The Bold & The Beautiful Goes Viral for Filming Kissing Scenes With Mannequins Because of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically disrupted the production of film and television and while different projects are taking different approaches to the safety of cast and crew as cameras slowly get back to rolling, soap operas have perhaps faced some of the biggest challenges in getting back to work. After all, with much of the drama of soap operas focused on love and relationships completely with lots of kissing and intimacy, production on soaps have the potential to be very problematic, pandemic-wise. To counter that, shows have taken a unique approach: using mannequins to stand in for intimate moments between characters and now, a clip from such a moment from The Bold and the Beautiful has gone viral.

On Twitter, one fan shared a clip from the long-running soap opera that featured a kissing scene between two characters and, well, it’s hilariously obvious with the way the scene is edited and cut that the male actor is kissing a mannequin and not his co-star. Check it out below.

Generally speaking, the idea of using a mannequin stand-in is pretty ingenious. It allows soaps to continue their stories as written while also keeping their cast safe. Mannequins also aren’t the only solution that the soaps have found. The Bold and the Beautiful is also utilizing actors’ spouses where possible. The Bold and the Beautiful executive producer Bradley Bell told Fortune about one specific scene where actress Katrina Bowden’s husband, musician ben Jorgensen, stood in for Bowden’s co-star Darin Brooks for a scene that required physical contact.

“It really called for a big embrace and a kiss,” Bell said. “So, once she was freed, we stopped tape, Katrina’s husband came in and they finished the scene. We see the back of his head, and I think it’s very convincing it’s really Darin.”

But for the scenes that require mannequins, well, fans are losing it over the situation. There were a lot of hilarious reactions to the tweet and you can check some of our favorites out for yourself below.

Same energy

But did they try this?

Mannequin reference for the win!

This.

And this.

I can’t even.

Lars and the Real Girl

Mannequin for the win again!

They better NOT try this with Batman

Yep