cameron diaz movies
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 Chapter 3 - Shootings in Atlanta, Georgia
With the principals cast, Jones took just as much care casting the film's supporting roles with notable talent. Those actors include Rebel Wilson as Janice, Wendy's assistant, Wendi McLendon-Cover as Kara, Holly's friend, Kim Fields as Holly and Alex's social worker, and a long list of performers, many of whom appear as themselves: Megan Mullally, Cheryl Cole, Dwyane Wade, Whitney Port, Tyce Diorio and Taboo. "It's very easy when you're putting a movie together with so many lead actors to lose sight of the potential of the supporting cast," says Jones. "But it was a joy for me every day to turn up on set and be so impressed and appreciative of the contributions of the supporting cast, all of whom delivered above and beyond."
What to Expect When You're Expecting slated a 48-day/nine week shoot in and around Atlanta , Georgia , with commencement of principal photography on July 26, 2011. The filmmakers decided to film each story separately, so that each couple had the best opportunity to familiarize themselves with their roles and with each other. "It's almost like we shot five short films," says Jones. "It turned out to be very rewarding for everyone, to work in these concentrated two-week shooting periods."
Jones entered production fully aware of the challenges of filming in Georgia in the summer, especially with a large cast and a set full of babies and toddlers. Miraculously, the production sailed through mild weather and a problem-free schedule. Several of the smooth shooting days can be credited to the baby-whispering skills of professional baby wrangler, Dawn Jeffory-Nelson. "What to Expect was definitely the most babies I've ever worked with in one shoot," reports Jeffory-Nelson. "There were days where we had 35 babies on set at one time or another, and never less than seven together in a scene. So it was challenging, sure, but we pulled it all together."
Costume designer Karen Patch and special prosthetics makeup effects supervisor Matthew Mungle worked closely together to accurately portray the changing silhouettes of the pregnant characters over the course of their 38-week terms. Patch created charts tracing the various stages of each character's pregnancy while Mungle fashioned the necessary prosthetics. Following an array of photographed costume fittings, Patch and Jones would consult and mutually approve all of the final looks. "Karen was fantastic in the wardrobe department. She not only found dresses and costumes that accentuated the bump, she managed to bring great style to the film, too," reports Jones. "And Matthew was amazing with all of the actresses' progressive bumps. They all had to be absolutely convincing, because I knew that would be something that audiences would watch out for."
Elizabeth Banks found the costumes and prosthetics immensely helpful in creating her performance. "The costuming was so integral to the character, it was really a case of the character being created from the outside in," she says. "We didn't need that much coaching on how to walk, because when you put on a 10-pound belly, it makes your back arch, it makes you sit in a different way, move a different way." Banks smiles, then adds, "And my boobs were outrageous in this movie. Let me put it this way. The boobs that I wore were bought online. I don't understand what their purpose is outside of what we're using them for. Who is buying these? I haven't a clue. But thank you for making them, whoever you are, because we got great use of out them."
The women on the set weren't the only ones to enjoy the character-enhancing presence of prosthetics. During the course of Wendy's pregnancy, Ben Falcone's Gary grows more anxious, and gains ‘sympathy weight' that exceeds his wife's. Costumer Patch notes, "What made it interesting is that while the character of Gary was supposed to be gaining weight, the actor, Ben Falcone, was actually losing. He'd come in to a fitting, and the wardrobe that previously fit him would either be too big or too small, depending on what size we put him in. He also had three sizes, like the women—three, six and nine months. What starts with love handles and a thickening chest turns into a paunch and man boobs."
For the ladies, great prosthetics and costumes, however, could not cover every aspect of how to embody a woman late in pregnancy. In order to ensure absolute accuracy in its portrayal of women in late pregnancy, the production utilized a midwife/nurse—who had delivered over 1,000 children—who remained on set whenever actresses who were supposed to be pregnant, expectant or delivering were called for work. The healthcare worker watched each performer carefully, looking for any inauthentic moment or movement that didn't ring true (for example when Brooklyn Decker's Skyler rose from a seated position too quickly), and also for things that could reinforce the authenticity (such as having Elizabeth Banks' Wendy hold her lower back, indicating the pain and fatigue that sometimes accompanies pregnancy). "We wanted to make sure that we portrayed these women accurately," says Kirk Jones, "because a good portion of the audience will have experienced whatever it is the character was going through, and it would be spotted immediately if we didn't get it right."
Sometimes, the women in the shot didn't need coaching on how to be a believable pregnant woman because they were pregnant. Kirk Jones noted and found it fitting that one of the pregnant extras during the first days of filming appeared in another scene toward the end of the shoot as a new mother of her own healthy baby. On another occasion, four days prior to wrap, a scene being filmed included Elizabeth Banks, Ben Falcone and Rebel Wilson, along with about 25 real pregnant women and about 95 fake pregger-padded women. One of the very pregnant extras went into labor, and Heidi Murkoff, the set medic and the midwife/nurse/advisor remained with the woman until the arrival of the EMTs. Nothing like life intruding on art…
Creating the film's fictional reality television show, Celebrity Dance Factor, required more prep time than any other sequence in the film. Working within a restrictive budget and an extremely limited time frame, production designer Andrew Laws and the location team found an abandoned Home Depot just outside of Atlanta, in Austell, Georgia, and transformed it into the glitzy set for Celebrity Dance Factor. The spectacular results even managed to impress real-life dance show stars Tyce Diorio and Cheryl Cole. In addition to playing a celebrity judge on Dance Factor, Diorio also served as the film's choreographer, providing the jazzy Cha-Cha for contestants Jules and Evan, the disco-influenced Whitney Port number, and Dwayne Wade's hip-hop-inflected dance sequence.
As a rule, production used practical, real life locations for its shooting sets. Recalls producer David Thwaites, "We were very intent on shooting Atlanta for Atlanta, and that definitely helped us, because we could go into locations and not have to pretend they were someplace else." Apart from the Celebrity Dance Factor set and Wendy's store, The Breast Choice, which production built from the ground up, the filmmakers were understandably forced to break their practical location rule in one other instance: Holly's and Alex's journey to Ethiopia. With the help of green screens and ample set dressing, Laws and his team transformed a rural church in McDonough, Georgia into an Ethiopian orphanage and the Fulton County airport into a remote Ethiopian airport. The sequence was enhanced by plate shots captured by a skeleton crew dispatched to Johannesburg , South Africa.
Now that the film is completed, the filmmakers hope that What to Expect When You're Expecting succeeds in portraying the varied experience of pregnancy with genuine humor and honesty. Co-screenwriter Shauna Cross hopes the film might inject some reality back into the way pregnancy and childbirth are regarded and portrayed. "I hope that people who have gone through pregnancy feel like they can relate to it," says the screenwriter. "And I hope the people who are going through it go easy on themselves. Maybe they'll opt to not judge themselves and open up to the generous spirit of the movie and just laugh a lot."
"I think the movie really taps into the joy of having kids," avows Chris Rock. "Being a father is the best gig I've ever had, and there's really nothing anybody can do to truly prepare for everything that it is. Doesn't matter how much money you have. Doesn't matter what kind of job you have. Kids are great. And they love you no matter what."
Director Kirk Jones thinks that What to Expect When You're Expecting's combination of humor and emotion is something that should appeal to most moviegoers, regardless of their feelings about having children. "I believe that everyone, at one time or another, thinks about either having – or not having – children," says Jones. "It's a deeply human experience that's obviously not for everyone, and it doesn't have to be. But I believe that whatever our thoughts are on the matter, stories about bringing new beings into the world resonate on a deeper level. I think this movie manages to look at the way things really are for expectant parents today, and to remind us all just how fun and fulfilling it really is."
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