! Plus, she already had four kids at the time.
A few months after filming ended she gave birth to Vivienne and Knox in 2008.
Reese Witherspoon for *Vanity Fair.*
While Reese Witherspoon was pregnant while filming, it actually wasn’t too difficult to cover it up.
The movie’s creators were able to use empire-waist gowns with billowing fabric to hide her baby bump. She looked absolutely gorgeous and glowing in the movie.
Halle Berry while playing Storm.
While some characters can wear loose clothes to cover an actress’ pregnancy, sometimes that choice of clothing doesn’t fit the story.
While playing Storm in X-Men: The Days of Future Past, Berry found out she was three months along. They filmed her scenes as quickly as possible before the pregnancy became noticeable in the tight suit.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus filming *Seinfeld.*
The actress was actually pregnant two times while filming this beloved comedy.
Luckily, the character of Elaine usually wore loose clothes anyway, so it wasn’t too hard to hide her growing belly just by styling the clothes in the right way.
Amy Poehler while playing Leslie Knope.
Leslie Knope proved she could have triplets and still be an amazing career woman, but it was too early for the character to get pregnant during season two.
So, instead, the Parks and Recreation team did the classic move of hiding her figure using loose clothing.
Sarah Jessica Parker while playing Carrie Bradshaw.
Instead of giving the character an unexpected pregnancy, Sex and the City creators tried to hide the pregnancy for as long as possible.
However, this was rather difficult to do given Carrie’s fashionista status. Instead, season five was cut short and had only eight episodes.
Julia Roberts while filming *Ocean’s Twelve.*
The creators of the movie came up with a pretty [ingenious solution to Roberts’ pregnancy.
They had her character Tess pretend to be pregnant for a con so that Roberts wouldn’t have to hide her real pregnant belly. Now that’s creative thinking!
Gillian Anderson on *The X-Files.*
Anderson’s pregnancy actually caused a bit of a problem for the show as they had to figure out how to hide her belly.
While they used tricks such as big coats and having her stand behind furniture, they actually had the character get abducted by aliens for part of season two.
Angela Kinsey as Angela on *The Office.*
While the character of Angela does get pregnant in a later season, Kinsey was pregnant filming season four. Since that didn’t make sense for the character, they used crafty techniques to cover it up.
Instead, they often filmed the actress sitting at her desk or only filmed the upper half of her body.
Cobie Smulders and Alyson Hannigan during *HIMYM* filming
Funnily enough, both actresses were pregnant during filming for season four, and this presented a unique challenge as production had to hide not one, but two growing bellies.
The show could have used this as an opportunity for a storyline, but they decided to hide both pregnancies instead.
Kate Winslet while filming *Divergent.*
While filming in 2014, Winslet was about five months pregnant , but filmmakers use a lot of black cloths and props like folders to cover it up.
Winslet didn’t even want to use a double for more physically demanding scenes. Now that goes to show just how dedicated she was!
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman
Gal Gadot was actually pregnant while filming some of Wonder Woman , and in a way, it’s kind of poetic.
As one of the first major superhero movies with a female lead, Gadot illustrated that women are powerful in so many ways.
Courteney Cox on *Friends.*
When Courtney Cox was pregnant, it was after Monica had already learned she couldn’t have children in a raw and heartbreaking moment.
So, the creators had to cover up Cox’s baby belly using baggy clothes and close-up shots. A classic tactic.
