Talk about a million dollar baby idea.
Hilary Swank, who is expecting twins with her husband Philip Schneider, recently revealed how she hid her pregnancy while filming her show Alaska Daily.
As the Oscar winner explained on the Jan. 9 episode of The Late Late Show, none of the cast or crew members knew she was pregnant during her first trimester. And when Swank had to film running scenes for her character, who likes to jog, she became nervous.
"To do one to two minutes on screen, takes two hours," the actress, 48, told host James Corden. "They want it from this angle, this angle….You'll be running for two hours. I was like, 'Oh my god. I'm pregnant. I can't tell anybody.'"
So, she came up with a plan. Swank said she told her team she's a "really bad runner" and that she needed a stunt double. However, her co-workers weren't totally convinced.
"They were like, all of them, like, 'Huh? You? What? You need a stunt double to run?'" Swank recalled. "And I was like, 'Yeah, real bad.'"
Wanting to see if a stunt double was necessary, they then asked Swank to show them her running abilities.
"I was like, 'OK, how do I look like a real bad runner?'" she remembered. "I'm not a great runner to start with. But I was like, 'I really gotta sell this so that I get my stunt double.' But I ran and these four men all looked at each other and went, 'Yeah, you need a stunt double.'"
The Boys Don't Cry star said they even tried to correct her running form. "They were like, 'Why are you running so flatfooted? You're, like, bent over,'" she shared. "I was like, 'Don't critique me. Just get me a stunt double.'"
Of course, the truth came out in the end, with Swank announcing her pregnancy in October.
"This is something that I've been wanting for a long time, and my next thing is I'm gonna be a mom," she said on Good Morning America. "I'm gonna be a mom, and not just of one but of two. Yeah, I can't believe it."
Since then, the P.S. I You Love alum has given fans glimpses into her pregnancy journey, such as by sharing pictures of her baby bump.
This isn't the first time Swank has shared how she concealed her pregnancy while filming. In October, she recalled a time she had to make a wardrobe change.
"There was a moment just last week when my pants didn't fit anymore and I had to, like, cut a piece that big down my pants. And then I put a jacket on over it. Like I had to hide it, right?" she told the Associated Press. "And the continuity [person] was like, 'That doesn't match' [a previous take]. And I'm like, 'Oh, you know, it's OK, it'll work.' And they're like, 'No, it doesn't match.' And I'm like, 'Oh, I think it's OK. I think we can make it work.' And she's like, 'Well, you're an executive producer, so you can do what you want, but that doesn't work.' I wasa like, 'Oh my gosh, I have to be able to tell people soon.'"