Two stars of Holby City have revealed how they filmed a kissing scene under Covid restrictions – by using a sheet of perspex and an actress’ real-life husband.
Fans were left puzzled after seeing Jac, played by Rosie Marcel, and Kian, played by Ramin Karimloo, sharing an intimate moment on the sofa in an episode of the BBC One medical drama this week, when actors and crew are required to socially distance.
But a behind-the-scenes video from the set has lifted the lid on the mystery and revealed some of the tricks used to create the scene.
Fans were left puzzled after seeing Jac, played by Rosie Marcel, and Kian, played by Ramin Karimloo, sharing an intimate moment on the sofa in an episode of the BBC One medical drama this week, when actors and crew are required to socially distance
But a behind-the-scenes video from the set has lifted the lid on the mystery and revealed some of the tricks used to create the scene, including the installation of a sheet of perspex
Explaining the process, Karimloo said: ‘Most of the scene was done with perspex between myself and Rosie. But initially we needed to lock off the camera and lock off the set and get a clean shot with no one on the couch and and without the perspex in the shot.
‘They can use that to layer the rest of the scene on top of that. And from then on in nothing can move, nothing can be touched, because it has to look exactly the same.
‘Then we had our prop team come in and actually cut the perspex made to measure, effectively, to the couch, to follow the line so it can sit perfectly and safely.
‘Once the perspex was put in place I had to get into position first because Kian was already in the room and had to make sure I didn’t touch anything, didn’t bump the table, didn’t sit too quickly or too abruptly on the couch because it would have moved the perspex.
‘So it was quite a tight squeeze on the day, there wasn’t much room for error.’
The perspex allowed the pair to sit within a metre of each other, but camera crews had to shoot perfectly to ensure viewers were unable to see the perspex in the final edit.
Leaning into the kiss itself was particularly difficult to master under the circumstances, Karimloo said, in order to ensure there were no reflections visible in the perspex.
He explained: ‘When it came to the singles, we could get close on one of us, while the other one could sit further away and be safe, socially distanced, for the scene, but try and get the eyelines just right.
‘I remember on one shot I was further away on the couch – in fact I think I might have been on the other couch – sat by the camera which was done by remote control and we could get a good shot of Rosie.
‘One of the trickiest shots was was the actual shot through the perspex, which you’ll see when we lean in for the kiss – it was right before the kiss – because we had to make sure there were no reflections for the camera or the crew.
The actor said: ‘One of the trickiest shots was was the actual shot through the perspex, which you’ll see when we lean in for the kiss – it was right before the kiss – because we had to make sure there were no reflections for the camera or the crew’
For the actual kiss itself, bosses replaced Karimloo with Marcel’s real-life husband, Ben Stacey
‘So we had to drape the camera, black out any sort of reflection and make sure the perspex was completely spotless.
‘So there was definitely at that point no touching the perspex – and a good thing that I did not touch the perspex.’
For the actual kiss itself, bosses replaced Karimloo with Marcel’s real-life husband, Ben Stacey.
Luckily, the gym owner has a similar colouring, build and beard to the actor and the scene was shot convincingly, with fans none the wiser.
Marcel said: ‘We needed to do a kiss and it’s very difficult with the perspex and things like that. So my lovely husband came in to do a little kiss with me, which is really nice, and really weird.’
Her husband described the experience as ‘really strange’.
Deborah Sathe, senior head of content production for Holby City, said: ‘We at BBC Studios are so proud of the output our teams are producing under the current restrictions.
‘With safety as our priority, everyone at Holby City is working exceptionally hard to create tantalising scenes like this in new and creative ways.’