Latest news with #GoodAmericanFamily
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Do We Pivot and Do an Anthology?' ‘THR Presents' Q&A With ‘Good American Family' Star Ellen Pompeo
Ellen Pompeo is taken aback by the reception to Good American Family. The Hulu limited series inspired by the true, viral story of Natalia Grace — the Ukrainian-born girl with severe dwarfism (played by Imogen Faith Reed) who was adopted as a child by the character Pompeo plays, Kristine Barnett, and her husband Michael (played by Mark Duplass) in 2010 and later accused by them of faking her age — has become a ratings hit for the streamer (the April 30 final episode was the biggest finale of 2025 across Hulu and Disney), a water-cooler series and an Emmys contender. Pompeo stepped back from her beloved role on Grey's Anatomy after nearly two decades to pursue a project that she could disappear into when playing a role starkly different than her fan-favorite groundbreaking doctor. 'If my first thing after Grey's was a total dump, it would have been pretty embarrassing. (Laughs.) But listen, it happens. It's really hard to make a show. It's really hard to make content,' says Pompeo in the video chat (above) for THR Presents' series. 'This show is not perfect. If we had a drink over dinner, I'd tell you a million things that went wrong with it and shots I didn't like. It's hard to make a streaming show … [with the] same pace and schedule as a network show, but yet it's meant to be much slower and more creative. You just don't ever know in this business what you're going to get, what the end result will be, how people will receive it. You can think it's great. The timing might be off. You don't know what's going on in the world. So anytime you have something remotely successful in what we do is just a huge blessing and a win, and I was just so relieved.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Jonathan Bailey Is Breaking Hollywood's Rules - and Winning "It Was a Very Easy Yes for Me": 'THR Presents' Q&A With 'The Day of the Jackal' Star Eddie Redmayne Glen Powell to Star in Firefighter Movie From Director Ron Howard at Amazon MGM Pompeo says she thinks even Hulu was surprised with the viewership, which she credits to the fans of her and her co-stars, who include Duplass and Reed along with Christina Hendricks, Sarayu Blue and Dulé Hill. 'I think they expected it to do well, I don't think they expected it to do as well as it did,' she says with a laugh. 'Just because people love me as Meredith Grey and love me on Grey's, that doesn't guarantee anything moving forward. That doesn't guarantee that they'll follow me, doesn't guarantee that they'll like me or believe me in any other character as anything else. And the fact that I was shown so much support is pretty meaningful.' The series flipped its perspective midway through the eight episodes in order to deliver justice to Grace's story. After exploring allegations taken from court proceedings and public reports to dramatize multiple conflicting points of view, the series ends by clarifying that Natalia was a 7-year-old child when the Barnetts adopted her, meaning she was 8 years old when they set her up to live on her own. Despite the series not letting Kristine or Michael off the hook, the pair never faced legal repercussions after they were charged with neglect of a dependent. Michael was found not guilty in 2022. The following year, the charges against Kristine were dismissed. Pompeo feels that Good American Family has completely told Kristine's story, but with the success of the series, Pompeo says conversations between her and creator/co-showrunner Katie Robbins with Hulu around how they could continue began right after the finale. 'Those conversations started happening weeks ago,' she says. 'A couple days after episode eight dropped. I couldn't actually believe how fast it happened. There are two ideas right now. Yes, Kristine Barnett's story is over, or my version of Kristine Barnett's story is over, and I think what we are trying to decipher is: Is there a good enough reason to continue on with this story, or do we pivot and do an anthology and do another story next season? And I'm not going to tell you the story that we're thinking about, but it's awesome. That's what I really want to do. I want to do an anthology because I think the story we have lined up is so good for specifically the way we do this show and switch perspectives.' Pompeo says they have a few more meetings to decide the show's future, 'and ultimately it's up to Hulu who pays the bills.' She says she wouldn't play the lead in the new idea — 'I don't think I'm right for that character' — and would remain a producer. Pompeo produced Good American Family via her ABC Signature-based production company, Calamity Jane. She says that she and Robbins have a second idea they sold and are developing to Hulu as well. After successfully now playing a villain — which was a risk for the beloved Grey's star — Pompeo is excited to see what the future holds, whether that's producing or returning on camera, and the latter will include another seven episodes on next season's Grey's Anatomy where she's also an executive producer. Pompeo says the mega-hit ABC medical drama typically schedules her to appear in the beginning, middle and the end of the season so she's never off-screen for too long, as she continues to narrate each episode. As she continues to pivot beyond the famed hospital walls of Grey's, Pompeo imagines what an Emmy nomination and recognition from her peers would mean at this stage in her career. 'On Grey's, you really only get an opportunity to be nominated for things in your first few seasons, and so that time had clearly passed. I didn't crave that kind of recognition. I craved the sort of financial and job security situation more that I did critical accolades — that's why I stayed on the show,' she candidly explains. 'Had I been [chasing] critical acclaim, I wouldn't have stayed on Grey's for so long. So it wasn't always the most important thing to me but now that I'm doing something new, it would definitely, probably help me in this next chapter of my story — moving on from Grey's, doing other roles.' She continues, 'I haven't given anybody a reason to believe that I could do anything else, so if people did recognize that I did do something else and it was worthy of even just a[n Emmy] nomination, maybe I can give myself a compliment, because I'm not so good at that! After 500 episodes of TV, I think it's OK to want a little trophy now.' This edition of THR Presents is sponsored by Hulu. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise Solve the daily Crossword
Perth Now
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Ellen Pompeo wants help keeping ageing at bay
Ellen Pompeo isn't planning to "keep it 100% natural" as she gets older. The 55-year-old actress is trying to keep the signs of ageing "at bay" and while she does what she can to look after herself, she also boosts her routines with "a little bit of Botox", Morpheus8 treatments and skin peels. She told People magazine: 'Obviously getting older is a privilege, but I definitely make my living on TV with my face. So, I think you can lean into the aging, if you want, or you can fight it. And I think I'm just trying to keep it at bay, you know? "I definitely am not going to say I'm keeping it 100% natural, that's for sure. I definitely have vanity. It's definitely not easy to watch yourself age.' But the Grey's Anatomy star - who has two daughters with husband Chris Ivery - isn't prepared to have filler. She said: 'I don't like it at all. I'm not really into it." Ellen follows a "super-clean" diet because she thinks staying active and watching what she eats are key to how she looks and feels. She said: 'I think diet and exercise is honestly the key. I know everybody says it, but I really do. I'm a pretty regimented person. Very disciplined. My husband says I'm the most disciplined person he knows, which I think is a compliment. 'I'm really quite militant about the way I eat and what I eat." However, she noted her weakness is sweets, but added: "I really try to manage it. I really just try to eat dark chocolate and cherries.' Ellen has to move "all day long", and "pretty much every day" tries to indulge in a sauna and a cold plunge. She said: 'I'll ride my bike from my trailer to the set... "'Even when I travel, I try to look for hotels that have a sauna and a pool. If they don't have a cold plunge, put a little bit of ice water on your face! I think it really tightens up my face, and the endorphin rush also makes me feel great.' The Good American Family actress is proud to be an ambassador for Cindy Crawford's Meaningful Beauty. She said: 'I am old enough to know that Cindy was one of the first women to have a beauty brand. I don't know of any other women in her position that were doing beauty brands back then when it wasn't cool or popular. I'm sure she got more than a few eye rolls. 'I love the serum. That's my hero product from the line, and, I think that's their best product."
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Sirens' creator Molly Smith Metzler on watching Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock bring her characters to life: ‘it was really pinch me'
In Netflix's limited series Sirens, creator Molly Smith Metzler describes seeing stars Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy, and Milly Alcock bring to life characters she originally wrote in a play more than 15 years ago — which the show is adapted from — as both 'dreamy' and 'incredible.' 'These characters have been with me for over a decade,' Metzler says. 'To show up on set and have them played by these three women — I mean, it was really pinch me.' More from GoldDerby Inside 'The Daily Show': The team behind the satirical news series on politics, puppies, punchlines - and staying sane Ripped from the headlines: How the showrunners of 'Monsters,' 'Apple Cider Vinegar' and 'Good American Family' mined truth for drama Dakota Fanning said 'yes' to 'The Perfect Couple' the moment she heard Nicole Kidman was involved, without knowing anything else about the show The show reimagines the mythology of sirens — those dangerously seductive women from Greek lore — not as villains but as complex individuals with stories of their own. Metzler was inspired in part by Margaret Atwood's poem Siren Song, which challenges traditional notions of female monstrosity. 'Why are they cast as monsters, and why do we cast women as monsters so easily?' she asks. 'Especially the beautiful ones.' That question becomes a central theme in Sirens, a show that leans into uncomfortable gray areas, especially around class and identity. 'Are you monstrous for trying to change your class and where you come from?' Metzler asks. 'Is ambition a monster?' Originally a 90-minute stage play, the adaptation into a miniseries allowed Metzler to explore these questions in new and layered ways. 'The play is in real time and in one room. It tells a tight story,' she explains. 'With the show, we got to blow that up — bigger themes, a larger cast, and much more space to play.' Among the most striking additions is the setting — a palatial home perched on a cliff in North Fork, Long Island. 'That staircase you see? It's real,' Metzler confirms. 'The whole house helped us convey how exclusive this world is.' Cr. Macall Polay/Netflix © 2025 The show's visual opulence — sumptuous parties, towering architecture, and pastel-drenched wardrobes — was carefully constructed to evoke the feeling of being both invited in and simultaneously shut out. That cultish feeling also plays out in the characters — especially Michaela, played by Moore. Her role, Metzler explains, could have easily gone too big or become caricatured, but Moore's precision and gravitas grounded her. 'Julie sets the tone of the work environment,' Metzler says. 'She's so professional, so generous, and the most prepared actor I've ever worked with. Michaela works because Julie played her.' As for the literal sirens of the show — the birds of prey featured onscreen — Metzler admits they were 'terrifying,' but that they seemed to bond deeply with Moore. 'They were hypnotized by her. We were all terrified, but they were in love with her.' Kevin Bacon also joined the cast in a role that didn't exist in the original play. Metzler describes his character Peter as 'the guy next door' who's friendly with the staff and drinks beer from a can. 'Kevin brought so much humanity to the role. It was a joy to write for him,' she says. One surprising and personal touch that viewers might miss? The female vocals in the score are performed by Fahey. 'She's got this stunning Broadway voice,' Metzler reveals. 'It's Devon's voice you're hearing. That made the whole thing feel more intimate, more personal.' Despite early awards buzz, Metzler is cautious about reading too much into the hype. 'I try to just appreciate any attention and take the opportunity to sing the praises of this team. If the show's good, it's because of them.' Best of GoldDerby Leslie Bibb breaks down her aha moments filming 'The White Lotus': 'Kate suddenly got jealous' 'Agatha All Along' star Ali Ahn: Getting Patti LuPone's approval while singing was 'like I had died and gone to heaven' Inside 'The Daily Show': The team behind the satirical news series on politics, puppies, punchlines — and staying sane Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ripped from the headlines: How the showrunners of ‘Monsters,' ‘Apple Cider Vinegar' and ‘Good American Family' mined truth for drama
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction — which makes true crime incredibly fertile ground for generating compelling ideas for TV series. But it also brings its own set of complications, where showrunners have to toe a careful line when dealing with real-life characters. Here, the executive producers behind three of the season's news-inspired series — Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story's Ian Brennan, Good American Family's Katie Robbins, and Apple Cider Vinegar's Samantha Strauss — reveal how they navigated those landmines to critical and commercial success. More from GoldDerby 'The Traitors' Season 4 casts a different Rob from 'Survivor,' a K-pop star, and Taylor Swift's potential future mother-in-law Dakota Fanning said 'yes' to 'The Perfect Couple' the moment she heard Nicole Kidman was involved, without knowing anything else about the show Roy Wood Jr. on how 'Lonely Flowers' became his most personal special to date Gold Derby: What made you want to take on these complex projects? Ian Brennan: I wasn't actually convinced at first. We were trying to follow Dahmer, and those are big shoes to fill. And my level of detail about the Menendez brothers was really minimal. I remember them being caricatured on Saturday Night Live for crying on the witness stand. It was not articulated at the time what they were crying about. That's how low our cultural resolution was at the time, to keep two thoughts in our head, that boys could be victims of sexual violence and also murderers — that was just too hard for that era of pop culture. But just getting into the case, I was like, "Oh no, this contains multitudes, this is really deep." It was in fact, a lot to take in. It's not this was like a new case or anything. It's become now a new case, which is f--king wild. I expect that the boys will get paroled based on this 'new' evidence that was not new at all. We just pointed those out again, and it shows the power of television for sure. Samantha Strauss: Our show is about a woman who faked brain cancer and built a wellness empire on her lie. There was a 60 Minutes exposé, which was a trainwreck of an interview, and it really captured the imagination here in Australia. She wore a very interesting pink turtleneck and just was unable to tell the truth. The rise and the fall of Belle Gibson might just feel like a scammer story we've seen before, but the journalists who actually broke the story on Belle wrote this beautiful book about her, and they had incredible sources, they also painted the picture of wellness culture. They followed other cancer scammers across history and other wellness influencers, and what I just loved was that it was a tapestry and an opportunity to have a conversation about wellness culture, about social media, about our need for approval. Katie Robbins: Hulu came to me back in 2020 with the idea of turning this story about Natalia Grace and the Barnetts into a narrative limited. Back then, the story was out in the world, but not as pervasive as it is now. And so I had to do my own deep dive into it. I had never done true crime, nor had I been like looking to do true crime, necessarily, but I was so struck by the experience of reading about these stories in that I would read one article and just be like, "Oh my gosh, this is the truth." And then I'd go and watch an interview with one of the other parties involved, and I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, no, I was wrong." That feeling of whiplash and not knowing which way was up, I thought was really interesting. The more I learned about the story, the more important and insidious that became because at the end of the story, there is some empirical, biological evidence. And that evidence didn't end up mattering in the court of law or the court of public opinion. I thought was really fascinating and really troubling, and something that feels every day more troubling because we're seeing it writ large across this country. And so I came up with the idea of using perspective as the way of telling the story — starting the story in the perspective of the Barnetts in this heightened, slightly campy, kind of tone, and then at a certain point that being upended and switching perspectives, and us having to question everything that we've been we've seen so far, and also question why we believed what we saw so far. Do you feel like you were able to get at some "truth"? Brennan: For our show, we knew from the beginning that truth was going to be tricky, because four people know the truth of the story. Two are in prison. Two are dead. There's not some piece of evidence that hasn't been looked at, it's been so combed over, and everybody's sticking to their story. So we knew we had to tell it like, like Rashomon, that we had to keep telling the story over and over again from different perspectives. You have to allow yourself to be making a painting, not a photograph, and you try to get as close as you can. Robbins: The 'truth' is it's complicated and hard to hold onto in our story, and yet there was some empirical fact at the end of it. And so the way that we went about doing it was to really draw from allegations that the two sides have made about each other, and that we use the perspective-driven storytelling as a way of saying, "OK, we're telling this person's version of events, and now we're telling this person's version of events, and then finally we end with some sense of empirical fact." We had a treasure trove of research. I often thought about we were doing as the way a sculptor works with a big piece of granite. You've got the form, and now we have to chisel away at that and figure out what is the story that we're telling with this boulder of research that we have. As long as your North Star is an emotional truth for the people that you're telling stories about, then I think it gives you a little bit of license to be able to play and to tell a story that feels dramatically engaging and emotionally true. Strauss: I really grapple with this telling a true story. The effect can be a pile on. Our Belle is a real person. She's out there, and she's got a family. I had to keep going back to the idea of entertainment first and foremost. It's the conversation around those decisions of trying not to sensationalize the story, not glorify her behavior. Because as a writer, I love an antihero. You just want to get in there and get into the marrow, and you put all your own sh-t into her sh-t and your needs and deep wounds into her deep wounds. It was always important to get right to the edge of empathy for her, because she's the baddie, but it's the culture that's enabled her, the social media culture in particular, and how that cannibalizes our intense need for approval and for love. There were grown-ups in the room that were really enabling her behavior. Every time we in the writers room felt too much sympathy for her, we would then walk it back and have to remember the people who were so negatively affected by her, and that was why it was important to to juxtapose her with someone who really did have cancer and who desperately wanted to save herself, and who was lying to herself about how her alternative treatment was making her well. Did you reach out to the real people involved, or did the legal teams say to you, actually, you're better off not talking to them at all. Strauss: That was our legal advice, but also the creative advice. Our character of Belle, played by Kaitlyn Dever, she became our version, not the real version. Some things are condensed and all of those things, but hopefully, the profound truth is at the center Brennan: We didn't [contact the Menendez brothers], but that was by design. I don't even think at the beginning they would have wanted to speak to us, but we didn't reach out again. There's nothing more to learn. Their story has remained the same. And I think you don't want to be seen as being in the tank for anybody. We didn't get any worried phone calls from legal. I think the Menendez brothers have reached a threshold of fame that's almost public domain by virtue of how everybody knows it. I think that's just where you try to do as much research internally as you can and trust a moral North Star. Robbins: It was very important to try to do justice to Natalia's story and to get that story out there, and to use the structure of it to shine a light on these themes around bias and disability and the fact that the truth doesn't matter sometimes, if the person who's telling it is telling it in a way that is captivating and convincing, we stop asking questions and then we cease to move through the world with empathy and curiosity. So that was really important. We really got to tell the story that we wanted to tell, and the story that felt like it was doing justice in the way that we'd hoped. Have you heard from the real people involved? Strauss: I haven't. I really expected Belle to storm the launch, but for someone who really did crave the spotlight, she has been surprisingly AWOL, which is great. I mean, it might have been good for the publicity. [Laughs.] Brennan: No. The person who's out there still is Leslie Abramson, their lawyer, who I thought we'd hear from, just by virtue of being a lawyer on TV. I think we portrayed her in a way that she would love. But I was wondering if she was going to come knocking but she never did at all. Robbins: Nothing from the Barnetts. What do you want people to take away from your projects? Strauss: I read every negative thing that anyone ever writes, but in between, is the positives, which is the people who feel hurt, who are chronically ill or have cancer, who are bullied by their friends online. They're told to literally drink apple cider vinegar and you'll cure yourself. What is heartbreaking is the, hundreds, thousands [of dollars] that you might spend to go to a quack center and put your health in the hands of someone who's not necessarily a scientist, who hasn't been to medical school. It was important for us to show that doctors aren't always right. You do have to advocate for yourself. We get so polarized. and social media loves pushing us into down our rabbit holes, and creating an us and them. I love the sentiment of listening to each other and balance. Robbins: At the end of the day, the great horror of it is that there was empirical fact about Natalia's age, and that didn't matter, and in the state of Indiana, that hasn't made a difference in her birth certificate. That's terrifying to me, that there can be scientific evidence and that doesn't mean anything. That becomes more and more of something that I think we need to be aware of, and we need to have media literacy and ask questions. This wouldn't have happened had Natalia been of average stature, if she hadn't been born into the body that she was born into. If our show can help people ask more questions and move through the world with a little bit more empathy and curiosity, that's the great takeaway. Brennan: That abuse, sexual or otherwise, is almost like you actually abuse multiple generations of people. It almost destroys someone's DNA and it becomes this heritable thing that then they pass on generation after generation. I think there is rarely sexual abuse that happens in a vacuum. I'm sure it does happen, but it's almost always abused, sexually abused, abusive people were themselves sexually abused. It's learned behavior — these cycles of abuse, how toxic and how permanent they become, and become almost a sort of family member that everyone's forced to live with. Why do you think audiences are looking for these kinds of stories now more than ever? Brennan: Dahmer was a real eye opener for everybody, including Netflix. That's a challenging show. That's a hard watch, but I think we live in dark times, and people need a little bit of affirmation that they're not alone in seeing horrors around them. Robbins: It certainly seems that there is an appetite for this kind of storytelling, and I am always wondering what that's about. Why are we so interested in it? There's a little bit of a desire to dissect what is happening in the world, and holding a mirror up to ourselves. And these are stories that are larger than life in a lot of ways, and don't feel necessarily reflective of each of our individual experiences. And yet, these are real people, and so there is something almost Shakespearean about the scale at which these stories are being told, and yet, what they're born out of are things that are very true to each of us, Nobody sets out every day to say, I want to be a villain, I want to go off and do bad things and torment people. They are trying to lead their lives in the way that feels like true to them. And yet these things happen. And so I'm trying to understand why these things are happening within our society, and what that says about our society, What I like about doing this kind of work, having now done it once, is that it does feel like a chance to write an op-ed a little bit. I think an important thing to be able to do as an artist is to look at the world around you and try to make sense of it. That's what we're doing. We're meaning makers. Strauss: They are easy to sell, or they have been lately, because there's already a built in audience and a conversation. Our show sort of sits in the scammer microcosm. I have thought a lot about that, why we like scammers. Part of it is the audacity. How can someone do that? How can they break the system? Oh, maybe I can break the system. But then I think we do like to see the fall from grace and justice served sat a deeper level. I wonder if it's because we often feel like we're being scammed by people in our lives, or we're being gaslit by people in our lives. Brennan: It's also that it was a true story, you couldn't write it. It's ruined writers' rooms for me, because if it was a scripted story, you'd get the note: "That's too on the nose." Because humans are super weird. The third season of Monsters is about a grave-digging necrophiliac — really, really dark stuff. And it doesn't faze me at all. It's just fascinating. That is what human beings are capable of. Best of GoldDerby Inside 'The Daily Show': The team behind the satirical news series on politics, puppies, punchlines — and staying sane Dakota Fanning said 'yes' to 'The Perfect Couple' the moment she heard Nicole Kidman was involved, without knowing anything else about the show 'Slow Horses' star Rosalind Eleazar gets real about her MI5 outcast Louisa Guy: 'She's really not OK' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Erewhon Pumpkin Seeds Cause Chemical Reaction That Brought Bomb Squad to Airport
Erewhon Pumpkin Seeds Cause Chemical Reaction That Brought Bomb Squad to Airport originally appeared on L.A. Mag. "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo loves to travel. Even after, she says, it led her to be detained at an unnamed airport in March because of a bomb scare triggered by "probably the most expensive sunflower seeds money can buy," purchased at an L.A. Erewhon. "I had a bag of sunflower seeds, like organic sunflower seeds from Erewhon," Pompeo told Travel & Leisure. "They literally held me for an hour, and they brought the bomb squad 55-year-old actress who lives in Los Angeles said she offered to throw away the pricey seeds, but was told by the Transportation Security Agency that she had to wait for the bomb squad. "I was like, what is happening? Is this a joke?" she said. After testing, officials told her that the scare was likely sparked by what she told the magazine was "a chemical on the packaging of these super expensive, fancy, organic, clean sunflower seeds. My protein on the plane!' She made her flight, she said in the interview, but not before texting her publicist: "I might not get on this plane, and you're never gonna guess why.'" Pompeo has starred in nearly 450 episodes of hit television series Grey's Anatomy, which was often filmed at Veterans Administration Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, an actual working medical facility in North Hills. The south side of the structure is used for establishing shots of Grey Sloan Memorial, while the characters typically exit and congregate on the building's north side. She most recently appeared in the Hulu series Good American Family. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
