Latest news with #NataliaGrace
News24
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News24
Good American Family delivers a gripping and horrific true story
A couple adopts who they believe is an 8-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism, but questions soon arise concerning the actual identity of the adoptee. Before starting Good American Family, I didn't know much about Natalia Grace's story, though I did see the headlines. So, when my editor asked me to review it, I already had preconceived notions about what happened. I'll try to avoid any spoilers in this review, save for what is well known, in case you, like me, thought you knew the full extent of what happened between the Barnetts and their young daughter. But here's a short summary before I begin: Ukrainian-born American Natalia Grace was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett in 2010 at seven. But after she began acting out and displaying what her adoptive parents described as dangerous behavioural issues, they were convinced Grace wasn't actually a child but a grown woman intent on inflicting harm on their family. The Barnetts had her re-aged to 22, changing her birth year from 2003 to 1989 and moving her into her own apartment, leaving her to fend for herself. This story almost seems too wild and egregious to be true. I have to credit that to the writers and creator Katie Robbins and co-showrunner Sarah Sutherland, who expertly weaved together the accounts of the Barnetts and Natalia Grace. The first few episodes of the series released together share the Barnetts' accounts – while the first episode is directed by Liz Garbus – and the episodes that follow, released weekly, give Grace's account. The series and situation appear to be something out of a horror movie, and I'll be honest, this played well into what I thought I knew. And again, credit is due to the writers and directors for sucking you in, ending each episode with a more peculiar revelation than the last. At first, you can't help but believe the Barnetts' account. Mark Duplass as Michael Barnett and Ellen Pompeo as Kristine Without a doubt, Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass deliver outstanding performances as Kristine and Michael Barnett, while newcomer Imogen Faith Reid shines brilliantly as Natalia Grace. Pompeo leads the cast, and does well in showcasing the duality of her character. She appears nurturing, sometimes controlling. Then, altogether terrifying. On the other hand, Duplass fades so well into the background that it feels like a skill in and of itself to portray someone as so helpless, hopeless, and so, so pap (trust me, there isn't a more apt word). Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia Reid, who has a different kind of dwarfism from her character and worked with a movement coach to master Grace's movements, is right up there with Pompeo. Frightening and formidable to begin with, only to have her completely questioning your own humanity as she shares her side of the story, giving a wholly captivating and unforgettable performance. While the show dramatises the true story with the initial accounts from the Barnetts, it's a thriller of sorts, and it's very difficult to decipher what is real from the narrative Kristine, specifically, alleged. Similarly, although pieces of the puzzle come together with Grace's account, there's still a lot of controversy and conspiracy around what actually happened. So again, Robbins and Sutherland did well in telling this story while offering enough twists and turns, and as a journalist, I have to acknowledge and commend them for including as many accounts as they did. And yet, the horrors that emerged are etched into my mind forever, and one can't dispute the real-life photos of Grace from 2003 versus today and the duplexity and honesty of Reid's performance as a child, teen, and young adult—because Grace did, in fact, transition from childhood to adulthood, as evidenced in the 2023 restoration of her birth year back to 2003 following medical tests and DNA analysis. And so, despite the conflicting stories and bias surrounding the case, which the show indicates has much to do with a campaign that included doing a lot of press for Michael and then-semi famous Kristine Barnett. And considering what I thought I knew, I'm ashamed to say it worked, didn't it? But I digress. The show concludes that Grace was still a child, left in an apartment, and unable to cook or clean herself. She was a child when she was ordered to clean the kitchen and accused of poisoning her mom and allegedly pushing her into an electric fence. And she was a child whose only period, she claims in the series, occurred the day her adoptive mom showed her how to use a tampon after finding bloodied socks in her closet. I won't get into that last one, but it's safe to say it's all just disturbing enough to make you stop and think while you feel your skin crawl. In the final episode, Reid's Grace, now an adult, confronts her adoptive father, convinced the two 'were facing the same monster' in Kristine. In a heartbreaking moment, she tells him, 'But Michael, I was a kid. You were supposed to be my dad.' The scene is similar to a real-life confrontation the two had in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace and is a poignant reminder that an injustice was done to Grace. And the rest makes for viewing that is as gripping as it is horrific, especially if you hadn't followed the story as closely as I'm sure many would've in the US. In which case, I'd give Good American Family a watch for an engrossing true(ish?) story.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What Actually Happened To Natalia Grace Barnett?
The controversial adoption of Natalia Grace has continued to capture nationwide intrigue, particularly after Hulu's latest release of the crime drama . And while the fictionalized version of the story is captivating, nothing made our collective jaws drop more than Natalia Grace Barnett's real story that unfolded in her documentary, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. From her time with the Barnett family to navigating life with The Mans family as an adult, there's certainly a lot to unpack. Here's everything you need to know about how Natalia Grace is right now. Only four episodes of the dramatization, starring Ellen Pompeo as Kristine Barnett, Mark Duplass as Michael Barnett, and Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia Grace, have come out thus far, with the fifth being released on Wednesday, April 9. It follows the Barnetts, a family from Indiana, who adopted Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian orphan with dwarfism, in 2010. Natalia, whose birth certificate said she was born in 2003, was thought to be about 6 years old at the time, but the Barnetts eventually accused her of lying about her age and terrorizing their family. After adopting her, Kristine and Michael Barnett alleged that Natalia had traits that suggested she wasn't a child, such as adult teeth and body hair. Plus, Natalia was accused of standing at the end of Kristine and Michael's bed with a knife, trying to poison Kristine's coffee, and attempting to push Kristine into an electric fence. So, in 2012, the Barnetts petitioned the court to have Natalia's birth date changed from 2003 to 1989. This made her legally 22 years old, and Natalia was put in her own Lafayette apartment. At the same time, the Barnett family cut contact with her and moved to Canada in order to pursue their biological son Jacob's education. "I didn't understand why I was alone. I just knew I had this instinct in me to push and survive. All I was told was, 'You're 22 now. Whenever somebody asks you what your age is, you say you're 22 and you tried to murder your family.' I was taught to lie," Natalia told earlier this year. Natalia befriended a neighbor, Cynthia Mans, after she began living alone as a child. Cynthia and her pastor husband, Antwon, had 10 children and ultimately invited Natalia to live with them. The Mans then worked to obtain Natalia's guardianship, but this meant her prior age-change order would need to be vacated via more court petitions. Following DNA analyses and medical examinations, which reportedly proved Natalia was 22 years old at the time and, therefore, a child when the Barnetts moved to Canada, Natalia's birthdate was changed back to 2003, and in 2023, the Mans finally adopted her. The same year, public interest in Natalia's adoption story skyrocketed due to the docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. She got a chance to speak out about the allegations against her during the series' second season, but by the end, Antwon and Cynthia Mans surprisingly echoed the concerns of Natalia's past adoptive parents, saying she'd become "the enemy of the house." Season 3 of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace expanded on why Natalia wound up leaving the Mans family at the tail end of 2023. She accused them of being controlling, and a UK man she met online named Neil claimed they were financially exploiting her. Natalia proceeded to leave Nashville, where the Mans family had relocated, and get on a plane with Nicole DePaul, a woman who'd tried to adopt her in 2009. Neil reportedly helped concoct the plan. Today, Natalia lives in upstate New York with Nicole DePaul and her husband, Vince, who both have dwarfism. In an interview with , Nicole detailed, "At first, it was bumpy because the Mans were still involved. They were calling Natalia constantly and trying to wheel her back in." She has been diagnosed with multiple conditions, including anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, and reactive attachment disorder. In January, Natalia was learning how to drive and studying for her GED with the goal of becoming a teacher. She also expressed her desire to get married and have kids. Looking for more pop culture news? Follow us on .
Vox
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Vox
Natalia Grace, the orphan whose bizarre abandonment made her a reality star, explained
writes about pop culture, media, and ethics. Before joining Vox in 2016, they were a staff reporter at the Daily Dot. A 2019 fellow of the National Critics Institute, they're considered an authority on fandom, the internet, and the culture wars. Late in Hulu's new series Good American Family comes a moment of irony that's become all too familiar in true crime docudramas. The fictionalized Natalia Grace Barnett — at this point in the story a teen, being played by the 27-year-old Imogen Faith Reid — glowingly reads supportive comments from random internet strangers. 'I feel so bad I doubted you, Natalia,' one comment reads, 'But I guess that's what the media wanted.' Ah, yes: the ancient narrative that the media made a complicated situation worse, being proffered by a piece of media that's currently making it worse. Good American Family dramatizes the twisted saga of Natalia Grace, a Ukraine-born adoptee who was born in 2003, 1989, or somewhere in between, according to a litany of contradicting stories and court records. The new series' interminable eight episodes rehash the saga many Americans first learned about in 2019, when her second set of adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, gained media attention for adopting and then abandoning her in the US when they moved to Canada without her. The Barnetts publicly claimed that their daughter was an evil, murderous 20-something con artist pretending to be a little girl. Yes, it's the plot of the movie Orphan, but in real life. (To be clear, Natalia Grace's tale did not inspire the 2009 movie, as she was adopted in 2010, but may well have been inspired by it.) The Barnetts' behavior resulted in ultimately unsuccessful criminal charges of neglect. Though the messy details of this back and forth are recounted for viewers, including the accompanying media spectacle, the Hulu series ultimately does little to justify itself, either as entertainment or as a further examination of an abuse victim whose entire life has been lived under a magnifying glass as a result of her abuse. Here's what to know about the saga of Natalia — and why the Hulu docuseries probably isn't the last time you'll be hearing her name, even though it probably should be. Natalia was 6 or 7 — or maybe 8 or 9 — when she was adopted in 2010 By their own telling, Indiana residents Kristine and Michael Barnett and their three sons were an all-American family: Kristine would go on to author a much-lauded book about raising her son Jacob, who is a high-functioning child prodigy. The memoir, The Spark, was so popular it was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in 2013 — but while it details Kristine Barnett's miraculous job parenting her sons, it reportedly contains no mention whatsoever of the little girl she adopted alongside them. The Barnetts adopted Natalia in 2010. According to Michael Barnett, they were only given 24 hours by a shady adoption agency to make a decision about adopting her, and were provided very little information about Natalia's background and medical history. What we know is that Natalia's birth mother had been born in Latvia and was living in Ukraine at the time of Natalia's birth, which was listed on Natalia's birth certificate as September 4, 2003. She placed Natalia in an orphanage. In 2008, at the age of 5, she was brought to the US by Dyan and Gary Ciccone, a New Hampshire couple with ties to an area adoption agency focused on Russian adoptees. What happened is unclear, but Natalia's unsuccessful placement underscores the often murky and dysfunctional process of adoption, especially international adoptions, which can exploit children. Imogen Faith Reid, Ellen Pompeo, and Mark Duplass in Good American Family. Disney/Ser Baffo The Barnetts immediately ran into problems with the adoption. They claimed that Natalia, who was born with dwarfism, was showing signs of puberty, including menstruation and pubic hair, despite being only 6 or 7 according to her official birth certificate. They also claimed that Natalia had tried repeatedly to kill them, including by placing thumbtacks on the stairs, pouring Pine Sol into coffee, wielding knives, and allegedly pulling Kristine Barnett into an electric fence. According to Michael Barnett, their response to these incidents included begging the police to arrest their 7-year-old; police declined. Child services were alerted to the situation, however, and began investigating the couple's treatment of their daughter. During the same period, the Barnetts had Natalia seen by various medical experts, apparently in attempts to determine her 'real' age. Medical providers in the Barnetts' lives have since come forward to allege that they told the Barnetts Natalia was a child. To this day, it's not fully clear whether the Barnetts actually believed their own lie about Natalia being an adult, or whether they just made it up as an excuse to be rid of her. Kristine Barnett has fallen back on the medical advice she claims she was given by experts, while Michael Barnett has emphasized the court rulings concerning her age; the new Hulu docuseries depicts him as being manipulated by Kristine's own narcissism, though not without culpability. In 2012, the Barnetts successfully petitioned a probate court to change Natalia's official birth year from 2003 to 1989, which made her legally 22 years old instead of 8. According to court documents, the change was made 'based on age estimates provided by a primary care physician and a social worker,' without holding an evidentiary hearing or providing Natalia with her own legal representative in the matter. This also meant that the child services case was closed, since Natalia was now legally an adult. Around the time of this ruling, Natalia spent nine weeks in a mental hospital. She also spent time at a halfway house. The Barnetts rented two subsequent apartments for her, including one in Lafayette, Indiana — a decision made, according to court testimony from a state police detective, 'Because Kristine said Lafayette is a white-trash town and nobody is going to care or worry about [Natalia].' The Barnetts also appeared to disbelieve that the physical disabilities associated with Natalia's medical condition were real; though she had used a walker since she was a child, the apartment they rented for her was on the second floor of a house with no easy street access. After relocating Natalia to this isolated, inaccessible house in Lafayette, the Barnetts moved to Canada with their sons in 2013, leaving her behind. Natalia never saw Kristine Barnett again. The couple divorced in 2014 — but their entanglement with Natalia was only just beginning. The courts perpetuate a wrong and then fail to redress it Following her abandonment by the Barnetts in 2013, Natalia was taken in by Cynthia and Antwon Mans and their children. (Some reports say the Mans have 10 children, others say five.) Over the next decade, Natalia and others tried repeatedly to have her age change reversed in the courts, only for the courts to reaffirm that she was an adult. Natalia was legally considered an adult for most of her childhood. At one point, per court records, the Mans attempted to gain legal guardianship over Natalia, only for Michael Barnett to block their efforts because, he claimed, Natalia was an adult. 'All I was told was, 'You're 22 now,'' Natalia later told ID's multi-season docuseries about the saga, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. ''Whenever somebody asks you what your age is, you say you're 22 and you tried to murder your family.' I was taught to lie.' Prosecutors soon became interested in Natalia's case. Confusion over Natalia's actual age began to dominate the investigation into the Barnetts' behavior, which was serious enough that they were each charged separately in 2019 with criminal counts related to both child neglect and neglect of a dependent [adult]. The child neglect charges were ultimately dismissed due to the outstanding quandary of her age. In 2023, a DNA lab conducted testing that seemed to conclusively put the matter of Natalia's age to rest: she was likely around two years older than the age indicated by her birth certificate at the time of her adoption, born around 2001. At the time of her adoption, she would have been 8 or 9, and at the time of her abandonment in Lafayette, she would have been 11 or 12 — not 23, as the court system legally claimed. But because the original court ruling still stood, in 2020, prosecutors had to drop all charges related to child neglect. At Michael Barnett's 2022 trial for neglect of a dependent adult, Natalia testified against her adopted father. She alleged that she had fallen repeatedly while attempting to navigate her inaccessible apartment, and that the Barnetts had left her to fend for herself without teaching her how to access her disability payments or perform basic tasks like laundry or food preparation. Michael Barnett's lawyer, however, was able to successfully allege that at 23 — the only age Natalia was legally permitted to acknowledge under the court ruling — she should have been able to do all of those tasks as a functioning adult. Defense attorneys also implied that the Mans family were manipulating and exploiting Natalia — allegations of stealing benefits that would linger after the trial. Jurors ultimately found Michael Barnett not guilty on the neglect charge, and the pending charges against Kristine Barnett were subsequently dropped. From there, despite the mudslinging, it seemed as though things were finally resolved between Natalia and the Barnetts. By that point, however, the Barnetts, Natalia, and the Mans were something more than a set of dysfunctional squabbling families — they were all reality stars. From one messy situation to another In late 2019, the news of criminal charges laid against the Barnetts began to make headlines, and the lives of all involved irrevocably changed. Tabloid media quickly labeled Natalia a ''Psycho' dwarf,' and Natalia and the Mans family went on Dr. Phil — and all of this was within weeks of the story coming to light. Then came ID's multi-season docuseries, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, which began airing in 2023 shortly after the court proceedings. By that point, Natalia was living with the Mans family, who the docuseries framed as her saviors. The Mans, who claimed Natalia had never been dangerous at all, formally adopted her in 2023 — when she was around 21 — in a splashy event that made up part of the show's second season. The pressure to provide TV drama may have been too much for the Mans family, however. Despite caring for Natalia for nearly a decade without issues, they abruptly dramatically leaned into the 'Natalia is evil' theme, with Antwon Mans calling the show's producers to allege that her behavior had been disturbing and selfish. The ID producers, naturally, revealed this development as a shocking twist and a season-ending cliffhanger. In the documentary's third season, Natalia accused the Mans family of physical and emotional abuse. To the Hollywood Reporter, ID president Jason Sarlanis described the docuseries' decision to delve into Natalia's time with the Mans as 'do[ing] right by our audience' — whether anyone considered doing right by Natalia and her new family dynamic was less clear. In 2023, Natalia left the Mans family's Nashville residence and moved in with yet another family: The DePauls, a family of little people who reportedly wanted to adopt Natalia all the way back in 2009, prior to her adoption by the Barnetts. The ID series filmed them helping Natalia dramatically 'escape' from the Mans in the middle of the night, into a new wholesome life with a family who hopefully could finally understand her. A happy ending? Yes and no. While there's little left to say about Natalia's story at this point, it's clearly going to keep going in the public eye. In January 2025, People placed now 23-year-old Natalia on the cover, with the lurid headline 'Victim or Villain?' even though years of reporting within its own pages make the answer abundantly clear. Hulu's Good American Family similarly plays with blaming a disabled child for her own abuse. On top of that, the show drags out over eight episodes and features a parade of flat, dull characters. Ellen Pompeo as Kristine is especially one-note, narcissistic and brittle with little nuance, while Mark Duplass as Michael goes through a histrionic and unbelievable series of emotional swings as he wrestles with who to believe. The Mans are depicted as well-meaning grifters who rescue Natalia but aren't without their own issues. Though it ultimately fully accepts the framing that the Barnetts emotionally and physically abused and gaslit Natalia to a heartbreaking degree, it also initially perpetuates the idea that Natalia's behavior is alarming and disturbing. Above all, casting 27-year-old Reid to play a child 20 years younger at the time the series starts does more to confuse the narrative than clarify it. While the narrative depicts Natalia as finding closure, it's hard not to see the show leaving the door open for another season, just as ID has done again and again. What's more, Nicole DePaul recently alleged on Facebook that the docudrama had not compensated Natalia in any way for the use of her story — though they were, she claimed, compensating Kristine Barnett, perhaps in the hopes of staving off a lawsuit. (Hulu did not respond for comment.) This wouldn't be the first time that a high-profile true crime docudrama has been castigated for exploiting victims. But instead of learning any lessons from those other cases, or even from Natalia's own story, it seems we're destined to repeat these same mistakes in the quest for drama — with diminishing returns.
Forbes
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Where Is Natalia Grace Now? Her Life Today After Accusing Two Families Of Abuse
Natalia Grace in 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter" on ID. The story of Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian orphan accused by the Barnett family of lying about her age, is at the center of Hulu's new crime drama, Good American Family. Since her controversial adoption in 2010, a lot has unfolded in Natalia's life—so where is she now, and how old is she really? Good American Family, released on March 19, stars Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass as Kristine and Michael Barnett, while 27-year-old Imogen Faith Reid portrays Natalia. The series is intentionally told through multiple perspectives to highlight the conflicting accounts about what really happened in the Barnett home. An in-depth look at Natalia's life after leaving the Barnetts is explored in Investigation Discovery's three-season docuseries. In the show, Natalia—who has a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SEDc)—claims she escaped mistreatment by the Barnett family and later fled abuse from her next adoptive family, the Mans. Here's what to know about Natalia Grace's life today, including the family she now lives with and why she left the Mans after they adopted her in 2023 Natalia Grace in 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" on ID. Natalia Grace was adopted from Ukraine by a New Hampshire couple in 2008 but was re-listed for adoption in 2010. That year, Indiana couple Kristine Elizabeth Barnett, 45, and Michael Barnett, 43, adopted her, believing she was around six or seven years old. However, the Barnetts claimed that Natalia's dangerous and unusual behavior—along with alleged signs of puberty, such as the presence of pubic hair and hidden bloody tampons—led them to question her real age. Two years after adopting her, the Barnetts petitioned the Marion County Probate Court to legally change her age to 22. In 2013, they moved to Canada with their three sons, leaving Natalia alone in an apartment in Lafayette. After more than a month of living alone, Natalia met a neighbor named Cynthia Mans, who noticed her sitting on a sidewalk. Cynthia invited her to move in with her and her husband, Christian pastor Antwon Mans, along with their 10 children. The Mans family formally adopted Natalia in 2023. Michael and Kristine were charged with multiple counts of neglecting a dependent. However, after a five-year investigation, Michael was found not guilty in October 2022 on three counts of neglect and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent. In March 2023, similar charges against Kristine were dismissed. A DNA test conducted by the medical lab TruDiagnostic disproved claims that Natalia was posing as an adult while living with the Barnetts. Revealed in the docuseries, the test determined she was approximately 22 years old at the time, meaning she was around 9 when Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted her. 'This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts has said right into the trash with a match,' Natalia said in the series. @themansfamily11/Instagram The Mans family took Natalia into their care in 2013, but tensions escalated after they officially adopted her in 2023. In the third season of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, Natalia revealed that the fallout began when the Manses attempted to restrict her Internet access after discovering she was communicating with a boyfriend in the U.K. After being legally adopted, Natalia embraced the Manses' religious lifestyle and helped care for her 10 siblings while living with the family in Indiana and later Tennessee. However, in the docuseries, multiple witnesses—including neighbors and friends—allege that they saw the Manses physically abuse Natalia, including whipping her with a belt, slapping her in the face, locking her in a room, and assaulting her, according to People. Natalia Grace in 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" on ID. Since 2023, Natalia has been living with the DePaul family. She and her boyfriend reached out to Nicole and Vincent DePaul, a couple with dwarfism who had attempted to adopt her in 2009 but were unable to do so due to financial constraints. As shown in Season 3 of her docuseries, Nicole and her daughter Mackenzie secretly traveled to the Mans family's church and picked up Natalia outside the building. "The last thing I told my sisters were, 'You guys go ahead to the church sanctuary and I love you,' Natalia recalls in the series. "And then I saw the [DePauls] pull up and Mack jumped out and I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh, she's actually here.' My heart started pounding. I was terrified. I was completely terrified," she said. In January 2025, Natalia appeared on the cover of People Magazine to share her story and reclaim her narrative. 'I'm really just trying to take control of my life and stop letting other people control it. I feel like I'm becoming this new person,' Natalia said. 'This new version feels amazing—feels free.' "Just seeing what I went through and even someone with my disability — you can do anything you put your mind to. You can get through anything that life throws at you," she continued. "At the end of the day, something good happened from it. It's time to re-write my story." Nicole told People that while she has no plans to legally adopt Natalia, their life together is generally harmonious—though there are times when they don't always get along. "At first it was bumpy because the Mans were still involved. They were calling Natalia constantly and trying to wheel her back in," Nicole said. 'It was just this constant thing where we were walking a fine line of not doing too much. See, she just came from this house that basically was ruled by a dictator, so I didn't want to tell her what to do.' While the DePauls said that Natalia has never exhibited violent behavior, they recalled one incident in which she secretly recorded them in their home. Such disruptions are expected, they said, given Natalia's diagnosis of reactive attachment disorder (RAD), a behavioral condition commonly seen in children who have spent time in an orphanage. 'Did she probably do weird things in the past? Yeah,' Nicole added. '[But] when you take in a child, you take that child as your own. You don't just get rid of them when they don't fit into your puzzle." 'We're trying to guide Natalia, not control her. She's super sweet. She wouldn't hurt a fly,' added Nicole's husband, Vince. Natalia is currently studying for her GED and hopes to become a teacher. She's also learning to drive, loves listening to Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, and is preparing for upcoming surgeries related to her disabilities, according to People. She's also happily in a relationship with her boyfriend, Neil. "It's a blessing to be alive today because looking back at my 7-year-old self, I should have been dead," Natalia said. "Learning everything that I have about how to live with my dwarfism—it's been a great experience. I love it. I mean, of course, I still miss my siblings and everything. But I love it. I feel free." Good American Family is streaming on Hulu. Watch the official trailer below.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Good American Family' co-showrunners on navigating different perspective in Natalia Grace adoption scandal show
Starring Ellen Pompeo as Kristine Barnett, the new show, Good American Family (premiering on Disney+ in Canada March 19), is based on the real-life story of a U.S. family who believed the young girl they adopted, Natalia Grace, was actually an adult trying harm then. Also starring Mark Duplass, Imogen Faith Reid, Dulé Hill, Christina Hendricks and Sarayu Blue, the series shows "darker shades" of Grey's Anatomy alum Pompeo. Speaking to Yahoo Canada, co-showrunners and executive producers, Katie Robbins and Sarah Sutherland, talked about collaborating with Pompeo, who also serves as an executive producer. In addition to crafting the show to reflect all the different perspectives on this adoption scandal. Hi, is this Mrs. Barnett? I see you were on the path to adopting. We have a little girl here. She is 7 and she has dwarfism, and what's her name? Natalia, Natalia Grace. I tell you, Grace, that is beautiful. How many articles I read, I think I was still not prepared for the emotional rollercoaster that I went on still. Um, I'd love to know when you're tackling a story where there are so many different perspectives, and we're not necessarily going to get to like the most definitive. An answer at the end for for the audience to have. What do you think about just in terms of really being reflective of all the different stories, perspectives, ideas that everyone kind of had that was involved? When I first, um, dug into this, um, This story, it was, it was back in 2020 and and Hulu had said we think we might want to do a show about this. Do you like, what do you think? I, it, it was before it was quite as like ubiquitous in the popular consciousness as it is now. And so I have the sort of a, a cleaner slate in terms of going in and reading articles about, um, about the, the different parties involved. And I was so struck by the fact that like, you would read one article from one person, where one person was being interviewed and you'd be like, OK, I understand what this story is. And then you'd go and read an article or see a television interview where one of the other parties involved was being interviewed. You'd be like, Wait, wait, no, my perception of that was entirely wrong. Like, this is the version of, of events. And so, in, in crafting it, I really wanted to, um, try to, to retain that sense, that sort of like, um, shifting understanding of things, because it felt so, like, kind of familiar to. To the way that we exist now, which is that we tend to read a headline and make a snap judgment about something and not ask a lot of questions. And that that seems like a, a fairly insidious way of moving through the world, because in doing that, we lose, um, any sense of nuance and empathy and, and curiosity. Um, and so we wanted to structure this in a way that it would take the audience on a journey, um, where they got to kind of grapple with their own biases. Um, and And come out on the other end with a different understanding of things than where they started at the beginning. Because Ellen's also taking on a role as an executive producer here, um, what is she like as a collaborator and what makes her an effective collaborator? She's incredible, and it's, it's, it's amazing to be both a titan of television and also a great time. We love being around her, whether it's talking about the character, and we talked a lot about the character, um, and we were always on the same page and asking. Questions with the same kind of care, which is nice, you know, it's, we were very fortunate in that regard. Um, but yeah, I can't say enough good things as her as a collaborator. And because she's done this so long, she knows how to do everybody's job. Genuinely. Watching her is like watching an athlete and an artist, and, you know, a magician all at once, and she brings that very much to the producing side of the show, and this, you know, this show was challenging to produce. Both from a creative perspective, but also, you know, we're all trying to make television as efficiently as possible right now. And I think that she, um, was a really wonderful part of that process and just making sure we landed it in a way that, that, um, let, you know, led, uh, us to be proud. Having Ellen lead this series, I think is interesting because I think for a lot of us, like, because she was on Grace for so long, I have like an inherent trust when I See her on screen somehow. It's like, yeah, I would trust you to do surgery on me if you needed to still. Um, do you think that helps in a story like this where you have to kind of have a certain level of like feeling for her character to really kind of believe her position that I think, you know, as we see in the, in the show does seem extreme as kind of like an assumption at the beginning. Absolutely. You know, I think that the an audience's experience with the show is gonna depend so much on how much exposure they've already had to the story. Um, but if you're somebody who comes in with a specific understanding of of who Christine is, but then you see Ellen playing her, um, you are, I think, more inclined to lean in and, and empathize and, and care about her because she is such a beloved figure. Um, and so it was really exciting to like start the journey with her there and then to see these other, like, Darker shades of Ellen Pompeo than we've seen before, but absolutely, like, you know, she is like an icon. Um, and, and everybody knows her and loves her. And and so absolutely we use that to our advantage. Imogen as Natalia, I think is like such an incredible, um, person to cast here. What made Imogen such a great choice to kind of step into that role. Yeah, she's so incredible and it's been amazing getting to hear everybody, um, Respond as positively to her as we have. Um, it was an international search and the show was actually contingent on casting her, finding somebody who could play this role, who could do justice to not only multiple ages, but multiple ages from multiple points of view. As soon as everybody saw her, she was just obvious that she was the right choice. Um, and we couldn't be, we couldn't be more grateful. I mean, to get to see somebody at this part of their career who is so destined to be a star. Um, take on such an incredibly challenging role as her first role, and she just shows up. I don't know if you've met her yet, and she's as cool as a cucumber, it's, it's incredible. Um, we're obsessed and just very grateful, kind of a lifetime achievement to get to work with her at this point.
