Actresses Tine Priem (35) and Lauren Müller (36) are happily expecting their first child, but will therefore have to disappear from ‘Home’ for a while. How does production approach this?
Bee At home there were already two actresses pregnant at the same time in 2019, with Ann Vanderstighelen (Sam) and Daphne Paelinck (Christine). Now it’s up to Tine Priem (Tamara) and Lauren Müller (Thilly). But don’t get your hopes up that the characters will be pregnant now. “When Marleen Merckx was pregnant, Simonneke was too. But we prefer to avoid it,” says ‘Thuis’ spokeswoman Ira Stevaert. “Suppose the actress is experiencing problems, but at the same time has to cheerfully parade with a belly in the series, that is very intense.”
Episodes are recorded on average three months in advance, so scenarios are already six months into the future. “That’s why an actress lets the main screenwriter and producer know as soon as possible. Because the pregnancy is often still early, we handle this subtly. If the screenwriters know this well in advance, they usually don’t have to make any drastic changes.”
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Yoga retreat?
Daphne Paelinck was an exception. Her character Christine was happily pregnant at the time of her own pregnancy. However, complications forced her to stop working early. “A lot of scenes had to be rewritten,” she said at the time. Her character had lost one of her children – twins – at that time. “Ultimately, she ended up in a mental crisis after giving birth and was hospitalized off-screen.”
With the tight shooting schedules where an episode is filmed almost every day from August to June, there is no room to shoot extra scenes to bridge a four-month maternity leave. So a temporary departure is inevitable. And as long as you can work, there are always tricks to cover up a belly. “Both Tamara and Thilly are often behind the bar in De Withoeve or Bar Madam in the series. Thilly often wears looser clothes, now Tamara also has a wardrobe with looser dresses and blouses.”
How will they disappear then? “Maybe it will be a yoga retreat, a participation in The mole or an undercover operation. The viewer will discover it in the autumn,” concludes Stevaert.
