CULTURE
THE PARENT TRAP
Ellen Pompeo on what her new role taught her about raising kids – and her own ‘mafia’ motherhood style
She may have spent decades at the top of her profession, but Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo can still feel insecure when she steps outside her comfort zone.
After 20 years playing Dr Meredith Grey in the hit TV medical drama, she was anxious that audiences wouldn’t be able to see her as anyone else. “I could have messed this up majorly,” says the star of new drama series Good American Family.
It’s inspired by the real-life story of Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace Barnett, who was thrust into the spotlight after her American adoptive parents alleged that she had tried to kill them.
As a wife and mother, Ellen was fascinated by the tale of Kristine and Michael Barnett, the couple accused of abandoning Natalia, whom they claimed was an adult with dwarfism posing as a child.