Lio Tipton never set out to become a prism for the most unsettling chapter in suburban America, yet that’s exactly what happened when they accepted the role of Gail Berchtold in Peacock’s limited series A Friend of the Family, which premiered on October 6, 2022. The real Gail was married to Robert Berchtold, the charismatic neighbor who kidnapped Jan Broberg—twice. Tipton, who came out as nonbinary in 2021, says the part felt at first like “swallowing glass,” but then became an unexpected lesson in empathy.
Speaking with The Cut, Tipton explained that Gail was neither co-conspirator nor clueless bystander. She was a woman groomed in parallel with Jan’s parents, trapped by the era’s rigid gender rules and a manipulator’s charm. To ground the performance, Tipton built a private diary of Mid-’70s details: the smell of Aqua Net, the pinch of a church-lace collar, the quiet dread behind every pot-roast supper. “I needed to know what love and fear tasted like on the same fork,” they tell host Caitlynn McDaniel.
That research went hand-in-hand with personal reflection. Tipton remembers audition rooms where they were told to be “more girlish” or “less androgynous.” Playing Gail—who had no language for her own confusion—reminded the actor how liberating proper pronouns and open conversation can be. “Gail couldn’t say, ‘This feels wrong,’” Tipton notes. “Today I can, and that contrast kept me honest on-set.”
The show’s creators worked closely with Jan Broberg to avoid sensationalizing trauma, focusing instead on the slow mechanics of grooming. Tipton praises that choice; the horror isn’t in graphic flashbacks, but in realizing how charm and faith can camouflage danger. Between takes they and co-star Jake Lacy (who plays Robert) traded true-crime books and discussed how predators weaponize social norms.
Tipton hopes viewers leave with sharper instincts and a wider vocabulary for consent. “If one parent watches and thinks, ‘Something feels off with that family friend,’ we’ve done our job,” they say. Their portrayal of Gail isn’t an attempt to rehabilitate a villain; it’s a reminder that silence and certainty rarely coexist. In giving voice to a woman history wrote off, Tipton also spotlights the power of living one’s own truth—pronouns, pitfalls, and all.
