tvThere are baby cries again on the set of ‘Thuis’. Polly, the daughter of Lowie (Mathias Vergels), was born on Wednesday in the VRT 1 soap thanks to surrogate Tamara (Tine Priem) and egg donor Katrien (Lotte Vannieuwenborg). On Thursday, daddy finally took his little one in his arms. How do those scenes work behind the scenes and how do TV makers find suitable babies? And are there any conditions for making your debut in ‘Thuis’?
According to the fictional birth register of ‘Home’, Polly is already the twentieth baby born in the 29 seasons of ‘Home’. There were more pregnancies in the series, but some did not end well and other future mothers disappeared from the picture before giving birth. Cindy Swertvaeghers, daughter of Veronique Van Sevenant (Viv Van Dingenen) and Lou Swertvaeghers (Koen De Bouw), was the first baby in the series, but the viewer did not see that birth. That scoop was reserved for Clio Moeyaerts, the daughter of Ingrid Michiels (Ann Hendrickx) and Harry Moeyaerts (Karel Vingerhoets). She was born in episode 395, which aired on February 27, 1998.
Innocent game
And now there is Polly. The name is of course symbolic and refers to Paulien, Lowie’s stepsister (Tina Maerevoet). She would be his intended parent. However, last year around Christmas she died during an innocent game in an escape room. A shard of glass then cut her throat. As a single dad, Lowie had a false start. He missed the moment of birth because he was in bed with his ex Viv (Lynn Van den Broeck). That certainly puts bad blood on surrogate Tamara and her husband Bob (Christophe Haddad). A situation that will certainly have consequences.
Tamara (Tine Priem) struggles with giving birth in ‘Thuis’. © VRT
Call
Several babies are requested for the scenes with the new ‘Home’ character. How do they find suitable newborns at ‘Home’? “This can be done in different ways,” says ‘Thuis’ spokesperson Hans Roggen. “Sometimes we make an open call via the platform where we are also looking for extras. But more often it will be via our own network. Especially in the first months, when the baby is still very small. Then colleagues ask friends or family members who have just given birth if they would like to participate. Our network also includes midwives, who make the proposal to the mothers and fathers and who then put us in touch with them.”
It remains quite a search to find enough children for a child’s first years. “Due to the child labor law, a child can only do a limited number of TV recordings. So we regularly need a new ‘interpreter’. At the same time, as fiction makers we often use the magic of television. The viewer will often think that the baby is involved in the scene, because it is heard or something, but in reality it is not there and those sounds are added later.”
Conditions
It is difficult to say what conditions a baby actor must meet. “Because it is rather the other way around: what conditions must TV production meet? On set it is always the baby who determines the pace of the recordings. If the baby is hungry and opens his or her throat, everyone has to wait. Fortunately, that almost always turns out well. We haven’t had any crybabies on set yet. It is only when they are toddlers and a little older that they become aware of the strange TV studio and lights around them, which can make the recordings more difficult.’
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2023-09-14 18:47:08
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