A Sensational True Crime Story, Retold

The smash 2023 Investigation Discovery docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace undersold its subject: Curious didn't even begin to describe what transpired after 7-year-old Ukrainian Natalia Grace was adopted in 2010 by an American family, the Barnetts. Did her dwarfism conceal the possibility she was actually an adult? And was she a violent con artist to boot? The WTF developments fueled two followups and now the dramatization Good American Family (Hulu, Wednesdays), starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass as the suspicious parents and Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia. Christina Hendricks came in just 30 hours before she had to be on set as Natalia's foster mom, pastor's wife Cynthia Mans and the actress was blown away by all the real-life twists and turns: "It's extraordinary the roller coaster that this is," she says. "We do it from different perspectives. You might start out feeling one way and [end up] feeling very different." Hendricks, 49, gives us her case notes.
Did you know about the actual real-life events?
I actually was unfamiliar with the story. When they reached out to me, I turned to my husband [camera operator George Bianchini] and was like, "Oh, this is a wild script." And he was like, "I know all about that." There's a fair amount of people who do-and then I didn't at all. [After I was cast], I did watch the ID version ...