Julia Garner Has a Secret

Julia Garner is the kind of actor who commits so intensely to a project, one can be excused for mistaking her for the characters she plays—for example, the con artist Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna, or even the fictional Missouri-based criminal Ruth in Ozark. In her latest project, The Royal Hotel, Garner once again melts into her role—that of Hanna, a young traveler who finds herself in an unnerving situation after she runs out of money in Australia and must take a job at a bar in a remote mining town. Here, Garner talks about the film, the end of Ozark, and the one word she avoids when discussing her performances.

How did The Royal Hotel come into your life?

I worked with [the director] Kitty Green on The Assistant. She called, gave me the script, and that was it. I love working with her, and it was an opportunity to work together again and also to executive produce. It’s been a joy.

Were you a theatrical child?

Yes. I would wake up and start singing, but I was also really shy. That’s one of the reasons I started acting, to overcome my shyness.

The characters you play—from Ruth in Ozark to Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna to Hanna in The Royal Hotel—all seem to have a secret, something internalized that they’d never admit.

I don’t even like saying “characters”—I don’t like that word. They are people. I want to know them so well that I could be having a conversation with you and be worrying about something else as the person I’m playing. And I really do miss them when the project ends.

Do you find it liberating to play these crazy people who aren’t shy?

I do, but I also think that they're shy in their own way, in the sense where they're not really exposing who they actually are. Only the audience can see who they actually are.

As Ruth in Ozark, you got to really transform—it’s not fair what happened to her, but they had to end it somehow.

I know. I'm just happy that I made it to the end. Every single season, I would say to the showrunner, Chris Mundy, "Am I going to be okay this year?" He's like, "You're fine. You're not going to die."

Poor Ruth. As a kid, did you have a favorite Halloween costume?

No. I was so boring. I was always a witch; I’d put on a black wig. During the SAG-AFTRA strike, I went to clown school. My teacher assigned me the character of a witch clown! Strange. It was a witch, but I had a little clown nose. Maybe I’m just not that scary.

What’s your go-to karaoke song?

“It’s Not Unusual,” by Tom Jones.

When you were growing up, did you have posters on your walls?

Yeah. On the back of my door, I had a mirror, and then I had all these stickers and posters and magazine cutouts. Looking back, a lot of them were different actors I admired. Kate Winslet was on there, and Paul Newman. I had a sticker of him. He's so handsome. I had Bette Davis, too.

What movie makes you cry?

It's a Wonderful Life. I always cry when I watch it. I love that movie so much. It’s so beautiful and timeless.

What is your astrological sign?

Aquarius. We love people, but we’re also introverts. I don’t meet a ton of Aquarians. As a sign, we’re weird! Everybody agrees with that, right?

Senior Style Editor: Allia Alliata di Montereale. Senior Fashion Market Editor and Menswear Director: Jenna Wojciechowski. Hair for portfolio by Mustafa Yanaz for Dyson at Art+Commerce; makeup for portfolio by Emi Kaneko for Tom Ford at Bryant Artists; manicures for portfolio by Michelle Saunders for Chanel. Set design by Peter Klein at Frank Reps. Special thanks to Ms. Bebe at Outfitters Wig Shop in Hollywood.

Produced by Connect the Dots; Executive Producer: Wes Olson; Producer: Zack Higginbottom; Production manager: Nicole Morra; Production coordinator: David Cahill; First photography assistant: Trevor Pikhart; Second photography assistant: Jeremy Eric Sinclair; Digital Technician: Brendan Pattengale; Postproduction by Lucas Rios Palazesi at Quickfix; Fashion assistants: Tori López, Tyler VanVranken, Molly Cody, India Reed, John Celaya, Kaamilah Thomas, Emily Cancelosi, Allie Kessler, Juliana Bassi, Karla Garcia, Jacqueline Chen, Cosima Croquet; Production assistants: Mateo Calvo, Aspen Miller, Nico Robledo, Griffin Koerner, Danielle Rouleau, Nicolo Battaglini, Juanes Montoya, Juan Calvo, Lily Cordingley, Nathan Gallie, Cameron Hoge, Jack Fahey, Cole Ewing, Karlie Ofstedahl; Hair assistants: Takao Hayashi, Andres Copeland; Makeup assistants: Amelia Berger, Willie Huang; Manicure assistants: Rachel Messick, Marissa Asprer; Set assistants: Christopher Crash Richard, Winston Willingham; Tailors: Irina Tshartaryan, Elma Click, Gayane Mnatsakanyan at Susie’s Custom Designs, Inc.