There’s something really beautiful about putting yourself completely out there. Ruth gave me a sense of confidence that I’ve never had, something that I’ve struggled with my whole life. Going back to what you were saying, it’s changed my life professionally, but it’s also changed my life personally in many ways. It was very weird because Ruth does feel like a part of me. I didn’t need to act because I’ve been this person for so long, and I did feel like I was dying because I was, in a way. JG: Because it did! I was just thinking about all four seasons and thinking, This is the last time I’m ever going to step on these grounds. Seeing you standing there, it was like everything that had happened over the last four seasons flashed across your face. I also was wearing a dress that made me feel like a ghost. I don’t really remember - it was an out-of-body experience. What do you remember about that last day of shooting? What was your emotional state? JG: We wrapped at, like, 6:30 in the morning, and everybody was just so excited. By Episode 8, she was on a mission, and she thought that maybe that would boost her up a little bit, like some kind of quick fix, but it didn’t because her soul was long gone. But then when actually died, there was no purpose for her anymore. She did so much damage she was lying to herself, acting like maybe things will be okay. Her soul already died, and she was just physically on this earth. JG: I think what I was picking up was, it’s sounding really dark, she already died. I think she knew that she wasn’t gonna be an old lady. It’s not so much that Ruth knew that she was gonna die. 30 seconds later, I got a phone call from Chris, and he’s like, “Hey, I need to talk to you.” I said, “Am I dying?” And he was like, “Who told you?” I had full-body chills. I said, “Why are you afraid to die?” And she, meaning me at that moment,, “Because I have to finish certain things.” And that really scared me.

She’s always felt like the show must go on. One of the questions that I asked Ruth, “What are you afraid of?” I, meaning Ruth, answered, “I’m afraid to die.” I thought that was weird because I’ve done meditative work with my acting work for years now, and Ruth has never been afraid to die. What was your reaction when you read the scripts and you knew what was going to happen to Ruth in the final season? Julia Garner: When I prep a script, I always meditate, and I try to ask myself questions and answer them in character. Everyone fell in love with Ruth Langmore. This show changed your life as an actress and probably as a person because it catapulted you into this business like a rocketship. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Julia Garner is saying an expletive-laden farewell to Ruth, and hello to her blindingly bright future. And at this point, even bigger things are in the offing - Garner will reunite with her Assistant writer-director Kitty Green for thriller The Royal Hotel, and she was recently hand-picked by Madonna to play the music icon in a biopic that the singer herself plans to direct. She was 23 when she landed on Ozark and during hiatus, Garner starred in the Hollywood-set The Assistant (2019), an ominous portrayal of a day in the life of a low-level employee working for a high-powered producer which earned raves. At 17, the New York native first captured attention with a small turn in 2011’s noteworthy indie Martha Marcy May Marlene, before going on to appear in films including 2013’s We Are What We Are and 2015’s Grandma. Garner has taken the same approach to her career. Transforming her brash midwestern twang into an indiscernible European accent and trading her rural rags for Bergdorf’s, Garner made it all appear effortless even though it most definitely wasn’t. As if to demonstrate her range, Garner went straight from Ozark into shooting Shonda Rhimes’s buzzy miniseries Inventing Anna, playing Anna Delvey, the Russian-born scammer who stole thousands from New York’s elite while posing as a German socialite.

Julia garner