Jake Lacy Details Working With Jan Broberg On ‘A Friend Of The Family’

When people imagine a child predator, an image of a creepy looking man comes to mind. But in Peacock’s “A Friend of the Family,” Jake Lacy’s character is almost the complete opposite.

In the series, based on Jan Broberg’s real-life experience, Lacy plays a charming, gregarious Robert Berchtold, who, with his wife, befriends the Broberg family. Together, the two families have dinners and outings, becoming close friends and confidantes.

But then, Berchtold kidnaps a teenaged Jan, taking her to Mexico and brainwashing her into believing they were chosen by an alien civilization to have a baby. Broberg was instructed that this so-called mission was top-secret, and she could tell absolutely no one about the sexual abuse.

In real life, Broberg has processed her abuse through years of therapy, enabling her to speak out about her experience in the hopes of helping others.

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For Lacy, Broberg being in a healthy place was of the utmost importance when he signed on to play Berchtold in the Peacock series.

“She wrote a note to me at the beginning, to each of us in the cast, and I didn’t know how much I needed that note to say, ‘Go for it. You’re exactly right for this, I can’t wait to see what you do with it. I’m in a healthy place, don’t confuse your priorities of telling this story with having to take care of me. Like, I’m OK,’” Lacy told Oxygen.com.

Jake Lacy as Robert "B" Berchtold Photo: Fernando Decillis/Peacock

Lacy said that Broberg was particularly helpful in crafting his performance, noting that she encouraged him to not hold back, even if he was concerned it might be triggering for her.

“She, through her own experience and years of work, understands that the thing Berchtold used was his warmth and charm and charisma and graciousness and kind of neighborly ease and familiarity,” he said. “She, better than anyone else in the world, understood his darkness, his aggression, narcissism and selfishness and a lack of humanity. So, she was nothing but a champion and wonderful resource and creative partner in encouraging us toward that truth.”

Mckenna Grace, who plays a teenage Jan in the series, was similarly in awe of Broberg’s fortitude, sharing in a separate interview with Oxygen.com that Broberg was a wealth of knowledge when it came to preparing for the role.

“Doing this series was entirely dependent for me on Jan being involved and we’re so lucky that she was so involved,” she said.

See Lacy’s performance in the limited series “A Friend of the Family,” streaming now on Peacock.