After two decades in Grey’s Anatomy, Ellen Pompeo makes a striking return in Good American Family, a psychological thriller inspired by true events. Premiering April 16 on Disney+, the series explores unsettling questions of identity and trust.
After 20 years saving lives in the title role of Grey’s Anatomy, actress Ellen Pompeo makes a dramatic career shift in Good American Family, a tense series inspired by true events where she plays a disturbing adoptive mother — a “big challenge” she had long been hoping for.
Already airing in the United States since March and arriving April 16 on Disney+, this gripping thriller is based on a well-known real-life case in America, told from the shifting perspectives of each of its protagonists.
The show follows Kristine (Ellen Pompeo) and Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass), model parents of three boys, who decide to adopt Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid), a 7-year-old Ukrainian orphan with a rare form of dwarfism. But suspicions arise when the little girl is accused of actually being an adult.
The story has already been the subject of a documentary series (The Curious Case of Natalia Grace on Max), which Pompeo said had already caught her attention. During a trip to Paris in March, the 55-year-old actress told AFP:
"What struck me was how everyone who talked to me about the documentary had a completely different opinion about what really happened. After reading the script, I spoke with writer Katie Robbins, who told me she had felt the same way. That’s when I knew it was a story worth telling."
This is Pompeo’s first on-screen role since stepping back from Grey’s Anatomy in 2023. She dives into the part of a manipulative and abusive woman — a world away from Meredith Grey, the surgeon she portrayed exclusively since 2005.
"It was really tough to go to such dark places and be so mean. I had just lost a very close friend right before filming, it was very sudden. I was really sad and angry — and that actually helped me."
She describes the series as “very intense,” adding that it gave her the creative challenge she had been “asking the universe” for. Still, she admits with a laugh: "I’m glad I never have to revisit that character." She also served as an executive producer on the series.
A "privilege"
"Stepping back from Grey’s Anatomy and spending fewer hours on set gave me more time to prepare for this role," she explains.
Grateful, she says she still plans to work on the long-running medical series “a little,” while staying open to new creative paths. "What’s great about aging as an actress is that the roles get more interesting and more complex."
Far from regretting a career so closely tied to the glamorous fictional hospital in Seattle, the actress — who also had small roles in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Friends (2004) — fully embraces being “identified as Meredith Grey.”
"It’s a privilege" to play a character "so beloved and iconic" — so much so that Taylor Swift named one of her cats after her — Pompeo says.
"I signed up for this, and I made that choice. It’s been extraordinary for my life."
A vocal advocate for pay equity, she announced in 2018 that she would remain on Grey’s Anatomy for two more seasons at $20 million each, making her the highest-paid actress on television for a drama series at the time.
A feminist at heart, and part of a cast that has always prioritized diverse representation, Grey’s Anatomy has stood out since its inception for its progressive values.
Its creator Shonda Rhimes — also behind Bridgerton — “continues to be inclusive and tell inclusive stories,” Pompeo says, at a time when President Donald Trump is attempting to dismantle diversity programs across all sectors of American society.
"What’s happening in the United States is unbelievable. There are no words," says Pompeo. "The government can say whatever it wants — it can try to erase women and people of color, say trans people don’t exist — but you can’t erase history."
With AFP
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