Entertainment Duplass dissects his character in a perfect family: ‘I did not want to judge him’ In Disney+miniseries, which comes to an end on Wednesday (30), the actor plays Michael Barnett, one of the key pieces in the complex story of Natalia Gracepor News

First role of Ellen Pompeo After years interpreting Meredith Gray in the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy(2005-), the miniseries A perfect family It caught the eye even before debuting on Disney+. However, those who had come only for the curiosity of seeing the actress embody another role, ended up following a story as bizarre as exciting.

Inspired by a real story, A perfect familytells the story of an American couple, Kristine (Ellen Pompeo) and Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass, The Morning Show), who adopts Natalia Grace (Imogen faith reid, The Great Ivan), a girl with a rare type of dwarfism, but soon begins to suspect that she is actually lying about her identity and can put the couple’s other three children in danger.

Throughout seven episodes, the miniseries presented different points of view, which sometimes put the story in favor of Barnett And, at other times, they made us believe that Natalia It’s the one who was telling the truth.

In preparation for the release of the last episode of A perfect family, Mark Duplasstalked to the Rolling Stone BrazilAnd in addition to analyzing his character’s motivations, he also asked viewers to watch the open-minded miniseries, without preconceptions or judgments, to try to understand who the real monsters of history are. Check out the following talk:

A perfect family It is based on a real story. I did a little research on the true Michael Barnett and, at first, he didn’t seem to be at all with his representation of him. How much of your character was based on the true Michael?

Mark Duplass:This is a story inspired by some real -life events, but I was encouraged by the producers to give my own touch and my opinion about it. So for me, many of the things I took from the real story were more about the emotional motivations that would make someone behave the way Michael behaves.

In the construction of the character, [Michael] It’s someone who has dealt with many abuse in the past, someone who dealt with many trauma and mental health problems. And I think when you have such a person, who finally reaches a point in your life where you feel things are solid … you know, they [Michael e Kristine] They are married, they have a family, they will do anything to cling to it, because they don’t want to go to that terrible place in their lives before, without these things.

And I think for me, it helped me understand how someone like Michael could stand still and see Natalia be treated in this way [abusiva] And be complicit in that, because he just didn’t want to upset his wife and endanger the things he had in his favor.

A perfect family It has many conflicting points of view – besides being based on a true story. How much did you get involved with the story and how did it affect your work?

MD:I watched a little of the documentary series [O Curioso Caso de Natalia Grace, disponível na Max]because I wanted to have an idea of Michaelsince he is a public figure, and having a notion of his way, how he speaks and how he behaves. I was not interested in imitation of Michael, but I really wanted to understand what that was.

However, besides, our showrunners And researchers provided us with a lot of material we needed to know about the case, the private information. But I really didn’t involve myself much more than that, because you can start to form judgments. And I think my work as an actor is to portray the character of Michael and not judge it. Try to understand it and see why it would behave that way.

Although Michael is with Kristine throughout his life, he does not think for a second before being on Natalia side instead of his wife at the beginning of the story. Why did this happen?

MD:I would not necessarily see the same way you saw it, as not to think for a second before he did that. I see this as someone who is greatly dedicated to the stability of your life. And he finally got a family that keeps him out of a very dangerous space of mental health.

If you look at the story, you see someone who was clearly disturbed by the loss of trying to adopt a previous girl in the family, and he really wants to replace it, he really wants a daughter. And I believe you should also look closely at hero syndrome, which many people have. The Salvador Complex. And I think in his head Michael really wants to be the kind of person who saves this girl from a terrible destination and brings her to a beautiful family.

And he doesn’t want to disappoint her the way he was disappointed as a child. So this makes him may close his eyes for certain things, maybe work a little more to try to make things work when it is obvious that they are not working. I think all these things contribute to this.

Michael seems to recover from all bad things in his life. He loses his foster daughter and recovers. He loses his job, Natalia and even marriage, and always recovers. What really made him become that bitter Michael, who really hates and stays against Kristine?

MD:This is a good question. I think for me there is an argument that says he stayed there much longer than he should and let her control him much longer than he should. Therefore, it is not a surprise to me that he has broken.

In fact, it’s more surprised how long he stayed there before he was freeing from her. But again, I can understand why he stayed so long. It makes sense that, after dealing with this level of abuse, at some point you simply have to let go.

I watched all episodes of A perfect family And I still can’t understand what is the problem between Michael and Kristine. In the last episode, he cries before her, even after the whole exchange of fire between the two. Is he afraid of her? Or does he think he’s in debt because she saved her life? What do you think?

MD:Yes, and yes, and yes, and yes, and yes. It is a very complicated relationship. The things you mentioned are definitely part of this. I think the tune that exists between two people is difficult to eradicate after being established over so many years.

I believe she has tremendous power over him. I think he is afraid of her because he knows the influence she has on other children and can manipulate them and come them against him. So he has to be careful.

But you hear these stories of children who are bullied in the school courtyard and then raise weights and get so big and strong, and go back to face that weak, which is still weak. And they still can’t overcome the aggressor because they are traumatized. And I think Michaelthis character, is under the control of Kristine And it’s hard to get out of it.

What people can expect from the last episode of A perfect family? Will there be a final answer or we don’t have a final answer to such a case?

MD:I would encourage people to abandon their preconceptions and prejudice, and watch with an open mind, because the last episode really does a good job when tieing up the story and showing all conflicting points of view within the same chapter in many ways.

It is very difficult to reach an empirical truth of this episode, but I would encourage people to watch it with people who watched the show and, when they are over, talk about who you think is the real monster and enjoy the different perspectives, because I think the people I talked to and who watched everything, there are still many divergent opinions about who did the most horrible thing.

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