Soap Opera Has Creative Plan for Love Scenes

Actors' real-life partners will help out amid distancing requirements
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 17, 2020 3:48 PM CDT
Soap Opera Has Creative Plan for Love Scenes
Bradley Bell, center, and the crew of “The Bold and the Beautiful” accept the award for outstanding writing in a drama series at the 43rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards on May 1, 2016.   (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Five days after restrictions on film and TV productions were lifted in California and Los Angeles County, The Bold and the Beautiful actors are back at work—and so are some of their real-life partners. To ensure safety standards are met on the set of the first network scripted show to resume shooting since the coronavirus pandemic, actors are required to keep eight feet apart at all times—"which will be tricky, especially during love scenes," executive producer Bradley Bell tells the Hollywood Reporter. In cases where close contact is required, "the husbands and wives of the actors [will act] as stand-ins for their [characters'] significant others," he explains. "So if you see hands touching faces in close proximity from a wide shot, instead of a stunt double we'll have a love-scene double, where it will be the husband or the wife doing the actual touching."

Showrunners will also use creative angles to make actors appear closer than they really are. "And we'll probably also be using some of the classic, old-fashioned tricks of soap opera, where when things heat up, we pan to the fireplace … to indicate things are getting hot," Bell says. Actors and production personnel have all undergone coronavirus testing—there's an independent COVID-19 coordinator on set, per the AP—and will continue to be tested at least once a week. Production personnel will also maintain distance from their colleagues at CBS Television City in Los Angeles and everyone will wear masks unless appearing in a scene. Actor Don Diamont shared a photo of himself in his mask on Tuesday, a day before filming was to resume, per USA Today. "Safety is our utmost concern," says Bell, who hopes to air new episodes in a few weeks. (More TV shows stories.)

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