2 days Ago By Patrick Hipes
For the creative team behind Hulu ’s Good American Family , exploring the murky and notorious true-life tale of Natalia Grace was not to decide which of the conflicting narratives it wanted to embrace – was Grace an adoptive child with dwarfism or an adult with nefarious intentions posing as a juvenile? – but rather to approach the story with an eye toward commenting on truth, bias and the space between. During the show’s Deadline Contenders Television panel, creator, co-showrunner and executive producer Katie Robbins explained that when she embarked on the project in 2020 the story was as saturated in the popular culture as it would become. Related Stories ‘Good American Family’ Trailer Drops For Ellen Pompeo Drama That’s “Inspired By Multiple Stories, Perspectives, Threats & Accusations” ‘1923’s Brandon Sklenar Says Season 2 Finale Of The ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff “Hits Very, Very Hard” — Contenders TV “I had to do quite a deep dive into figuring out what the story was about, and so I read tons of articles and watched tons of clips,” she said.
“You would read an interview with the parents and you’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, this version of the story is absolutely true’...
And then you’d go and read an interview with Natalia or see her on Dr. Phil and you’d be like, ‘No, I’m totally wrong. This is what this is.
’ I found that experience really fascinating, and I wanted to try to bring that into the storytelling.” Watch on Deadline RELATED: Contenders TV — Deadline’s Complete Coverage The approach struck a chord with the series’ star and executive producer Ellen Pompeo , who, given an opportunity to step out of her familiar Grey’s Anatomy role and demonstrate her versatility, wanted to take “a really big swing.” “We often talk a lot, hopefully we do, about our unconscious bias regarding race, but very rarely do we ever highlight our unconscious bias on people with disabilities or people that look different than us,” said Pompeo.
“I love that we touch on all of our unconscious bias: why do we believe what we believe about someone else based on the fact that they may look different from us or may have different abilities than us?” Similarly, Pompeo was drawn to the complexities of her role as Natalia Grace’s adoptive mother Kristine Barnett, who has steadfastly clung to her version of the story’s events. “Particularly now we see a lot of this: people who are villains really see themselves as victims. It’s this really interesting psychology,” said Pompeo, who chose not to meet with Barnett in preparing for the role.
“It’s so glaring to me. These people just make these terrible choices, these unthoughtful choices, and they’re just convinced that they’re the victim. And I find that fascinating.
And so that was something that I really used in my version of Kristine, that ‘It couldn’t possibly be me. It has to be everybody else, because everything I do is righteous and perfect.’” RELATED: 35 Of The Most Anticipated New & Returning TV Shows Of 2025 Mark Duplass , who plays Barnett’s husband Michael, said he’s eagerly anticipating when the audience will experience the narrative shift from the Barnetts’ version of events to Natalia Grace’s.
“It was such a bold way to do it, because this is how we receive the news: you just get this big fire hose of opinions that is presented to you as truth, and unless you change the channel and show something else, that’s just what you’re going to believe. And there are a lot of people watching this show right now who are convinced what has happened in the first four episodes is the truth, but it’s just from Kristine and Michael’s perspective and that’s about to change, and that was really exciting.” Robbins noted that the show will remind viewers “you have to pay attention to who is telling the story.
The truth doesn’t always matter if you tell the story really well. And that I think in a show that deals with a lot of creepy horror-adjacent things, that is the most horrifying thing that we talk about in the show at the end of the day: that the truth doesn’t matter if somebody tells the story well enough.” Check back Monday for the panel video.
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