Grace and Frankie final season delayed due to concerns for ‘old’ cast amid COVID
The smash hit Netflix show – which sees two friends move in together after their husbands leave them for each other – is due to return for one final seventh season
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The makers of Grace and Frankie have said they are going to take extreme precautions to shoot the final season of the smash hit Netflix show amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The four main stars – Jane Fonda, 82, Lily Tomlin, 80, Sam Waterston, 79 and Martin Sheen, 80 – have a combined age of 321, and are all over the ‘at risk’ age of 70 from the deadly COVID-19 virus.
As Hollywood slowly begins to return to work following months of lockdown, the cast and crew of Grace and Frankie won’t be returning to the filming lot just yet amid concerns over the safety of the elderly cast.
Show co-creator Marta Kauffman says the series won’t begin filming until 2021 at the earliest and that the production team will be closely monitoring how Hollywood succeeds in the fight against COVID in order to establish the best health and safety measures for the stars.
The 63-year-old told Entertainment Tonight: “We’re not going to be the first production back [because] we have four cast members who are older.
“They’re not going to be the first ones back. We can’t be the ones to make any mistake.
“We are hoping that we get to see some other productions and see what works and be able to adapt the way we were going to shoot to these new guidelines… My sincere hope is that we’ll be back at work in January.”
Hollywood productions have cautiously re-started work in the USA despite COVID-19 infection rates continuing to be recorded.
ABC’s reality dating show The Bachelorette, and CBS’s legendary soap The Bold and the Beautiful are among shows filming again with strict health and safety measures in plac.
While Hollywood movies filming in the UK including Mission Impossible 7 and Jurassic World: Dominion have been stampeding ahead as lockdown measures on this side of the Atlantic ease.
Grace and Frankie sees Jane Fonda’s Grace Skolka and Lily Tomlin’s Frances “Frankie” Bergstein become best friends after their husbands come out as gay and leave them for a new life together.
The series has been showered with a string of glitzy award nominations including Emmy and Golden Globe nods since it first began airing in 2015.
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