Ellen Pompeo was spotted filming her upcoming series Orphan in Los Angeles this week.
She was in character as Kristine Barnett with her co-star Mark Duplass, who plays her husband Michael.
The Grey’s Anatomy star – who will appear in a few episodes of season 20 – wore her hair long and wavy and had a teal cardigan on.
The rest of her clothes were obscured by the actors playing her children who swarmed around her as the fictional family got into their SUV. The Morning Show’s Duplass, 47, wore the dad uniform of khakis, a red polo shirt and a black leather jacket.
The show tells the story of Kristine and Michael Barrett and their adoptive daughter Natalia Grace.
The couple adopted Natalia from a Ukrainian orphanage in 2010 believing she was a child but they soon come to believe she’s much older than she says she is.
Ellen Pompeo was spotted filming her upcoming series Orphan in Los Angeles this week
She was in character as Kristine Barnett with her co-star Mark Duplass, who plays her husband Michael
It is based on the true story of Natalia Grace.
She was abandoned by her adoptive parents two years after they adopted her because they believed she was in her 20s, and not a child.
‘The series is inspired by the true story of Natalia Grace and the Midwestern couple who adopted her believing she was a little girl with dwarfism but gradually started to believe she may not be who she said she was,’ Deadline reported.
Imogen Faith Reid stars as Natalia in the upcoming Hulu limited series.
The couple were charged with neglect and abandonment of their daughter Natalia in 2019 and found themselves having to defend the stories they’ve told about Natalia both in court and in the eyes of the public.
Kristine and Michael were already in the public eye due to her best-selling book The Spark which told the story of raising her science prodigy son Jacob.
Orphan is told from several different viewpoints to express the conflicting stories of the characters at the center of the scandal.
Pompeo executive produces through her production company Calamity Jane.
The Morning Show’s Mark Duplass, 47, wore the dad uniform of khakis, a red polo shirt and a black leather jacket
In December 2023 Grace came face-to-face with her father who accused her of being a ‘sociopath’ for faking being a child as cameras caught the tense exchange between the two.
Their meeting was captured in the newest ID documentary ‘Natalia Speaks’ that looks at the latest developments in the case.
The Barnetts claimed Grace lied about being a six-year-old Ukrainian orphan with a rare genetic disorder that the family adopted. Instead, they say, she was a homicidal adult intent on harming them and their children.
Natalia and Michael sat feet apart with Natalia Grace Barnett angrily refuting Michael’s claims, including that she once loomed over the couple while they were sleeping while clutching a blade.
‘I was never in y’all’s room with a knife,’ an exasperated Natalia tells Barnett, while placing her head in her hands.
‘I know what I saw,’ Michael responded.
Natalia had an emotional showdown in 2023 with former adoptive father Barnett in a new docuseries called Natalia Speaks
Natalia refuted the Barnett’s claim that she once stood over their bed clutching a knife as they slept
The showdown was featured in a six-part docuseries entitled Natalia Speaks, which will debut January 1 at 9/8c on ID.
‘This is my side of the story,’ Natalia said of the series, adding, ‘Do I look like a monster to you?’
She also vows to address some of the wild accusations that have been leveled at her, including that she tried to kill her adoptive family.
‘In every lie is a hidden truth, but you gotta dig enough to see it,’ she added. ‘They are not going to get away with this.’
Gracie also states she ‘lost her childhood’ after the Barnetts petitioned a judge to change her legal age to 22.
The Barnetts were taken into custody in 2019 on child neglect charges after they abandoned Natalia in an Indiana apartment while they moved to Canada after changing her age.
Natalia was put into a Lafayette, Indiana, apartment by her adoptive parents in 2011, after they came to suspect she was far older than she claimed
The Barnetts left Natalia alone in an apartment drawing the concern of neighbors
The Barnetts were charged with neglecting their child after ditching Natalia in the early 2010s and moving to Canada after they petitioned a court to move her birth year back 14 years, which was granted. Kristine’s charges were dropped while Michael was cleared last year
Meanwhile, Ellen is keeping busy.
In addition to Orphan, she is expected to return to her beloved character Dr. Meredith Grey in at least four episodes of the remaining episodes of season 20 of Grey’s Anatomy.
She was reduced from series regular to recurring after announcing her departure from Grey’s in November 2022.
Last season, Pompeo appeared in less than 10 of the 20 episodes before she was written out in the finale after her character relocated to Boston.
She is is expected to continue to do her signature voiceover for the show, which began in 2005 during season one.
