

When you get your hands that dirty, they can never be clean. They might have won the battle, but they didn’t win the war. I don’t view it as the Byrdes winning, even if they think they’re winning. They found a way to go straight while still breaking bad. Ruth loses her life, but the Byrdes seem to have it all. She did what she needed to do, she killed Javi, and after that mission, she was like a ghost. By the end of the season, she didn’t care about living. In the end, it’s not her going over to death, it’s death coming over to her. She wasn’t going to voluntarily quit life, but I think she was so dead inside that if given an opportunity to die, she wouldn’t say no. I really do think Ruth died when Wyatt died. I think the last shot we did was me on the ground. My death was also the last scene of Ozark. Because everybody was so light and wonderful that it made it easier to wake up the next morning knowing that you’re surrounded by people who love you.Ĭan you talk about filming Ruth’s final scene?

It was very depressing to feel like that, but that’s why they’re so amazing on set.

Not to get really depressing, but that was my mindset for a year. She was physically alive, but her soul died. When Wyatt died, I think a part of Ruth died. Like that barrier between your true self and the version of you that people see on screen is less defined when you’re filming? I’ll wonder, Why am I feeling like this? and I’ll think about it and go, Oh, because my character is feeling that way. It’s weird because in the middle of filming I have more in common with my character than with myself. She gave me a sense of confidence that I didn’t have before. Ruth gave me so much, not only as an actor but also as a person. It almost feels like a part of me has died in a way. It’s a bittersweet end for a beloved character who evolved from a small-time criminal into Marty’s money laundering protégé and then into a legit businesswoman. It concludes with Javi’s mom Camila (Veronica Falcón) shooting Ruth for taking her son’s life. The second half of season 4, which is now streaming, begins with Ruth on a mission to murder Javi (Alfonso Herrera), the unhinged Mexican drug cartel leader who killed her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan). “I said, Am I going to die? He’s like, How did you know? Honestly, I told him, I didn’t know, but Ruth knew that she wasn’t going to be an old lady.”

Ruth thinks she can handle anything.” Less than a minute after finishing that unsettling meditation session, Garner got a phone call from Ozark producer Chris Mundy asking if they could talk about the final season. “Which was very weird because Ruth is never afraid to die. “She told me she was afraid to die,” Garner says.
#Julia garner series
She was also recently seen in The Paramount Network's six-part event series WACO opposite Michael Shannon and Taylor Kitsch.One of the questions Garner asked Ruth as she prepared for the show’s fourth and final season was what she was afraid of. On the small screen, she has been praised for her work on FX's The Americans, and was recently seen appearing in HBO's GIRLS and in Netflix's The Get Down. Other film credits include memorable performances in We Are What We Are, Electrick Children, and Martha Marcy May Marlene. In 2015, Garner received critical recognition for her performance as a pregnant teenager in Paul Weitz's Grandma, which she starred in opposite Lily Tomlin. The series is written and directed by Cary Fukunaga. Garner also co-stars in the Netflix series Maniac opposite Emma Stone, Justin Theroux, and Jonah Hill. Garner is a talented dynamic young actress who recently gave a breakout performance that received critical praise as the scrappy and conniving "Ruth Langmore" opposite Jason Bateman and Laura Linney in Netflix's Ozark. Julia Garner stars as Terra Newell, Debra Newell’s youngest daughter, who is sceptical about her mother’s relationship with John Meehan, in Bravo’s scripted anthology Dirty John.
