Betty Gilpin has opened up about the birth scene in her new romantic comedy, Office Romance, starring Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein.
“Honestly, the first time I saw an artificial vagina I was pretty surprised,” Gilpin said at the film’s Los Angeles premiere. “When I had my nervous breakdown, I thought, ‘Oh, but I’m going to be holding the hand of Jennifer Lopez, the ultimate working mom, so what’s going to go wrong?'”
Gilpin explained what happened.
“My real leg was under the table and (I) had a fake prosthetic leg, and the puppeteer was standing on my real leg and pushing an animatronic baby out of the vagina of my prosthetic leg. It sounded like (Gilpin making a pop sound)…It was insane,” she said.
“The saddest part was when the scene ended and everyone was left in the room except the puppeteer. The only way to reset was to go down and pull the fake placenta. I don’t think the placenta will be in the movie anymore, but you reach through the artificial vagina that’s still zipped up, pull the placenta back, take the umbilical cord, pull it back, pull the baby back out. Then it’s time to do it again.”
In Office Romance, Lopez stars as an airline CEO who falls in love with the company’s in-house lawyer (Goldstein). Gilpin plays J.Lo’s character’s assistant.
Directed by Ol Parker and co-written by Goldstein, the film’s cast includes Edward James Olmos, Jodie Whittaker, Tony Hale, Bradley Whitford, Amy Sedaris, and Jackie Sandler.
“Office Romance” is available on Netflix.
Gilpin is also set to star in Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to The Social Network, Social Reckoning. She plays the editor of Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), who broke the story of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
Gilpin joked that she’s nervous about expressing her true feelings about Facebook because she’s “scared of getting a neck dart” if she says anything about it.
She said, “I love lamps.”
