Jenna Dewan Gets Real About Filming The Rookie While Pregnant And Co-Parenting With Channing Tatum

jenna dewan as bailey nune on the rookie
(Image credit: ABC)

Jenna Dewan has seen a lot of ups and downs over the past several years. Her split from ex-husband Channing Tatum shocked many, but the dancer/actress has had several personal triumphs since then, becoming engaged to actor/producer Steve Kazee and having a son, Callum, with him in March 2020. The one-time American Horror Story guest star has also been a part of the cast on the ABC hit, The Rookie, since Season 3, and recently got real about filming the series while pregnant with her third child, and opened up about co-parenting with Tatum.

What Did Jenna Dewan Say About Filming While Pregnant And Co-Parenting With Channing Tatum?

As noted, Jenna Dewan is currently expecting her third child, and while she knows the general deal of what being pregnant is like for her, many women don’t have the same pregnancy experience every time they do it. Seeing as how her impending second child with Kazee (who played her psychotic fictional husband on The Rookie) required her to work while growing that baby (as opposed to her first pregnancy with daughter Everly, 10, whom she shares with Channing Tatum, and Callum) things could have been rather rough for her. 

However, Dewan recently told Romper that while the process was “exhausting,” working on the “well-oiled machine” during her third pregnancy also did wonders for her, because it was “also amazing.” She explained:

It helps balance my mind. And The Rookie is truly the most dreamy, incredible job. Everyone is so lovely. It’s really fun, and it’s easy, and it flows, and so I think that’s a big part of why it’s easy for me to work pregnant. I’ve been on other sets that are obviously a lot more difficult. So I love it. You’re tired, but when is a mom not tired?

Yes. When is a mom not tired? I’m legitimately asking the moms in the room what their opinion on that is, because from what I’ve heard the exhaustion basically lasts until you die, even if your kid is 60 years old at that point.

Luckily, it sounds like working with the good people at The Rookie (which recently celebrated filming its 100th episode) is a breeze, which helped the Step Up star more easily get through her long days on set portraying firefighter Bailey Nune. 

We’re still awaiting word on whether or not the police drama will be renewed for Season 7, so the former World of Dance host doesn’t know how much time she’ll be able to take off after the birth. But, whether she can take a long respite or has to return to set relatively quickly or not, adding another child to the mix will likely mean some extra coordination when it comes to co-parenting Everly with Tatum. When asked about co-parenting with her ex, she said:

It’s always a journey. It never ends. You just learn as you go and get better at certain things, and for me, Evie will always be my top priority. I just continually put her first. That’s how I can manage all hard things.

Aside from some issues in their divorce (and her later having to clarify something she said about her ex), Dewan and Tatum appear committed to co-parenting peacefully for the sake of their daughter. So, hopefully, their “journey” down that path will continue to be one filled with more positives than negatives. 

Adrienne Jones
Senior Content Creator

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism.