Fans of Netflix’s psychological thriller Eric have raved over the ‘A+’ show after it left a mark on them – but many may also be racking their brains to remember where they have seen one of the series’ stars before. 

Gaby Hoffmann, 42, from New York, impressed viewers with her performance in Eric as Cassie Anderson, a grief-stricken mother searching for her missing child.

The six-episode limited series simultaneously follows Cassie’s husband, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, 47, as he battles his demons on the dangerous and intoxicating streets of ’80s New York in a race to bring home his missing son.

But the show’s plot is not the only thing that has caused a stir, because viewers have just discovered that Gaby was the star of a popular Hollywood film at the age of four.

In 1989, Gaby starred in the hit comedy series Uncle Buck as the youngest daughter of characters Bob and Cindy – Maizy Russell.

Eric actress Gaby Hoffmann (pictured in May) starred in a popular comedy series in 1989 at the age of four, can you guess which?

The film follows a laid-back Uncle Buck (played by John Candy) as he babysits his brother’s disobedient daughter and sweet younger brother (played by Macaulay Culkin) and sister (played by Gaby Hoffmann).

After starring in Uncle Buck, Gaby went on to secure several impressive roles, including as Caroline Sackler in HBO’s The Girls.

However, it is her role in Eric that has dazzled viewers, with the show coming third in the UK Netflix charts.

While the series is not based on a real-life story, inspiration for the show comes from creator Abi Morgan’s own experiences of living in New York and seeing the faces of missing children appearing on milk cartons.

Speaking in an interview with RadioTimes ahead of the show’s release, Morgan, 56, cited personal experiences of encountering cases of missing children in the UK and US as something that helped her to write the show.

Morgan said: ‘Well, I mean, weirdly actually, I think growing up in the UK in the ’80s, I remember being haunted by those stories of children who had gone missing, and then when I went to New York, I looked after a young boy in New York in the mid-’80s.

‘While I was out there, I saw the milk carton kids and the missing persons. So that has always been very haunting.’

Gaby plays a grief-stricken mother in the new Netflix limited series alongside Benedict Cumberbatch 

Gaby (pictured) made a name for herself as a child actress in the hit comedy series Uncle Buck from 1989 

Gaby starred alongside Macaulay Culkin (left), Jean Kelly (back centre), and John Candy (centre) in Uncle Buck 

Directed by John Hughes, the Hollywood comedy followed Uncle Buck as he babysat his brother’s children

She added that Eric was not based on a real or specific case that she had witnessed herself but that she wanted to explore the time period of 1980s New York. 

Morgan also said that she wanted to bring attention to instances of children going missing not just in New York – but in towns and cities across the world. 

She continued: ‘I guess that’s the kind of callout at the centre of the show, is that we all want to live in that world – but unfortunately, there are monsters in the most surprising places.

‘I guess that’s what’s at the heart of Eric, this quest for a father to find his son, but also a man who’s then having to explore the monsters in himself and the city he’s grown up in.’

In the Netflix production notes for the series, Morgan also informed the platform of research she had undertaken regarding pertinent social issues in the 80s, highlighting the outbreak of AIDS, and topics such as homelessness and institutional racism.

She also drew a comparison between the contemporary struggles faced by citizens living in 1980s New York – such as strikes and corruption within the New York Police Department – as being evident, in her eyes to that of the Metropolitan Police in the UK. 

Morgan was also full of praise for Netflix for being open to airing a show that explores the case of a missing person. 

When Edgar (Ivan Howe, pictured) disappears on his way to school in the streets of 1980s New York City , his parents are left grieving and hopeless 

Edgar’s absence forces the father to come face to face with his demons as he trails the dangerous streets of the Big Apple to find him  

Desperate to find his son, the self-loathing father believes if he manages to get his son’s drawing – Eric – on air, then he may come home 

She explained to Netflix:  ‘When I pitched the idea of a New York puppeteer on a quest to find his missing son, with a seven-foot-tall blue monster in tow, it’s to Netflix’s eternal credit that they jumped on board.’ 

Morgan added: ‘Eric is a deep dive into the ’80s Big Apple, grappling with rising crime rates, internal corruption, endemic racism, a forgotten underclass, and the AIDS epidemic, exposing the divisions rife between parents searching for their child, a detective battling with a system that is broken, and a lost boy who may never come home — and asks where the real monsters lie. With puppets… lots of puppets.’

Speaking about the show in an article published on the official Netflix website, Cumberbatch said that he perceived Vincent’s journey to be a ‘huge odyssey to go on in six episodes.’

Delving into the character of Vincent, he added: ‘He starts to bring home his vanity, his idiosyncrasies, his ego, and all kinds of toxic behavior, which affects how he overlooks his kid and how abrasive he is in a marriage which has [already] had 10 years of pretty tumultuous moments of infidelity, arguing, and disconnection’.

Elaborating on the decision to make Benedict unrecognisable from more familiar looks in his previous roles, director Lucy Forbes said: ‘That’s why his hair is grown out, he’s got a beard, and we put glasses on him’.

‘Not only for the time period, but also to make him feel like Vincent as much as possible.’