Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson grew closer filming ‘Love in the Time of Corona’

Art imitates life for Grammy- and Tony-winning “Hamilton” actor Leslie Odom Jr. and his wife, Nicolette Robinson (“The Affair”). The couple stars in Freeform’s timely “Love in the Time of Corona” (premiering Saturday at 8 p.m.), a “Love Actually”-esque limited series following several people experiencing different types of love during the coronavirus pandemic. “On a …

Art imitates life for Grammy- and Tony-winning “Hamilton” actor Leslie Odom Jr. and his wife, Nicolette Robinson (“The Affair”).

The couple stars in Freeform’s timely “Love in the Time of Corona” (premiering Saturday at 8 p.m.), a “Love Actually”-esque limited series following several people experiencing different types of love during the coronavirus pandemic.

“On a global level, this is such a unique moment for everyone,” Robinson, 32, told The Post. “We wanted to be able to time-capsule it, in a way. Because it felt like an important moment to remember the good and the bad and to try to come out of it changed.”

In “Love in the Time of Corona,” they play James (Odom) and Sade (Robinson), a married couple in the midst of deciding whether they want to have a second child during lockdown. They filmed the show in their real LA home last month, using social-distancing guidelines that included hiring Robinson’s sister as their production assistant — so that she was the only person who set foot in their house to adjust the cameras.

As it turns out, even Broadway and TV stars need time to make their homes camera-ready.

“The one day before we were set to start shooting, our house was a mess,” said Odom. “Because I don’t know about you, but none of us knew how long quarantine was going to last, so we were like, ‘Let’s take this time to organize the cabinets and organize the shelves.’ Things come apart before you could put them back together, so the house was definitely not ready for prime time! But somehow, we got it together.”

Both of them said they enjoyed turning their home into a set, with Robinson joking, “You can’t beat that commute.”

Real-life couple Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson play a fictitious husband and wife in “Love in the Time of Corona.”Freeform

In the original script, James and Sade met online and started dating during the quarantine. However, Robinson and Odom asked for the characters to be changed to a married couple. Robinson and Odom, 39, met in 2008 while she was auditioning for an LA production of the musical “Once on This Island,” on which Odom was assistant director alongside Billy Porter (who “takes full credit” for their partnership). The couple has been married since 2012 and had a daughter, Lucille Ruby, in 2017.

“We told [creator Joanna Johnson], ‘If you’re set on that particular story we understand, but if we’re going to be part of it, we’d like to make it more personal to us,’” said Odom. “Because we thought that what comes from the heart reaches the heart. We were having certain conversations at home, and we were offering that up to the show. If we allowed [the audience] to peek in a little bit into something that resembles our marriage, it might make it more relatable.”

For instance, on the show, James reacts to the February killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed African American man who was fatally shot while jogging, sparking widespread conversations about racism.

“I think one of the most valuable contributions that Nicolette and I made to the script was making sure that aspect of this time was represented on the show as well,” he said, adding that they were “profoundly” affected by the killing of Arbery, as well as the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom were killed at the hands of police.

“As we tell a story, we add to the time capsule of what life was like at this particular time in history. We really felt like that had to be memorialized as well. So that was challenging, finding the balance of reaching towards the light but still honoring how difficult this time has been,” Odom said. “At the end of the day, it’s called ‘Love in the Time of Corona,’ because they wanted to turn the mirror to face us all and say, ‘We know there’s been anxiety and grief and trauma, but hasn’t there also been joy, connection? Hasn’t there been love?”

‘It’s going to either bring you closer together or pull you farther apart.’

The duo said the entire experience of filming the show has been beneficial to their own relationship.

“It’s a stressful time and so, by its nature, it’s going to either bring you closer together or pull you farther apart,” said Odom. “At the top of quarantine, we tried to re-commit to one another and re-commit to our friendship, first and foremost. So we were communicating so much better … it has brought us closer.”

Robinson added that their family has been able to spend more time together.

“Just two days before we started filming, I lost a very dear friend to the virus. Every single day, there is a different piece of news or a different worry,” she said. “Every day is different, and I think celebrating the wins and looking for the beauty in this time is just as important as acknowledging the tough parts as well. That’s why I’m so grateful to be part of this show. I think that’s part of the message.”

During the pandemic, Odom’s role as Aaron Burr in “Hamilton” has been getting buzz again, too, as a recorded version of the Broadway sensation hit Disney+ on July 3.

“While I was sad about the fact that I wouldn’t be able to be in the same room with my brothers and sisters that I made the show with, and clap them on the shoulder and tell them their work had moved me — we have something maybe even greater with the release on Disney+,” he said. “People are home with their kids all day every day, and these kids are re-watching this thing a few times a week. Someone said it’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’ to a new generation. So to be a part of that and to get this art to people quite possibly when they needed it most … There’s no ‘bitter’ in the sweet. It’s turned out to be all sweet.”