Not everyone gets to have "a full dress rehearsal" before giving birth but that's exactly what happened to Cush Jumbo last year.
When the British actor, 33, returned to the second season of The Good Fight 10 weeks pregnant, it was written into the show.
"We all agreed it would be way more interesting for me as an actor to pursue Lucca being pregnant in parallel with myself," Jumbo told news.com.au. "It had its own challenges and I ended up giving birth a week and a half after I gave birth on the show.
Cast, crew & executives gather to celebrate The Good Wife's critically acclaimed 7 season run with a finale party. Photo / Getty
"I think I must be the only person in the world who ever had a full dress rehearsal for their birth. The whole thing was very meta and surreal but also fantastic. I got to have a full record of my pregnancy, which is really unusual."
Jumbo was one of the cast members of The Good Wife to be carried over to the very excellent spin-off The Good Fight, which returns for its third season tonight on SBS with a double episode.
Alongside Christine Baranski, Rose Leslie, Sarah Steele and Audra McDonald, Jumbo rounds out its cast of strong female leads, who are every bit as complex as real women.
The legal drama has become a thrilling and relevant series in the Trump era, able to tap into the absurdity of the current political climate, as well as hot topics such as race relations and sexism without feeling like a civics lesson.
Cynthia Erivo, Michael Kors, Cush Jumbo and Anna Wintour attend an event. Photo / Getty
And that includes the ever-present challenge women face as working mothers, a storyline that's very part of Jumbo's character Lucca's arc.
"She's making that transition back to work as I was when I went back this season, and she's going through a personal discussion with herself about the fact that she wants to remain on the partner track but that requires hours away from her baby, and what the cost of that is.
"I really like seeing that in the script because I think it's a very honest discussion. It's being a lie for quite a long time that women can have everything and do everything, and still get lots of sleep and have really good skin.
"It's actually f**king impossible and it's bullsh*t.
"And I thought it was really cool that Lucca was getting to have this discussion — 'I want this career and I know it's going to make me a more fulfilled and happy person and therefore a better mother, but what's required keeps me away from my kid for longer so how do I make peace with that?' Everything costs something."
Jumbo said while she never had a formal sit-down with The Good Fight's showrunners Robert and Michelle King and specifically asked that talking about motherhood be written into Lucca's story, the writers know that having a new mother on set means they can access those perspectives and those emotions.
"When stuff like that starts to come up in the script, I find it really cathartic and really interesting and I know they'll be someone who's watching who will be like 'thank f**k they're having that discussion because that's going through my head all the time'."
Jumbo said when she first signed up to The Good Fight, she had no idea what it would be — there was no script — and admitted it could've gone so wrong.
She credited the show for being great at portraying "the grey areas" of everything and that while the series isn't trying to lead the discussion about politics, it's certainly hoping to facilitate that conversation.
And she's definitely surprised that The Good Fight has become something as "zany" and "weird" as some of its more comedic elements have turned out.
