Stars Who Were Pregnant During Filming

It often feels as though famous actors and actresses are larger than life figures, doesn't it? Like, can you imagine Leonardo DiCaprio having to go to the DMV? Or can you picture someone like Meryl Streep, who's won three Oscars throughout her storied career, going shopping for groceries at Target? Of course, they are indeed real people, and as such, they often have to work under weird, unique circumstances.

That's especially true for women, who often have to film movies while pregnant. It's common knowledge that carrying a child is no walk in the proverbial park, but can you imagine doing it while simultaneously undergoing the stresses of shooting a movie? These brave women unarguably put the "star" in starlet, appearing in genres ranging from low-budget dramas to superhero blockbusters. And today, we're going to pay these actresses their due (date). Here are a few actresses who were pregnant while filming.

When speaking to E! News, Scarlett Johansson — longtime alum of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with her portrayal of the soviet super-spy, Black Widow — admitted that she was a big fan of how shooting the MCU films pushed her physically. "I like the fight choreography stuff and getting new weapons. I'm pretty active."

Unfortunately for the Oscar-nominated starlet, that "physical part" was mostly out of the question while shooting her fourth go-around as Natasha Romanoff in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Why? Johansson was actually pregnant with her first child, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, and so the Lost in Translation bombshell was limited in what she could do. Her go-to stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker, filled in when necessary.

The plus side of shooting an action blockbuster with a bun in the oven? "I made more money pregnant than I've ever before," Johansson confessed in an interview with her Avengers' costars on ABC's Nightline. Hard to complain about morning sickness when you're pulling in nearly $20 million for your time!

Halle Berry is no stranger to superhero movies. The Oscar-winning actress starred in the titular role of 2004's unfortunate Razzie-winner, Catwoman, but before that, she got her feet wet in the genre by playing Storm in 2000's X-Men, a role she would go on to reprise three more times.

Released in 2014, X-Men: Days of Future Past was Berry's fourth and final (to date) performance as the weather-manipulating mutant. However, she was only actually on screen for a little over two minutes. This is partially due to the film's overabundance of mutants vying for screen-time, but it could also be chalked up to the fact that the Cleveland-bred actress was actually three-months pregnant on set.

Berry went on The Queen Latifah Show (via The Daily Mail) and dished about the difficulties of playing Storm with a growing baby bump. "It was different. I had to shoot really fast. ... Two weeks was about as much as I could do before I was busting out of the suit!" Storm's skin-tight leather outfit doesn't exactly sound too comfortable to someone with a bun in the oven, but Berry looked amazing even still.

Tim Burton's characteristically eerie take on Stephen Sondheim's classic musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, was a hit with both critics and audiences alike. It also marked the sixth time that the legendary director had worked with his then-partner, Helena Bonham Carter. Although the longtime couple broke-up in 2014, they enjoyed a happy 13 years together. They even created a family, having two children throughout the course of their relationship.

One of their offspring actually caused a unique difficulty while shooting Sweeney Todd. Carter, who was at the time pregnant with daughter Nell Burton, told the New York Post (via Cinema Blend) that she had some issues with the continuity of her bust size over the course of filming. "The first half of filming I wasn't pregnant, and the second half I was, and because we didn't shoot it in order, I start off with huge breasts, and then I walk upstairs and suddenly I've got tangerines again. It's melons to tangerines." Regardless of her fluctuating appearance, the Harry Potter actress was perfect as the devious Mrs. Lovett.

In 2014's Into the Woods, Emily Blunt played a baker's wife who was determined to have a baby. Ironically, behind the scenes, the stunning British actress was actually already pregnant with her and her husband's, The Office's John Krasinski, first child. As her costar Meryl Streep noted to D23 (via Us Weekly), Blunt's growing baby bump made for some hilarious comedy while filming. "That was pretty funny. They were constantly putting James Corden [the Baker] in front of her belly, raising her apron higher and higher."

Evidently, the wardrobe department wasn't the only one having to make adjustments due to Blunt's bun in the oven. In the film, she and her costar Chris Pine, who played Cinderella's Prince, at one point share an intimate dance. As the Devil Wears Prada actress tells it, her new body added an element of surprise. "When we did rehearsals, I was being kind of careful. By the time we shot, it was about two months later, and I said to Chris Pine, 'You need to add 15 pounds to what you felt before. When you dip me, you gotta get yourself in a deep lunge because there's more weight coming down!'" Fortunately, the extra weight was probably nothing to a stud like Chris Pine.

They say that having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of, but for Penélope Cruz, that's a good thing. When the Oscar-winning Spanish starlet was shooting 2011's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, she was actually pregnant with her and Javier Bardem's first child. So, for some of her swashbuckling action sequences, she called on family to help her out — specifically, her lookalike younger sister, Monica.

When speaking to The Telegraph, Cruz shed a little light on how she was able to be a preggers pirate. "I did a couple of months of training and did what I was able to do, but I couldn't do everything, just what was safe. 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." Sometimes it's nice to have a doppelgänger in the family!

Although she'd appeared as Gisele in Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7, Gal Gadot was a relative unknown before she landed the role of Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. While BvS didn't exactly get the reviews that Warner Brothers' had hoped for, the studio went ahead with its next entry in the DCEU, 2017's standalone prequel Wonder Woman, giving the former Miss Israel her first leading role in a blockbuster film.

With Emmy-nominated director Patty Jenkins at the helm, Gadot's Wonder Woman took the box office by storm, raking in over $820 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing superhero origin movie of its time. Such a feat is impressive by all standards, but even more so when you factor in that Gadot was actually pregnant while filming much of it!

According to Entertainment Weekly, Gadot was actually five months pregnant with her second child while filming reshoots. Having a noticeable baby bump kept the special effects department busy in post-production, but Jenkins made note of Gadot's incredible work ethic while filming. "She's pregnant during part of the movie, in a suit out in a field in the freezing cold in others. There are so many things we asked her to do. ... Everyday it was a hilarious gauntlet, and she would do it." Sounds like Gal Gadot was a real Wonder Woman after all.

When Gwen Stacy fell from a building in 2007's Spider-Man 3, it was actually more dangerous than intended. Sure, the wall-crawler swooped in at the last minute to save the blonde babe from a certain death, but the actress performing the stunt, Bryce Dallas Howard, actually had a lot more at risk than she realized. As it turns out, Howard, the daughter of Hollywood mogul Ron Howard, was unknowingly in the early stages of pregnancy during her time on set.

In an interview with Superhero Hype, the Jurassic World actress opened up about her little surprise. "After I did this film, I found out that I was pregnant. I had my wedding three days after shooting the film. So, I was definitely thinking a lot about family and creating my life and surrounding myself with great people and, in a way, setting up my future during this film."

Given that she didn't find out she was knocked up until after shooting had wrapped, Howard actually performed some of her own stunts, including her character's death-defying fall from heights. Looking back, she's extremely relieved that her son, Theo, was born healthy. "Thank goodness everything was okay," she told Metro. "He was just born, and he's totally healthy." And when it came to doing stunts, she said, "Ultimately, at the end of the day, you're totally safe, but I wouldn't recommend doing it during any kind of a pregnancy." 

Hey, at least Theo will grow up knowing he was technically in a Spider-Man movie!

Before she was scaring the bejesus out of men as one of the best villains of the last decade — Amy Dunne in Gone Girl — Rosamund Pike did something that might sound terrifying to some women. She starred in an action movie while pregnant! The Oscar-nominated actress was reportedly five months pregnant with her son, Solo, while shooting 2012's Jack Reacher alongside Tom Cruise. As Pike tells it, her son was born very opposite from what it was like during her chaotic time on set. "It's amazing the baby's come out so chilled. He probably thought the world was going to be truly terrifying."

Although Cruise has garnered a fair share of negative headlines over the years, Pike had nothing but kind words to say of her costar, and more specifically, how he always had her back on set. "He could not have been more supportive. Certain stars would have — or might have — said, 'Get someone else, she's pregnant!' That sort of thing goes on in this day and age." Kudos to Mr. Reacher for standing up for Pike in real life, as well as the movie.

Although 2007's sappy rom-com Catch and Release was pretty forgettable to those who saw it, it's probably one that its lead, Jennifer Garner, remembers quite well due to the circumstances. As it turns out, the Alias star was pregnant with her first daughter, Violet, while shooting the film. Violet was the first of three children that Garner and her fellow Daredevil costar, Ben Affleck, would have during their ten-year marriage.

While pregnancy can certainly come with a great deal of complications (e.g. morning sickness, mood swings, etc.), the Elektra actress instead viewed it as an asset. "It was actually perfect timing. It was in between nausea and getting big, and I felt really emotional, so I could cry easily if I needed to." Given that Garner's sentimental performance was certainly a high point of the chick flick, some of the credit should really be given to Violet, right?

Few actresses have enjoyed as prestigious a career as that of British actress Kate Winslet. From starring in Titanic to Revolutionary Road, the Oscar-winning starlet has worked with some of the best directors of all time. She's also tackled a slew of genres, ranging from romantic comedies like The Holiday and Labor Day to the doomed Divergent franchise, based off the teen fiction series of the same name.

It was while starring in the latter that she actually accomplished something she'd never done before — film a movie while pregnant. In 2014's Divergent, Winslet played the Erudite leader Jeanine Matthews. Being five months pregnant on set presented a whole new plethora of challenges, primarily her growing baby bump. According to the film's director, Neil Burger, they found different ways to hide her belly. "We had to be very strategic in the way that we shot her. She always had some sort of file or case in her hand that was sort of protecting, you know, her bump." So that's why Jeanine was always holding something!

Even at age 55, Teri Hatcher still has the body of a supermodel. The gorgeous Golden Globe-winning actress has enjoyed a long and extremely successful acting career, with a wide range of notable roles. Many recognize her as Susan Mayer from ABC's long-running series, Desperate Housewives, but fans of the James Bond franchise probably know her as Paris Carver, the famous spy's former flame in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies.

Hatcher certainly fits right in with the list of famously irresistible "Bond girls" throughout the years, but many people probably don't know that she was actually three months pregnant while shooting the action blockbuster. In fact, her pregnancy caused a rift between her and her costar, Pierce Brosnan. Hatcher's morning sickness reportedly kept causing delays on set, and Brosnan was not having it. "I must admit I let slip a few words which weren't very nice. It came out one morning that Teri was pregnant, and she hadn't been feeling very well. Still, these things happen." Not the kind of behavior you'd expect from a ladies' man like Bond.