13 Famous Women Whose Pregnancies Didn’t Affect Their Busy Schedules

Shooting movies and TV series is a very long and complicated process with lots of people involved. And once the script is finalized, it’s extremely hard to make any sort of adjustments. However, life happens, and the main actress might get pregnant. In this case, filmmakers use all their imagination to make the changes seamless, and the actresses show their strength by doing their job no matter what. We decided to show our admiration and recall such cases in our article.

1. Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson surely rocked the black bodysuit Black Widow wore in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but she was already expecting her daughter, Rose. That didn’t stop her from doing action sequences, and the crew went as far as to procure multiple costumes, hire stunt doubles, use close-ups, and experiment with visual effects.

2. Blake Lively

The actress is an expert when it comes to hiding a growing baby bump. In the photo above, Blake Lively is 4.5 months into her pregnancy. Even more impressive is the time when she managed to hide her belly while wearing a bikini in The Shallows. While filming the action-heavy shark chases, she was already on her way to welcoming her second daughter, Ines. The production team got creative by using movie props and camera angles to hide her growing belly.

3. Melissa Rauch

While filming the 11th season of the popular sitcom, the actress who played Bernadette was pregnant. It became a real challenge for the showrunners because in the previous season the character and her husband had already had one kid. Nevertheless, the creators of the series decided that it could become a truly interesting story. Howard, Bernadette’s husband, was shocked to find out that she was expecting a second baby so soon after the birth of the first one (who had not turned a year old yet).

“They’re shell-shocked at the beginning,” said the creator of the series. “They’re still coming to terms with having a first child in the house, so having a second child has really knocked them for a loop. Some of the same things from the first time around too, like Bernadette, who is very driven at work and took some time off to have the first baby and has just gotten back, is now going to have to take time off again. You start to see her starting to feel threatened and vulnerable in her career.”

4. Penélope Cruz

Penélope Cruz could have easily given up on the swashbuckling adventure in the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean. Still, she persisted and went on to play Angelica, a female pirate, despite being pregnant with her son, Leo.

Luckily, her family had her back, as her sister Monica became her body double to hide her baby bump in wide shots and sword fights. “Monica came at the end to do some scenes. She’s a dancer and very good with a sword because she’s done a film herself,” she said.

5. Claire Danes

In the pic above, the clever outfit conceals the actress’s belly bump, even though at that time Clair Danes was already 6 months pregnant. In the television series Homeland, she was 8 months pregnant when she completed the filming of the second season. Her pregnancy could not be introduced in the plot due to her character, so they decided to use digital retouching to hide her belly.

6. Marcia Cross

Actress Marcia Cross got pregnant with twins when she was 44. It came as a big surprise because a pregnancy for her character in Desperate Housewives, Bree, was not in keeping with the series — all of the plot lines had already been prepared beforehand. That’s why the series creators had to search for a way to conceal her growing baby bump. Thus, Bree started to wear more sweaters and do close-up shots only. In one of the episodes, they even used a gingerbread house to hide her tummy.

By the way, after childbirth, Marcia Cross had to play a pregnant woman in the series — her character was putting a pillow under her clothes to later pretend that the baby her daughter was going to have was hers.

7. Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel was 7 months pregnant when season 5 of the hit series, New Girl, was shot. As you probably remember, the actress had to be momentarily replaced by Megan Fox since producers were only able to hide her belly for no more than a few episodes. Deschanel also had to stay off the series until she returned from postpartum rest.

8. Reese Witherspoon

Regency-period London fashion was truly meant for Reese Witherspoon while she filmed the period drama Vanity Fair. She was 5 months into her pregnancy with her son, Deacon, and the production team strategically hid her growing belly by donning her in voluminous layers of dresses and hiding her behind cleverly positioned furniture, which was all uncannily appropriate for the time.

9. Kristen Bell

The voluminous dress makes it hard to tell that Kristen Bell is in her 7th month of expecting a baby. The star of the House of Lies TV series was about 6 months pregnant with her first daughter when the second season of the show was about to be shot. In order to actually film some episodes, the producers had to hire a body double for the scenes in which Bell would have had to show her belly.

10. Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway got pregnant while working on this movie. After having learned about the wardrobe was being prepared for the Grand High Witch, Hathaway protested, explaining that she would feel constrained if something was too fitted in the waist area. That’s why they made the decision to not use costumes with waistlines that were too thin, much to the costume designer’s dismay. Eventually, it was decided to opt for more loose clothing.

The biggest issue from the perspective of the wardrobe was the purple dress with the golden snake. The actress’s pregnancy was already noticeable, and that’s why its design required a thorough work-over.

11. Holly Marie Combs

Holly Marie Combs, who plays Piper, one of the main characters of the series, Charmed, announced during the shooting of the sixth season that she was pregnant. The producers thought it was better to hide her pregnancy at first. However, after a while, they decided that it was better for her character to actually have a child in the story as well. Apparently, Piper’s pregnancy was planned before the actress knew she was expecting a baby, so that came in handy. Combs gave birth to her first child, Finley Arthur, in 2004, and he’s now 17 years old.

12. Jenna Fischer

When Jenna Fischer who played the role of Pam in The Office was pregnant with her first child. She and her on-set husband already had one child, according to the script. So the actress was afraid to talk about her delicate situation and asked the costume designers to buy new clothes that could hide her baby bump from prying eyes. However, when it was no longer possible to hide it, Jenna confessed everything, and it was decided that she would fit her pregnancy into the series naturally — by giving the couple a second child.

13. Cobie Smulders

After fellow actress Alyson Hannigan told the show-runners of How I Met Your Mother that she was pregnant, Cobie Smulders discovered that she was also pregnant and told the producers who had to camouflage both of their pregnancies. To disguise Smulders’ belly, producers asked the costume designers to use garments and objects that could hide her abdomen, and they had the character remain seated for most of the scenes in which she appeared.

What crazy and unexpected plot twists can you recall from your favorite movies and series?