What Happened to the Baby in the Artful Detective

Julia Ogden's surprise reveal on 'Murdoch Mysteries' turns out to be histrion Hélène Joy's too

Spoiler alert: When the actor learned she was pregnant showrunner Peter Mitchell decided to make Julia pregnant too. Joy says it'south been bully fun to be expecting on set — other than the 'all-twenty-four hour period sickness' in the first four months.

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for "Murdoch Mysteries."

The 24-hour interval that Dr. Julia Ogden told her husband, Detective William Murdoch, that she was significant, Hélène Joy, the actor who plays her, was able to unload a undercover of her ain.

"I could cease sucking in my tummy," said Joy who, in a case of art imitating life — or is that the other way around? — was nigh iii months pregnant in August when shooting the scene in which Julia reveals her condition.

Viewers learned the Murdochs' baby news on Monday night, when the long-running CBC drama aired its Christmas episode.

Nobody on ready knew that Joy was also expecting — other than the head of the wardrobe department and the showrunner — until Julia spilled the beans.

"I was already getting a flake of a pot belly, which I'd been hiding on set, which is not and then easy in these costumes," she said, referring to the early 1900s wardrobe.

"Although I await back and think, 'What was I worried about?' I expect and then skinny compared to now," added Joy, 43, who is due with her starting time child at the end of December.

You might think information technology would exist particularly felicitous for an thespian to deliver lines that striking then close to home, but Joy said it was "well-nigh the reverse of what you would expect."

"When you fully pretend y'all tin immerse yourself in an emotion," she explained. "I felt quite shy about the whole moment compared to what I would if I was completely pretending."

It was a benefaction for showrunner Peter Mitchell, however, who had been looking for "a really big finish" for the Christmas special.

Obviously, "Murdoch" is just i of many television shows to adjust to a significant cast member.

The nearly famous case involved Lucille Ball, who was expecting her second child with married man and co-star Desi Arnaz in 1952 while making "I Dearest Lucy."

Co-ordinate to Time magazine, the TV lawmaking back then prohibited even use of the give-and-take "pregnant," but Arnaz convinced CBS to incorporate Ball'due south pregnancy into the plot. She was reportedly five months along when she filmed the episode in which Lucy Ricardo tells hubby Ricky she'southward expecting; she gave birth to son Desi Jr. just hours before 44 meg Americans watched Lucy become to hospital to take Fiddling Ricky.

Other stars since have had their pregnancies written into their shows, like Lisa Kudrow in "Friends," Melissa Rauch in "The Big Blindside Theory" and Melanie Scrofano in "Wynonna Earp," who it'south worth noting connected to do her own stunts while pregnant. Sometimes, the plot is altered to disguise the pregnancy, like when Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully was kidnapped in "The X-Files." Or seasons accept been cutting short, every bit for Sarah Jessica Parker on "Sexual activity and the Metropolis."

Babe bumps accept even been edited out, similar Claire Danes' in "Homeland." But more often than not, the pregnancy is subconscious under loose clothing or behind props.

Joy had to do some of that on "Murdoch" since its episodes, as with many TV shows, are shot out of order. She had to "hide an e'er increasingly large belly" in iv or v episodes. "We had a lot of fun doing that," she said.

Julia carried files and bags, wore large coats and stood behind other people. And "they couldn't shoot me from the side, ever."

And then "the 24-hour interval came where I'm allowed to expect pregnant and that was so bully."

Then came the question of how to costume a significant Julia.

Joy notes that Victorian women often wore corsets until they were quite far along, although that became less popular toward the 1910s. There was another "unattractive" mode of pregnancy clothes that looked like a tent draped over the body.

Happily, Julia adopted empire waists that brought her skirts just nether her bust line, although "it ends up making me look quite huge."

Alas, the wardrobe team couldn't help with Joy'south morning sickness, which was more like all-twenty-four hours sickness and lasted into almost her fifth month.

"I was wretchedly ill," she said. "I don't remember I've ever experienced annihilation that horrible." She threw upwards on set a couple of times, including into a garbage bin "while everyone waited on me. That was icky."

Simply "later that it just got fun."

Her colleagues "take been then incredibly supportive information technology'southward been like a dream place to be pregnant." And information technology's been entertaining to feel the baby "rolling over in the middle of a scene."

There has really been a fair bit of serendipity attending this on-prepare pregnancy.

For instance, the early season plot line saw Julia get fired from her job as a surgeon at a big hospital, a job information technology would accept been very unrealistic for a pregnant Julia to keep doing. Instead, she'due south working with women and childbirth at the establishment that will become real-life Women'southward Higher Hospital. "They planned that before I knew I was pregnant," Joy said.

And although the season's unusual 24-episode order has kept Joy working past the point where shooting would normally finish — "I'm shocked at how what I would have called an average working day completely lays me out now" — the cast and coiffure will start a five-week hiatus exactly when she's due.

Julia will still exist pregnant when Joy gets back to work, so wardrobe will interruption out a simulated belly, and the Murdoch baby will be "born" sometime in January. The set will besides resemble something of a mini nursery, with Joy's infant there likewise as the twins who will play Julia's and William's kid, "which volition exist very interesting," Joy said.

She and the Murdochs will be figuring out the early stages of parenthood together.

"Julia is a great doctor and has all the medical knowledge in the world, but she really doesn't have a lot of maternal instinct," Joy said. "Murdoch doesn't either, he's too nerdy.

"It will be a lot of fun to encounter how they parent."

"Murdoch Mysteries" returns to CBC Jan. three at viii p.m. and can be streamed at CBC Gem.

Debra Yeo is a deputy editor and a correspondent to the Star's Entertainment department. She is based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @realityeo

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Source: https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/2021/11/30/julia-ogdens-surprise-reveal-on-murdoch-mysteries-turns-out-to-be-actor-hlne-joys-too.html

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