‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ Has a Unique Solution to Filming Love Scenes in the Time of Coronavirus

It’s safe to say that the coronavirus pandemic has upended every aspect of life for people around the world. In the U.S., the virus is still causing outbreaks that have been increasingly hard to contain. The entertainment industry has pretty much come to a grinding halt as audiences can no longer gather in crowded rooms and movie and TV sets have struggled to find ways to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

How have TV shows adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Some shows can’t afford to go off the air for the course of the pandemic. This has led formats like late-night talk shows and morning shows to adapt to the times, with hosts and anchors broadcasting from home without the laughter and feedback of a live studio audience.

Similarly, soap operas like The Bold and the Beautiful have had to adapt as well. As a genre that pumps out hundreds of episodes per year, there was no way production could stop for the unforeseeable future; as a result, filming on The Bold and the Beautiful resumed earlier this summer, albeit in a much different way.

How long has ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ been on TV?

The Bold and the Beautiful first premiered on CBS on March 23, 1987. When compared to the current lineup of network soap operas — Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and The Restless — The Bold and the Beautiful has been on the air for the shortest amount of time. Throughout those years, the show has seen many cast shake-ups.

Who currently stars on ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’?

The Bold and the Beautiful tells the story of the Forrester family and their fashion business. The cast has changed many times over the years, but two actors have remained on the show since the beginning: John McCook, who plays magnate Eric Forrester, and Katherine Kelly Lang, who plays his daughter-in-law Brooke Logan.

Last year, The Bold and the Beautiful welcomed a widely recognizable face to its cast: longtime actor and current cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Denise Richards.

‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ now films COVID-safe love scenes

In June of this year, CBS revealed that they were the first network to resume production on their shows following the coronavirus shutdown. The Bold and the Beautiful became the first show in the U.S. to resume production on June 17.

Given that The Bold and the Beautiful is a romantic soap opera, there are plenty of kissing scenes that have to be filmed in a COVID-safe manner. Their solution: mannequins.

For every kiss scene, actors have had to get used to kissing a latex mannequin instead of their on-screen partner. And it gets even weirder: for sex scenes, the actors have to fake getting freaky with a blow-up doll.

When asked by The New York Times about how the cast is taking the interesting change, executive producer Bradley Bell said that they’ve gotten used to it fairly quickly. “We’ve had a lot of strange looks and questions like, ‘Do you really want to do this?'” he said, “But everyone is game. They are getting their first latex kiss.”