Imogen Faith Reid chose not to tell Ellen Pompeo about her love for Grey’s Anatomy while they filmed Good American Family.
“She is very much a role model for me. I did love Grey’s Anatomy and I never told her because I didn’t want to weird her out,” Reid, 27, exclusively told Us Weekly. “But I really loved working alongside Ellen so much.”
Reid, who plays Natalia Grace, “learned so much” sharing the screen with Pompeo, 55, adding, “I remember there was a time on set where as an actor you have to get into your right mark and I was confused. Ellen asked the cameraman to turn over the camera for me so I could actually see what I was doing. That was a real learning moment for me — it was like I was really being taught there.”
Pompeo’s costar was thankful for the support on her first TV acting job.
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“She always taught me that I could have a voice and that I could speak up,” Reid continued. “For my first job I was shy, I was a bit intimidated and she always made me feel so comfortable. It was just a real gift for me to have somebody like her to learn from. These things that she’s taught me, I’ll always take with me to each job that I do.”
Good American Family, which is currently airing on Hulu, is a scripted true crime series inspired by Natalia Grace, who made headlines when she was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett as a child only to accuse them of abandoning her. Pompeo plays Kristine, which marks her first role since being cast as Meredith on ABC’s long-running medical drama.
Reid was thankful for the support she felt on set after previously appearing as a body double on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and HBO’s The Third Day.
“I was so nervous about taking on a speaking role to begin with and being a lead. I really thought, ‘Can I take this on?’ Because it’s a lot of pressure, but the thing that helped me through it is I thought, ‘I’m a little person, I can tell this [story],’” Reid, who also has a form of dwarfism, Reid. “I had an incredible cast that I knew was going to guide me and I wasn’t wrong. So I was in very good hands.”
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Reid broke down the extra work that went into playing Grace, sharing, “Disney helped so much. They actually hooked me up with an acting coach and I actually had an incredible movement coach as well that helped me figure out Natalia’s movement.”
She continued, “It was very early on when I decided that I wanted to portray my own version of Natalia. So through this, we found the movement in my own body that felt genuine but not imitating Natalia as we have different types of dwarfism. That was something that was really important to me. There was also an incredible dialect coach who helped me with the American accent and all of this just really helped portray my character.”
While reflecting on the opportunity, Reid expressed gratitude to her costars. (Good American Family also stars Mark Duplass, Sarayu Blue, Dulé Hill, Jenny O’Hara, Kim Shaw and Christina Hendricks.)
“Something that I never really dabbled in is the amount of acting choices they would each make. Ellen would always talk about choices and this was something that I did do ut I think I could have delved in more,” Reid shared with Us. “Also just how professional they all are and how they can step into a character so quickly [is something I learned]. It was mesmerizing learning from Christina, Sarayu, Dulé, Mark and Ellen. And even though I may have been the lead, they were the leads for me. I learned from them and it was just so amazing to do.”
New episodes of Good American Family air Wednesdays on Hulu.
