Film News
Bette Midler agreed to appear in new quarantine series after ticking all the COVID-care boxes
By NewsDesk
August 15, 2020
Bette Midler has explained she only agreed to star in director Jay Roach’s new quarantine film after he answered all her questions about health and safety.
The Beaches star teamed up with Dan Levy, Kaitlyn Dever, Issa Rae, and Sarah Paulson for television feature Coastal Elites, which tells the tale of five characters struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the veteran entertainer wanted to make sure she wouldn’t contract COVID-19 while making a film about the killer virus.
“I’m so paranoid, because I’m so old, you know?” Midler professed, “I feel like anything can happen to me; even if I go to the post box, I’m in trouble.”
Midler felt every possible risk had been taken care of for the shoot, adding: “I really felt that I was in superb hands. Every question that I had was answered and I got a free test. I got a free COVID test out of it, so it was win/win all around.”
She noted that the crew followed every single protocol, and ‘everybody was great’, at observing distancing and hygiene rules.
Filmmaker Roach also insisted he was very thorough, saying producers dropped equipment to the cast who were: “alone during the actual filming, there was a tiny crew just outside tethered to cables, doing focus and adjusting the sound. And I was in the room essentially on a Zoom camera.”
