Jennifer Love Hewitt brought her personal pregnancy experience to 9-1-1. Hewitt talked to ET ahead of the show’s return Monday night, where she shared just how dedicated she was to making her character, Maddie’s, pregnancy look as real as possible on screen.
“With both of my children, I labored for a long time, but I pushed only twice, so I got very lucky to only push a couple of times, so I never pushed for like nine hours straight, so it was a lot, I had a very bad migraine, I broke a lot of blood vessels in my face,” Hewitt shared of her experience on set.
Hewitt’s acting was so convincing that even one of the medical experts on set said they’d be surprised if a baby didn’t actually come out after her lengthy fake labor.
“One of the medical experts on the show at one point she was like, ‘If a baby doesn’t actually come out of there right now, I am going to be amazed,'” Hewitt said. “I was like, ‘You’re telling me sister!’ So it was a lot, but the audience is going to love it. It’s really exciting and it’s a fun episode for Maddie and Chimmy.”
The actress and mom of two revealed that in true Maddie fashion, her character went into labor while at the call center.
“Maddie does end up in labor in a very inopportune time cause she really wants to push through and work right up to the last minute. She has no idea that last minute is going to be during a 911 call,” Hewitt told ET. “A very serious call by the way and it was really funny in filming because I was like, ‘How does one prepare to go to work and do this scene,’ you know?” Adding, “Normally you try and think about these things, and I was like, ‘I think I just have to not think about it. I think I just have to do it and see what happens.'”
Hewitt went on to say seeing Maddie give birth after the several false alarms is exciting for the audience, who has been anxiously awaiting this moment for Maddie and Chimmy.
“She’s, you know, I think frustrated. I think a little over 9 months pregnant,” Hewitt said. “They don’t have a name for the baby yet, so she’s stressed and there’s a couple of false alarms, so that’s fun for people I think,”
