Actresses Who Had To Hide Their Pregnancy For A Role

It often seems like Hollywood starlets have it all — from the 24/7 nanny to the fancy house in the hills — and don't have to face the same challenges that everyone else does. But believe it or not, there really are some struggles that even ScarJo shares with the rest of us. That's right: indeed the most sought-after actresses in Tinseltown have to work while pregnant — sometimes far beyond the first trimester, too! And squeezing into a skin-tight costume with a baby bump can't be fun.

While some shows can incorporate an actress' pregnancy into the plot, like they did for Phoebe in Friends, for example, other actresses don't have that luxury. It would be quite difficult for Wonder Woman to slay with such agility during her third trimester, after all. But it's not impossible for the cameras to roll with a visibly pregnant actress — production has a few tricks up its sleeves. Here's how some of Hollywood's most glam celebs hid their pregnancy on set.

In 2017, everyone got to see just how hardcore Gal Gadot is when Wonder Woman was released, a film that moved some viewers to tears because of its depiction of strong women. Perhaps even more intense, though, is the fact that Gadot was five months pregnant at a certain point during filming, according to Entertainment Weekly — including days when she had to perform fight choreography! How fierce is that?

Of course, Gadot's bump had to be hidden, so the costumers replaced part of her outfit with bright green cloth that allowed the special effects crew to hide it in post-production. "On close-up I looked very much like Wonder Woman," Gadot noted. "On wide shots I looked very funny, like Wonder Woman pregnant with Kermit the Frog." That sounds kind of hilarious!

Everyone on set, including director Patty Jenkins and producer Chuck Roven, was impressed at Gadot's performance. "That was special," Roven said of her work. "I've been doing this for a while but I've never had that experience before." Sounds like Gadot is Wonder Woman in real life, too.

While it's not unheard of for characters to get pregnant during the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead — both Lori and Maggie are notable examples — actress Alanna Masterson had to conceal her real-life pregnancy for the role of Tara. To do so, the actress had objects placed strategically in front of her belly and donned big sweatshirts — the latter, in particular, wasn't exactly fun. "It's 100 degrees in Georgia and I'm wearing a hoodie," she shared on an episode of Talking Dead. Talk about sweltering! Masterson also noted that she often put her hands in her pockets in front of her, and was shot on camera from the chest up.

Homegirl was so dedicated that she even worked while nearly nine months pregnant, a seriously impressive feat. And she's grateful for the opportunity, too. "I'm so fortunate... to have a job where I can also have a family," she continued. "It's pretty amazing." Perhaps the baby will inherit some of its mama's butt-kicking, zombie-slaying skills?

X-Men: Days of Future Past was one of the biggest superhero films of 2014, and featured a star-studded cast including giant names like Hugh Jackman and J-Law. But perhaps the biggest superhero of all the cast members was Halle Berry in the role of Storm — who was not exactly flying solo while they were filming. "I was three months pregnant," Berry revealed on an episode of The Queen Latifah Show. That means she was heading into her second trimester, which had to be an intense experience on set!

But because the character of Storm wasn't pregnant in the film, that meant that Berry couldn't let it be visible in front of the camera. To that end, she had to get her scenes finished in a super short amount of time. "I had to shoot really fast. I shot for about two weeks," she continued. "[That] was as much as I could do before I was, just like, busting out of the suit." Mission accomplished, because you can't tell she's pregnant at all in the film!

When you think of hiding a pregnancy on set, the first thing that pops to mind is how to hide the obvious physical signs. But for Kerry Washington, who plays Olivia Pope on Scandal, it was the acting that was the true challenge. "I was going through this amazing physical transition, this physical journey of having a baby, that my character was not going through," she revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. "That meant I had to figure out how to be this woman while my instrument was changing and evolving every day." That's some serious acting work, which shows just how talented Washington is.

Despite the challenges of working through her first pregnancy in 2014, Washington didn't hesitate to put family first once more in 2016 for baby number two. So how did they hide her burgeoning belly the second time around? "You know, like we did last time with big purses and lamps and boxes and chairs," she shared in an interview with Access Hollywood. Sounds like any prop in the room was fair game! 

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and sometimes the same holds true for accommodating a pregnant actress on set. That was certainly the case for Scarlett Johansson, who was sporting quite the baby bump when filming Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). So when she couldn't film a scene because of the baby-on-board, she had not one, not two, but three people acting as body doubles, according to E! News. They would then graft Johansson's face onto those body doubles in post-production. Talk about inventive technology!

In particular, Johansson credits one person for helping the most. "My stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker — and that's her real name — is really incredible, and this time took a lot of the punches for me, literally," she said in an interview. "This is like our fourth or fifth movie together, so we kind of have a seamless thing between us." Sounds like they're a well-oiled machine.

When Kate Winslet strode onto the set of Divergent in in 2013, she knew that her wardrobe was going to be evolving. Why? "I was pregnant at the time, so we actually had to keep adapting the costumes as we went," she shared in an interview with the Associated Press. To that end, she did as much as she could to help the designers disguise her pregnancy. "Only you know where things fall best and how things look and what you can kind of cope with," she added.

Winslet also arrived on set after everyone else in the cast because of her pregnancy, which meant she didn't know them very well — and they didn't know her. So that first day on set, she decided to use that to her advantage, presenting herself as aloof and distant. "I wanted to break it and say, 'It's OK, I'm really fun. I promise,'" she revealed to USA Today. "But I thought, just for today, I'd let them think that I am a complete b****." How's that for clever acting?

As much as it would be nice to schedule a pregnancy only when it's convenient, we know that's not how it works. That was something Emily Blunt had to contend with during Into the Woods (2014), in which she played the Baker's Wife. "I found out I was having a baby the same week I found out I had this movie, so it was a lot," she shared in an interview with Access Hollywood. That's some inconvenient timing, for sure.

Blunt said she didn't tell the director about the baby until she felt comfortable, which was at the end of the first trimester — two weeks before rehearsals were scheduled to start. He was both thrilled and nervous, and most importantly, committed to making sure she was able to perform her part. So together with the costume designer and the rest of the cast, Blunt managed to hide her pregnancy throughout the film. "I hid behind many characters towards the end," she added. Blunt was also pregnant on the set of The Girl on the Train, according to Today. There's clearly no stopping this fierce mama!

Although Claire Danes has starred in the hit show Homeland for many years, it was during the seventh season that she had a little more to deal with than usual. The reason? "I was [filming] during the first trimester, which is kind of my least favorite phase," she revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "Because you just feel horrible." So she really had to power through those intense days on set, when all she wanted to do was rest.

While Danes knew she was pregnant, she kept that a secret from everyone else, so no one knew what was wrong with her. "I was filming quite a lot, but just inadvertently falling asleep all the time, and it was embarrassing," she continued. She even had one mishap where she fell asleep on a crocheted bag, and woke up for her close-up with marks on her face. Girl obviously just needed a nap!

The iconic show Seinfeld has been off the air for two decades, but in 2015, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jerry Seinfeld reunited in an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Among other things, they discussed how they should have handled her pregnancy during the show's tenure. "Do you remember when I was about five months pregnant with my youngest, big as a house, and you came up to me, and you said: 'Hey I have a great idea. How about we write in this season that Elaine just gets fat?'" Louis-Dreyfus recalled Seinfeld saying (via The Hollywood Reporter). 

At the time, Louis-Dreyfus immediately burst into tears, as she was deeply offended by the proposal. But all these years later, she admits that she's had a change of heart about the whole thing. "It was a great idea, and we should've done it," she continued. Instead, they hid the pregnancy in the usual way, with boxes and props in front of her belly, according to E! News. Who knows what could have been?