'A Friend of the Family': Mckenna Grace Talks Reading Jan Broberg's Diary and Letters From Kidnapper

'A Friend of the Family' big name Mckenna Grace spoke exclusively with 'Distractify' about her relationship with real-life Jan Broberg and extra.

Peacock's true crime series A Friend of the Family main points the harrowing real-life kidnapping of Jan Broberg by way of circle of relatives friend Robert "B" Berchtold in the Seventies. The limited drama sequence supplies an in-depth have a look at how the charismatic Berchtold convinced Jan's oldsters to be alone with their daughter and how he groomed Jan into believing that the two have been abducted by extraterrestrial beings and had to have a toddler together through her 16th birthday.

In Episode 6, a 14-year-old Jan — performed via Mckenna Grace — has been brainwashed into disobeying her oldsters' orders and runs away to peer Berchtold in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Preying on her worry of disobeying the "aliens," Jan believes Berchtold has her best hobby at center and that her oldsters are jealous of their shared connection.

Ahead of the episode's premiere, Distractify spoke solely with actress Mckenna Grace about recreating Jan and B's "complicated relationship" on-screen and how she used the real-life Jan's diaries as supply subject matter for getting into her persona's emotional psyche.

'A Friend of the Family' megastar Mckenna Grace said she read Jan Broberg's diaries.

Portraying a non-fictional persona on-screen was once "really scary," Mckenna admitted to us, noting that she wanted to do Jan's "story right." However, she calmed her nerves by means of consulting with the real-life Jan, who served as an govt manufacturer on the series.

"She's always been so kind and so open and loving to me. I genuinely adore her," the 16-year-old informed Distractify. "I constantly messaged her with questions."

Mckenna defined that during particular scenes, she would contact Jan for more insight into how she reacted or what she was feeling. Additionally, Jan gave Mckenna her old diaries from that time as any other analysis tool to faucet into her emotional state whilst with Berchtold.

"I had her old diary entries from the time so that I could really get into her mental space. I had all of the letters between her and B, which is really crazy," she stated. "I had old court documents; I had all of the pictures and unused transcripts from the documentary. I read her book ... and it was just so amazing to be able to have that type of access to Jan."

Mckenna Grace talks acting along Jake Lacy, who performs Berchtold in 'A Friend of the Family.'

Mckenna noted that there was once "so much conversation" that took place prior to the cameras rolling when it came to filming dark and intense scenes alongside actor Jake Lacy,

Throughout the ultimate few episodes, audiences will see Jan grappling with this "horrible confusion ... [and] with the fact that she really did love him. She really did."

She added, "Everything she was feeling was just so real to her, and so it's such a complicated relationship to play on-screen."

However, the Gifted actress famous that for lots of of her scenes with Jake, she merely attempted to react off of what her co-star used to be doing.

"There was nothing that was set in stone that I wanted to do for a scene because everything that I did revolved around B, you know, and that was her life for her entire teenage years was just reacting off of B," she defined. "So there was nothing that I had to figure out how to approach because [Jan] never knew how to approach it."

You can watch A Friend of the Family on Peacock now.

Report on-line or in-person sexual abuse of a kid or teenager through calling the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 or visiting childhelp.org. Learn more about the warning signs of child abuse at RAINN.org.

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