Christina Hendricksis no stranger tostrong, complicated women. Though she’s best known for playing the smart and sultry Joan Holloway inMad Men, a role which garnered her a whopping six Emmy nominations, she also won fans playing Beth Boland, a suburban mom who turns to a life of crime inGood Girls.Dulé Hillhas had an equally exciting career, playing key roles in hit shows likePsych,The West Wing(which earned him an Emmy nomination),Suits, andBallers— not to mention a key role in my childhood by taking on the part of Sam inHoles.
Good American Family— a fictionalized account of a wild true crime case, which sees an Indiana couple by the names of Kristine (Ellen Pompeo) and Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass) adopt a Ukrainian orphan with dwarfism named Natalia (Imogen Faith Reid) —allows both of these excellent actors to highlight what they do best as well as show sides audiences have rarely gotten to see before. Hendricks takes on the role of Cynthia Mans, a straight-shooting mom who comes into the picture after the Barnetts have left Natalia to fend for herself. Cynthia and her husband Antwon (Jerod Haynes) seem to be the concerned and caring adults that Natalia needs, though their own motivations become more and more questionable as time goes on. Hill plays a determined detective named Brandon Drysdale, who tries to get to the bottom of the complex case that proves truth really is stranger than fiction.
Collider got the chance to speak to Hendricks and Hill about how they approached their complicated characters, recreating an episode of the Dr. Phil show, working with breakout star Imogen Faith Reid, and more.
Christina Hendricks and Dulé Hill Discuss How They Approached Their Complicated ‘Good American Family’ Characters
COLLIDER: I have to tell you, I’m actually from Lafayette, Indiana, where much of this story takes place, so it was a lot of fun to see you guys play in my world — even if it was a fictionalized version of it. You guys are both so great in this, and I have to say, I think something that makes the series so fun is that all the characters are sort of morally ambiguous or presented as such in their own way, and I feel like Cynthia maybe has the most grey areas to her.I’m curious how you approached that and thought of her motivations.
CHRISTINA HENDRICKS: I very much relied on what was on the page because we were telling the story from a very specific time, so it was just sort of finding the clues of who she is.And we do want the audience to make their own judgment about it and watch all these different sorts of angles, so I think it helps the storytelling to say, “Oh, wait — she’s this really helpful person. Well, wait a minute — that seems a little bit not correct. That doesn’t seem quite right, but wait a minute, she does…” There’s definitely a flip-flop of feeling when you watch it.
I want to pose that question to you, too, because, obviously, Brandon does come off looking like this more heroic figure, but he, of course, has his own layers and motivations as well. How did you sort of approach your character here?
DULÉ HILL: For myself, when I started to develop the character, it was really just scouring all the public information that was out there — the public records, interviews. Because my character is really an amalgamation of all the detectives who were involved with the case, and I was really trying to tap into his journey of trying to navigate the shades of truth that are there to get to the bottom of it. That’s really what informed me a lot about who Detective Drysdale is. And I would also say his empathy towards the situation —trying to lean in and see the unseen. That really is what I think was driving Detective Drysdale a lot.
Christina Hendricks on Recreating an Episode of ‘Dr. Phil’ in ‘Good American Family’
Christina, you do something really fun in this show that I feel like not a lot of other people have gotten to do, which is recreate aDr. Philshow. I’m curious if you can tell me about shooting that because I was like, “I bet that’s something you don’t usually get to do in this job.”
HENDRICKS: That scene was wild. That actor, he was amazing. I mean, if you were standing behind and you just heard him around the corner, that was Dr. Phil. It was incredible. It was amazing. It just really flowed —it felt like a playbecause it’s kind of a long scene. It felt very real. That guy was really amazing. He was really, really amazing.
I was waiting for the reveal. I was like, “Did they get the real Dr. Phil for this?”
HENDRICKS: I think it’s the second time he’s played Dr. Phil.
HILL: That’s hilarious.
I love it. What an interesting niche.
HILL: What you don’t realize is I was actually onDr. Phil. [Beat] No, I’m just playing.
HENDRICKS: I was like, “What?! Tell me more!”
Speaking of niches, you’ve played a lot of detectives and police in your career, so I’m curious what drew you to this particular role as one. Because I imagine, as an actor, you don’t want to sort of be pigeonholed and doing the same thing over and over.
HILL: One, I would say I’ve never really had that issue in my career of doing one thing or another. Thankfully, I’ve been able to do stage and television, so that never even crossed my mind. I really look for what drives the character and is the journey of the character something that is interesting for me. And I really appreciated how Detective Drysdale was looking to navigate this chaotic world and trying his best to get to the bottom of what appears. That was a very interesting thing for me, and I think — to a certain extent —he kind of is the eyes of the audience. What he’s going through is what the audience is going through of really trying to decipher where to put all the information that is being received.
Yeah, definitely. That’s a really good way to put it. Something I really love about Cynthia is she’s very blunt, she’s very much a straight shooter, and I feel like you tend to play a lot of those characters in your career in different ways. I am a hugeMad Menfan and, of course,Good Girls— they’re obviously very different characters in very different environments, but they all have that sort of edge to them, I would say. Is that something that you feel attracts you to the roles that you choose?
HENDRICKS: It’s true they all sort of…well,Good Girlsit took her a long time to get edge. She didn’t start out with edge at all. [Laughs] I think, with Cynthia, certainly I thinkthere’s this element of being surrounded by children all the time, and children can be very, very honest. I think that she has a warmth to her that they — this family environment and these children — feel very safe and protected by her. I think she sort of meets them on their level, so I wanted to sort of play. There’s a playfulness to her.
Christina Hendricks and Dulé Hill Talk Working with ‘Good American Family’s “Phenomenal” Imogen Faith Reid
You guys both work with Imogen a lot. I know this is her first real TV role, so I’m sure you both taught her a lot, but is there anything you feel she taught you through this process of working with her?
HILL: I mean, I’ll just say she is phenomenal. I was really in awe of her gift and her talent and the way she was able to bring this character to life. I was really impressed how she could be having a conversation, andit’s time to roll, and she would turn it on just like that. Yes, I may have been acting longer than she has, but she, in my mind, is way more dynamic of an actor. That’s where I’m trying to go. She did a phenomenal job.
HENDRICKS: She did, and even though this is a larger role than she’s had in the past, she’s been in this business, done background work, been on sets and stuff, so she’s a pro. And by the time I got there — I came in the later part of shooting — she was on a roll. The memory on her and joking, laughing, and then switching straight into the character? Very impressive. I really kind of just showed up and was like, “What’s going on here?” I jumped in, andshe sort of took me in underherwing.
HILL: Some actors have trouble taking notes, but I noticed when the director would come and give her some direction,she would hear it, “I got it,” and apply it. It was really impressive to see the way she maneuvered on the set.
HENDRICKS: And working on an accent in between all the time, too. I mean, she was juggling a lot. And flip-flopping between these perspectives. As you watch it, you think she’s one thing here, and then you watch another episode, andshe’s making those turns amazingly.
