Actress Justine Lupe was one month pregnant when she auditioned for the hit Netflix show “Nobody Wants This.”
“I auditioned knowing I was pregnant and that I was not going to be telling anyone I was pregnant until I was on the set and into the show,” she tells TODAY.com in a video chat.
Lupe had initial “people pleasing” worries that the powers-that-be would feel like they “bet on a lame horse” once they found out the truth.
“The more evolved, feminist version of me knew it was not my problem, and that I’m going to be private about this, and it’s my prerogative,” she says. “I need to care most about my mental health and the baby.”
She also notes that she had seen other women, like co-stars Kristin Bell and Sarah Snook, continue to act while pregnant “and do the best work ever.”
Because of those examples, Lupe knew that “people learn how to shoot around it and they learn how to dress for it.”
Luckily, Lupe wasn’t the only pregnant person on set. “Erin (Foster), the showrunner was pregnant, and two other women on set were pregnant, so four of us altogether. And I’m so glad I just tried to surrender and not freak out,” she says.
Several months after filming wrapped, Lupe gave birth to her daughter Ellis, who she shares with partner Tyson Mason.
But that’s not to say that there weren’t hiccups along the way.
For example, at Lupe’s first costume fitting, she noticed that the clothes they selected for her were “tight, tight, baby little clothes” that would reveal her midriff. But filming would occur during her second trimester.
“I was sitting there turning red because I’m like, ‘Oh no, all of this is going to go,” Lupe laughs.
Lupe’s intentional (and unintentional) pregnancy reveal
The very first coworker that Lupe shared the news with on set was her TV sister, Kristen Bell, who has two kids of her own. “I had an intuition that she would be really lovely about it. And not only was she lovely — she freaked out,” she says.
The women were working out together at Bell’s home, and when Bell asked Lupe if she wanted to cold plunge, Lupe said, “So about that … I will not be cold plunging because I am pregnant.”
Bell was so excited that she ran around the room — while wearing a face mask — and told Lupe, “It’s going to be awesome. Don’t worry, not even a little bit.”
Lupe’s reveal to the cast was a bit more subtle.
Dressed in a “teeny tiny Gucci skirt” during a night shoot, she had to undo the back of the skirt to accommodate her growing belly.
“In between takes or when the camera was off of me, I would undo the front and just unzip it. My whole dress was, like, just completely open,” recalls Lupe. “Everyone was kind of sitting there going, ‘What is happening? Are you falling apart?'”
Because Lupe wanted to wait to the 12-week mark to officially announce her pregnancy, she kept her mouth shut that night. She shared the happy news with the rest of the cast and crew just a week or two later.
But temporarily, she says, “I just kind of had to sit in my shame of how disheveled I was and let everyone just think I’m a mess for a while.”
Setting the record straight on “misleading” press
In an Oct. 13 Instagram post, Lupe wrote that her comments about the pregnancy had been turned into “a misleading story a few times now,” and she explains to TODAY.com why it is so important to her to set the record straight.
“There’s a history in Hollywood that getting pregnant is a death wish,” she says. “I’m sure that still exists, but this experience was the exact opposite of that. I felt my most creative. I felt so happy to be there. I just felt valuable in a different way.”
In fact, she was glad she shared the news because of the incredible support she felt from everyone involved with the show.
“I think the reason why it’s important to tell those stories is so that people like me can have that expander, where you look to someone you’re like, ‘Oh, they did it, and they did it so successfully,” Lupe says.
Lupe has entered the mom chat
Lupe has been delighted to enter the universal community of moms. “I’ve just never had so many friends — and honestly strangers — reach out and offering to help, or giving me hand-me-downs, or bringing me food,” she says.
Her friends have always been helpful but entering the mom club has helped those relationships “drop down to a different level than you had before because they know what you’re going through.”
For example, her friendship with “Succession” co-star Sarah Snook grew deeper now that they’re both moms. Snook wrote Lupe “pages and pages” about her experience with motherhood.
Lupe is reveling in being a mother to 4-month-old, Ellis. “I love this phase, even though you’re totally sleepless,” she says. She’s been doubling down on protein intake with sustainable yogurt brand Nature’s Fynd to give her energy.
In all, the actress truly seems to enjoy having a mini sidekick to hang out with, even though the pregnancy complicated her shooting schedule.
When she looks back on filming that “Nobody Wants This” bat mitzvah scene during her second trimester, Lupe says, “I feel like Ellis, my daughter, was there with me, partying with me, having fun with me, dancing with me.”
