Making of ‘A Friend of the Family’ roundtable: 5 top crafts artisans reveal behind-the-scenes secrets [Exclusive Video Interview]
As original true crime dramas go, “A Friend of the Family” is a highly unusual one — not just for its harrowing subject matter but due also to its production pedigree. The nine-part limited series premiered on streamer Peacock last October, telling the story of Jan Broberg and her family. In the 1970s, Broberg was a young girl and adolescent who was systematically groomed — along with her parents and younger siblings — by her next-door neighbor, a charismatic, master manipulator sociopath and pedophile named Bob Berchtold. He kidnapped Jan twice — when she was age 12 and again at 14 — and went largely unmonitored and unprosecuted for the better part of a decade. The vividly-dramatized docudrama stars Oscar winner Anna Paquin, Colin Hanks, Jake Lacy and Mckenna Grace.
To shine a spotlight on the show’s powerful, wrenching and superbly-rendered narrative, watch Gold Derby’s special 42-minute “Making of” roundtable discussion of “Friend of the Family” with five of its essential craftspeople – hair department head Katie Ballard, makeup department head and Emmy nominee Katie Farris, costume designer Rebecca Gregg, production designer and three-time Art Directors Guild Award nominee John D. Kretschmer and composer Ariel Marx. Together they’re joined by Gold Derby news and features editor Ray Richmond for a fascinating Q&A discussion about how the series came together over a period of some eight months. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
What made the production especially unique was the fact that the young victim at the center of the story, now age 60,, served as a producer and collaborator on “A Friend of the Family” as an invaluable resource to the entire team behind the project. It was a very unique experience having Jan (working) with us,” agrees Ballard. She supplied the filmmakers and individual crew members with an essential cache of personal photos, wardrobe from her early years and set dressing props, Ballard says. “She also had an on-camera cameo, and Jan paid me the biggest compliment when she said it felt like she was in the room (actually) speaking with her father. It was such a big thing for us to make her feel like she was at home.”
Having the “luxury” of Jan as a reference helped immeasurably with the authenticity of the make-up as well, confirms Farris. “The photographs she provided enabled me to do a progression of the (Broberg) kids from the time of their first school pictures until they graduated,” she says. “We went to Jan for tips and tricks about how to make up Anna as her mom Mary Ann. We learned from Jan that Mary Ann Broberg was polished but never overdone. That helped us really find those sweet spots to play.” Gregg adds that Jan Broberg was a “treasure trove” of “thousands” of family photos and slides from the 1950s through the ’80s. “And she came to visit us at the costume house and was blown away,” Gregg notes. “We so wanted it to be authentic, for her, and Jan confirmed that we really were telling the truth of what happened with our choices.”
Those extensive family archives were a godsend for Kretschmer in crafting his production designs as well, though he was tasked with the added challenge of making Atlanta – where the shoot was based – look like Pocatello, Idaho, where the actual story unfolded. “We probably found the only house on the planet that could duplicate the Broberg house to a T,” he believes. “We were able to renovate it to match it exactly, including the floor plan inside, which was important given what Berchtold did to exploit the architecture and layout for his game.”
The biggest challenge for Marx in putting together her musical score, meanwhile, was in “not staying ahead of the action from Jan’s and the Brobergs’ point of view” while steering clear of sensationalizing and melodrama. “The music had to match how slowly (Berchtold) groomed the entire family. We never wanted to say more about him (in the music) than (the family) could see… We started with this dreamy, organic palate that matched Jan’s innocence and fairy tale view of companionship and marriage and life and friendship. The music evolved into something much more sobering by the end.”
“A Friend of the Family” can be seen streaming on Peacock.
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