A ‘roller coaster' of perspectives: ‘Good American Family' creator on the show's unique structure and breakout star Imogen Faith Reid

Yahoo

17-05-2025

Good American Family, Hulu's gripping limited series about Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian-born orphan who becomes the center of controversy after being adopted — and later abandoned — by her American family, aired its final episode on April 30.
The ripped-from-the-headlines drama stars Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass as Natalia's adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett, alongside newcomer Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia, with supporting performances from Christina Hendricks, Sarayu Blue, and Dulé Hill.
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"Hulu came to me with the idea of doing a narrative version of this story back in 2020," creator Katie Robbins (who also served as showrunner alongside Sarah Sutherland) tells Gold Derby. "I'd heard vaguely of the story, and it was a little bit in the public consciousness, but not as deeply rooted as it is now. I went on a deep dive expedition reading as much as I could get my hands on — articles, watching interviews — and I was struck by how [your perspective would change] depending on who was being interviewed. It was like a roller coaster. I was constantly changing my mind about what had happened."
"Thinking about that gave me the sense that I would start the story in the perspective of the Barnetts, in the ways that this story was actually told in real life, and let that be the baseline," she continues. "Then, disrupt that at a certain point as a way of allowing audiences to grapple with their own biases in this unexpected way."
Robbins recently spoke to Gold Derby about the creative decisions behind the show's unique structure, the casting of its breakout star Reid, and the powerful storytelling choices that left viewers questioning their own perspectives.
SEE Casting 'Good American Family': Ellen Pompeo, Mark Duplass, Imogen Faith Reid discuss joining Natalia Grace-inspired Hulu series
Gold Derby: The series begins with Kristine and Michael's perspective, and we don't learn until later episodes that we're going to see Natalia's perspective as well. Did you want to give that away or surprise audiences?
Katie Robbins: It was something we talked a lot about. What is the right balance there? And knowing that different audiences were going to come in with different levels of familiarity with the story. There would be people who were coming in with a very strong perspective of wanting justice for Natalia, and so for them, watching the first four episodes from the perspective of the Barnetts was going to be really painful and triggering. Some people who didn't have the same kind of background, and who would come in really with fresh eyes, and buy into the story that is being told in those first four episodes, have the rug pulled out from under them in Episode 5.
On some levels, that's sort of the idea. You really are being forced to question why we believe the things that we believe. Why is it that certain people's stories are more believed than other people's stories? We wanted to try to achieve that, but also give little breadcrumbs for the people who already knew where the story ends in real life, so that they would feel like they were in good hands.
It's been fascinating watching people's reactions on social media. I do think that there were a lot of people who leaned in, and were along for the ride in those first four episodes, and were very much afraid of Natalia. Then suddenly were like, "Oh my gosh, I was wrong! Oh my gosh, she's a child! How did this happen? What's going on?" I think it's a really rare thing in this moment in history for people to admit to having misunderstood something, and to admit being wrong about something. And to do that in public on social media particularly, people don't do that. That's been really extraordinary to watch, and has made us feel like, "OK, there was a reason to tell this story in this way."
There was a DNA test done that ultimately proved Natalia was a child when these events took place.
That's why the show ends where it does. This is a show that plays around with a lot of tropes of the horror genre. We've got Natalia standing at the foot of a bed with a knife, and we've got all of these kind of creepy elements. But at the end of the day, the thing that is the scariest is that, just as you say, there is DNA evidence, there is some kind of biological evidence here saying one thing, but because that narrative was so strongly drawn, that DNA evidence doesn't actually end up mattering in the court of law. You can have a fact, and that fact ceases to have any meaning. That's something that we should all be worried about. Her coming out of that final court case, having that not matter, I think really lands the punch of what we were trying to say.
What did it mean to have Ellen Pompeo take the lead as Kristine and also executive produce?
I adore Ellen. When she was first suggested to play Kristine, I was like, "OK. Yes, please." My best friend is a doctor because of Ellen Pompeo. I love Grey's Anatomy. In those first four episodes, you want to lean in and start really empathizing — and believing the story that they're telling. We worry about Kristine and Michael. To have somebody who's as beloved an actor as Ellen was such great luck in terms of those first four episodes.
Getting to watch her play this role that takes her to these very dark places that we haven't seen her go before was such an amazing opportunity. It's really hard for any actor to go to the kinds of dark places. I think she delivers a performance that's really extraordinary.
The entire series hinged on finding the right person to play Natalia Grace. How did you find Imogen Faith Reid?
I mean, the whole thing hung on casting this role, both figuratively, but also literally. After I'd written the pilot, Hulu was like, "We'll pick it up, but it's cast contingent on casting Natalia. We have to make sure we can find somebody to play this part." And so we had an incredible casting team that I can't say enough about, who did an international search. They sent us tons of tapes. There were lots of great people, but when we got Imogen's tape we were just like, "OK, the search is over." It was like a star was born. You watch it, and you know immediately how good she is.
She's British, she'd never been to the States before, she had never [had a spoken role before]. You would know that because of how excited she is every day to be working. You can feel the magic of it all for her. But otherwise, you would never know that she hasn't been doing this for ages. She would come so prepared, so thoughtful, so emotionally available, and with a real deep desire to do justice to this person.
Can you talk about Episode 5, when Natalia is left to fend for herself in the apartment?
I had a vision for what I wanted that episode to be from the very beginning. I knew I wanted to end Episode 4 with Kristine and Michael wiping the sweat off their brows, and being like, "Thank God we got the hell out of dodge" — and leaving — and then start Episode 5 on the other side of that door. It would be the first time —whether audiences know it consciously or not — we've ever been in a room alone with Natalia. We've always been in scenes with her and either with Kristine or Michael, because those first four episodes are from their perspective. So it's the first time we're with her. She doesn't have any reason to be acting or pretending to be something that she's not, because she's all alone.
I really wanted to land that idea [that she was a child]. I have two daughters, and one of them just turned eight, and so is the same age as Natalia in those episodes. I watched her a lot, and thought about her, and thought about the things that she could or couldn't do. Kids still figure out how to play. It became about — if a child is in a house by themselves, how would they play? They would make faces at canned goods, and they would talk into a fan, and they would eat too much junk food, and watch too much television, and do the kinds of self-soothing that we see Natalia do there.
Was it difficult to shift from family drama to a courtroom drama?
Yeah. We were very lucky in that we had an insanely good research team who was on the ground in Indiana, was there for the trials, and so we had a lot of those documents. We had court transcripts, we had depositions, we had Facebook messages, we just had all of this extraordinary research to be building on. But yeah, I'd never written anything in a court before, so we had to talk to some lawyers about language and try to figure out how to craft it.
topped the Hulu streaming charts. How does it feel when your show is a success?
It's scary, it's exciting, it's been incredible. You always want people to see the things that you're trying to create. There are these themes within the show that I really care about: bias, disability, and the elusive nature of truth. Who gets to tell stories?
To be able to talk about those themes within a show that people want to watch because it also has an addicting kind of propulsive quality to it — and have people having conversations about why they believed what they believed, and why that's changed is — that was always the dream. It's a real testament to Hulu for wanting to do it, and to our incredible team of actors, and crew, and designers, and writers, and editors, and all the people who put a lot into this — who took a risk in telling a story this way.
All episodes of Good American Family are currently streaming on Hulu.
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