Celina Jade didn’t just take on one of the most demanding roles of her career for Hulu’s new Hong Kong revenge thriller The Season — she did it while pregnant, navigating intimate scenes, sweltering locations, and an unexpected homecoming, all at the same time.
Speaking to Resonate Voices, Jade opened up about what it was really like to film across Hong Kong for an English-language production for the first time in years, and how she managed a shoot that became far more personal than she ever anticipated.
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She Told Production Early — And Expected the Worst
Jade’s account of filming while pregnant is striking precisely because of how matter-of-factly she describes it. When she discovered she was pregnant, she went to the production team immediately and told them she would completely understand if they decided to move on without her. Instead, the team adapted around her entirely — reshuffling wardrobe fittings and front-loading any scenes involving swimwear or intimacy so they could all be completed before she began showing.
She described the process with warmth and humor, joking that the baby had earned some kind of acknowledgment for effectively co-starring in the production before even being born.
The physical side of filming while pregnant came through in ways she hadn’t fully anticipated. One scene shot in a restaurant became unexpectedly difficult when octopus was served after an 11-hour shoot day, triggering nausea she had to quietly push through while the cameras kept rolling.
Filming Intimate Scenes for the First Time With an Intimacy Coordinator
Adding another layer of complexity to the shoot was the fact that The Season was the first production Jade had ever worked on that used a dedicated intimacy coordinator — a practice she noted is now standard in Hollywood but was entirely new to her.
She described the process as both unusual and genuinely reassuring. Actors used a simple green and red system to mark their boundaries clearly before filming began. The conversation itself broke the ice in an unexpectedly funny way — one of her co-stars was making polite small talk, asking whether she had children and whether she wanted more, before Jade casually informed him that she was, in fact, currently pregnant. She laughed recounting the moment, adding that she made sure he knew there was nothing to worry about.
Despite the awkwardness, she said the coordinator’s presence made a real difference in keeping everyone on set protected and comfortable throughout production.
Coming Home to Hong Kong
What gives Jade’s account its most emotional weight is how deeply personal the filming locations were. Born and raised in Hong Kong before moving to Beijing to build her career in the mainland, she described returning to the city as genuinely feeling like coming home — and the shoot brought her back to places that had lived in her memory for decades.
She grew up in Discovery Bay and Lantau, and she brought her daughter to the set during production so she could enjoy those familiar surroundings too. Filming on the Star Ferry — with the entire vessel to themselves and the Hong Kong skyline spread out ahead — was one of the most emotionally resonant moments of the entire shoot for her.
Not everything about filming in Hong Kong was glamorous, however. The city’s compact streets made logistical production work significantly more compressed than in larger filming cities, and space was always at a premium. A shoot aboard a yacht — which looked entirely luxurious from the outside — required the engine to be switched off for sound, eliminating all air-conditioning and leaving the cast and crew working in intense heat with no ventilation.
What the Show Is Actually About
The Season is set within Hong Kong’s privileged high society and centers on hidden power, status, and revenge. Jade plays Carrie, a self-made woman attempting to carve out a permanent place for herself in a world that was never built to accept her — and quietly discovering just how far that world will go to keep her out.
The Season is currently streaming on Hulu.
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