19 Actors Who Should Win An Award For Pretending They Weren't Pregnant On Screen

Next time someone holds a purse in front of their stomach, I'm going to be looking a little closer.

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.

Netflix

Here are some instances of famous people hiding their pregnancies onscreen:

1. Blake Lively in The Shallows

Columbia Pictures

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.

2. Kerry Washington in Scandal

ABC

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.

3. Emily Blunt in Into the Woods

Walt Disney Studios

Emily's pregnancy was hidden behind trees, by the raised apron on her dress, and sometimes by James Corden himself!

4. Also Emily Blunt in The Girl on the Train

Universal Pictures

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.

5. Lisa Kudrow in Friends

NBC

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.

6. Courteney Cox in Friends

NBC

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.

7. Alyson Hannigan in How I Met Your Mother

CBS

The creators of HIMYM disguised Alyson's real baby as a food baby by having her character, Lily, enter a hot dog–eating contest.

8. Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman

Warner Bros. Pictures

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.

9. Ellen Pompeo on Grey's Anatomy

ABC

Ellen was pregnant during Season 6 of Grey's. Aside from there being only closeups of the actor, the writers also wrote in a storyline where Meredith donated part of her liver to her father so that Ellen could have some bed rest/take maternity leave.

10. Julia Roberts in Ocean's Twelve

Warner Bros.

Julia was pregnant while filming the second installation of the Ocean's series of movies, so instead of hiding it, the writers — with Julia's approval — got meta and had Julia's character in the movie pretend she was a pregnant Julia Roberts IRL to aide in their heist.

11. Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City

HBO

SJP was pregnant during Season 5 of SATC — which is why the season was both delayed and shortened. The writers didn't want to write her pregnancy into the series because they felt it was inauthentic for her character, so they hid her in baggy designer garbs.

12. January Jones in Mad Men

AMC

During Season 5, the writers wrote in Betty Draper's weight-gain storyline — which required her to wear a fat suit and prosthetics — to account for January Jones' IRL weight gain from her pregnancy.

13. Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation

NBC

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.

14. Debra Messing in Will & Grace

NBC

Debra was pregnant during Season 6 of the show. While the crew tried to hide her belly behind hand towels and tables, Debra inevitably had to be written out of the last few episodes of the season.

15. Kelly Rutherford in Gossip Girl

The CW

The fashion department dressed Kelly in chic coats and accessorized with expensive Birkins to hide her baby bump during Season 2 of GG.

16. Kate Winslet in Divergent

Lionsgate

Kate's character, Jeanine, was rarely seen without her iPad or folder, which helped conceal Kate's IRL pregnancy.

17. Reese Witherspoon in Vanity Fair

Focus Features

Since Vanity Fair takes place during the 1800s, Reese was able to hide her pregnant belly under the voluminous Victorian-era gowns.

18. Mindy Kaling in The Mindy Project

Hulu

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.

19. And Halle Berry in X-Men: Days of Future Past

20th Century Fox

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.