'The Conners' Sara Gilbert on safely returning to set, “It's been a lot of testing”

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ABC(LOS ANGELES) — TV and film production in Los Angeles has been shut down for the most part, because of the latest COVID-19 surge. But some shows are getting back to work, like The Conners, who went back to set Tuesday.

Executive producer and star Sara Gilbert tells ABC Audio they’re being really careful.

“I would say we feel safe, but not too safe because we want to stay really vigilant and try to keep everybody healthy,” the 45-year-old actress explains. “It wouldn’t be good for me to feel too safe because then I wouldn’t be protecting everybody.”

“We’re all taking a lot of care, as much care as we can,” she adds.

The Connors, which is a continuation spin-off of the dramedy Roseanne, is currently filming the tail end of its third season and Gilbert shares that there’s “a lot of protocols” and “a lot of testing” taking place to make sure that, if a crew member contracted the novel coronavirus, it doesn’t spread.

Still, that didn’t make the decision to return to set any easier. 

“It’s been a lot of discussions, discussion with experts,” she says. “It’s been a lot of testing to see where cast and crew is at and how people are doing. And, you know, we wear bracelets to monitor how close people get to each other. Just sort of a lot of things like that that we are hopeful that we can do it safely.”

Even with all these safety measures in place, Gilbert is not naive to the fact that things could change at a moment’s notice. 

“We’re staying in the moment and seeing what happens,” she admits. “I can say we’re going to work… but if something changes… then we won’t be.”   

The Connors airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. 

By Jason Nathanson and Danielle Long
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