Yahoo Lifestyle Ellen Pompeo Takes on Controversial Figure in First Major Post-Grey's Role
After 21 seasons on Grey’s Anatomy, fans are used to seeing Ellen Pompeo as a surgeon on the hit ABC series.
Now, Pompeo is shifting drastically in her first role since the medical drama, portraying a controversial real-life person who grabbed headlines for her tumultuous family life.
The actress will be playing Kristine Barnett, a midwestern woman who, along with her husband, adopted a Ukrainian child with a rare form of dwarfism.
The eight-episode series Good American Family will tell the story of how Pompeo’s Barnett, alongside her husband, Michael Barnett, played by Mark Duplass, became suspicious of their 7-year-old adopted daughter, Natalia Grace.
View the original article to see embedded media.
The couple began to believe that their daughter was not a child but rather, an adult pretending to be a young girl, and grew concerned that their lives were in danger. The couple became so convinced that they and their three biological sons were in peril that they petitioned a court to change Natalia’s birth certificate to state that she was 22 years old.
The family then got Natalia her own apartment and moved to Canada without Natalia, before ultimately facing charges of neglect in 2019. Michael was eventually acquitted and Kristine’s charges were later dismissed.
Pompeo told Vanity Fair that she initially felt that taking on the role would be a “land mine,” explaining that “this is a scary thing for me to even entertain because it’s intense stuff, and it deals with children and it deals with children who are neurodivergent and have disabilities. This just seems like really tricky stuff.”
The first two episodes of Good American Family premiere on Hulu on Mar. 19.
Next: Ellen Pompeo's Net Worth in 2025 and the Massive 'Grey's Anatomy' Salary She's Giving Up
