Betty Gilpin Was 'Kind of Panicking' Before Shooting the 'Wild' “Office Romance” Birth Scene with Jennifer Lopez (Exclusive)

Jack SmartFri, June 5, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

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Jennifer Lopez and Betty GilpinCredit: Theo Wargo/Getty -

Betty Gilpin talks to PEOPLE about starring in the new rom-com Office Romance with Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein

Her character's "wild" birth scene, prosthetic vagina and all, had her "kind of panicking," Gilpin recalls

Drawing from her own experience as a mom of two, and filming with Lopez, helped Gilpin make the scene "empowering and silly and fun"

When Betty Gilpin describes her birth scene in her new movie as "wild," it's something of an understatement.

The new rom-com Office Romance(on Netflix now) stars Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein as coworkers embarking on a secret romance under their company's strict no-relationships policy. Gilpin, 39, plays Lopez's workaholic pal Sydney, who spends most of the story quite pregnant until (spoiler alert!) she suddenly goes into labor in the office, giving birth on a desk.

"I had done birth scenes before," the GLOW alum tells PEOPLE, "but never with a literal prosthetic vagina before." Before filming the scene, Gilpin recalls, she "was kind of panicking about it."

What got her through it? "When I got to set, I realized, oh, I'll literally be holding the hand of one of our greatest working mothers in this nation, Jennifer Lopez," she quips of her costar, a mom of two.

Betty GilpinCredit: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty

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Gilpin's own experience as a parent — who did not give birth in an office — informed Sydney's life-changing scene too. The actress and her husband Cosmo Pfeil welcomed two daughters, in November 2020 and May 2024.

"It just felt like this meta thing of what being a working parent sometimes feels like," says Gilpin, "where you feel fully exposed and like you're screaming at the sun and your guts are on the table whether you want them or not out there."

Betty Gilpin in Office RomanceCredit: Ana Carballosa/Netflix

But the Office Romance birthing scene, she adds, also "felt really empowering and silly and fun. And then it was time to go put my real kids to bed! It's like, 'Oh, I guess that's my legacy now on camera forever. Well, time to make some mac and cheese.'"

The Ol Parker-directed rom-com allowed Gilpin to live a fantasy she didn't know she needed: a high-glam pregnancy. "My first pregnancy was in the pandemic and I wore all of my husband's clothes. So to be fake pregnant in stilettos and chic corporate wear, with full beat, full Kris Jenner beat, was different."

Office Romance, co-written by Goldstein and Joe Kelly and costarring Tony Hale, Amy Sedaris and Edward James Olmos, is on Netflix as of Friday, June 5.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”