‘Painkiller’ Star Ana Cruz Kayne Used Her Own Family’s History With Opioids as Inspiration: ‘It’s Just So Heartbreaking’ (Exclusive)

Netflix's new fictionalized limited series Painkiller casts a critical shadow over Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, and its principal owners, the Sackler family. For star Ana Cruz Kayne, who plays attorney Brianna Ortiz, she had her own family's history with the opioid crisis to use as reference.

"My father and my brother both had cancer growing up, so I was around a lot of medicine and a lot of narcotics to heal pain," she exclusively told The Messenger in June, before the actors' strike began. "I remember it being a contentious thing, being my dad never took narcotics. He always went with Advil, even if he had extreme pain because of how easy it is to get addicted."

The actress, who also appears in this year's Barbie as Supreme Court Justice Barbie, said her brother was "just a child" when he was diagnosed with cancer.

"The amount of OxyContin he was given when he had bone cancer was so limited," she said. "The pain he felt from that, it's unreal. Living in that space with medical jargon and law jargon, [the Painkiller role] felt quite at home to me."

Optimistically, Cruz Kayne said she hopes Painkiller opens some eyes about the way the Sackler family misled the general public about the effects of OxyContin.

"The Sacklers have lived their lives without any kind of consequence," she argued. "And it's just so heartbreaking and such an obvious look at socioeconomic class and their lack of regard for humanity."

Earlier this year, a court ruled that the Sacklers would be protected from civil lawsuits in relation to their rule in the opioid crisis in exchange for a $6 billion settlement, according to PBS.

Playing a real-life person was challenging, Cruz Kayne said, but she found power in observing her co-star Uzo Aduba.

"I think it's intimidating to step into the shoes of someone who's prosecuting a Sackler," she admitted. "When I watched [Aduba] act, I was like, 'Oh, we're doing it. We're taking this motherf—er down.' Excuse my language."

Painkiller is available to stream now on Netflix.