While childbirth may be the miracle of life, it can also be an inconvenience to Hollywood.
Luckily, through camera techniques, wardrobe hacks, and on-the-nose plot restructuring, actors are sometimes able to do their jobs onscreen while also being pregnant.
Here are some instances of famous people hiding their pregnancies onscreen:
Blake Lively in The Shallows
Toward the end of filming The Shallows, Blake got pregnant with her second child. The film rarely used a stunt double, so her belly was concealed by a surfboard or by being submerged underwater.
Kerry Washington in Scandal
During the first few episodes of Season 6, Kerry’s pregnancy was hidden with oversize coats and strategically placed Prada bags. She was pregnant with her first child while filming Season 3, which as a result was several episodes shorter than planned.
Emily Blunt in Into the Woods
Emily’s pregnancy was hidden behind trees, by the raised apron on her dress, and sometimes by James Corden himself!
Also Emily Blunt in The Girl on the Train
Emily was pregnant with her second child while filming The Girl on the Train. She said that this pregnancy made her really tired, which actually helped her play up her character in the film.
Lisa Kudrow in Friends
Lisa became pregnant while filming Season 4 of Friends, so instead of hiding it, they made Lisa’s character, Phoebe, be the surrogate mother for her brother, Frank, and his wife, Alice.
Courteney Cox in Friends
The same couldn’t be done for Courteney’s character in Friends. There was a storyline in the series where Monica found out she could not get pregnant, so when Courteney got pregnant during the final season, they hid her belly under baggy clothes.
Alyson Hannigan in How I Met Your Mother
The creators of HIMYM disguised Alyson’s real baby as a food baby by having her character, Lily, enter a hot dog–eating contest.
Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman
Gal had to do reshoots for Wonder Woman while 5 months pregnant. Because her costume was very formfitting, the special effects team placed green fabric over her belly so they could CGI-out her baby bump.
Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation
Amy was pregnant during Season 1 AND toward the end of Season 2, which was why production and scheduling were so wonky during the first few years of the show.
Kate Winslet in Divergent
Kate’s character, Jeanine, was rarely seen without her iPad or folder, which helped conceal Kate’s IRL pregnancy.
Mindy Kaling in The Mindy Project
Salvador Perez, the costume designer, and Michael Spiller, the cinematographer, worked together to hide Mindy’s pregnant belly with different outfits and camera angles. The audience had no idea that Mindy was 7 months along during the final season of The Mindy Project.
Halle Berry in X-Men: Days of Future Past
Director Bryan Singer squeezed all of Halle’s scenes into the first few weeks of filming before she was unable to fit into her Storm costume. Also, Storm’s stunts were a bit tamer in this film than in the others.
