Actor Julia Garner is Hollywood’s Secret ‘Weapon’

Actor Julia Garner (Ozark) has built a career out of shapeshifting. This summer, the Emmy-winning performer lands on the silver (surfer) screen with two major projects—The Fantastic Four: First Steps https://www.fandango.com/the-fantastic-four-first-steps-2025-236967/movie-overview and the highly-anticipated horror film, Weapons https://www.fandango.com/weapons-2025-240417/movie-overview?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22779704094&gbraid=0AAAAA_YO_vrQ4LknNVAyfbeKBfwbOVR1x&gclid=CjwKCAjwhuHEBhBHEiwAZrvdcvYWc9hLhCTqp9PU0xh6qhhfYH4dlkjwdDwweGBpOI0nJmuc2M76KRoC0dIQAvD_BwE. At the top, we walk through the spine-tingling world of Zach Cregger’s new film (6:45), the Moleskine character journals she keeps for each role (9:22), and some lessons from her time in clown school (14:01). Then, she reflects on her ‘Noah Baumbach-like’ upbringing (22:27) and the influence of legendary actors Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, and Sharon Stone (23:15), who she credits for opening the doors in Hollywood that she has walked through (23:50). On the back-half, Garner describes her transformative years making Ozark https://www.netflix.com/watch/80117807?source=35 (30:03), the whirlwind three-week prep period to portray Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna https://www.netflix.com/watch/81012921?source=35 (35:59), her comfort with discomfort (43:05), and how she remains open to growth in this next chapter (44:17). Watch this conversation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0higcBGhZs on our new YouTube channel. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected]. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:21Sam Fragoso?

  This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam Fragoso. Welcome to the show.

• 0:38Sam Fragoso?

  Today, actor Julia Garner. Last week, I sat with Chicago playwright David Mamet. It was an excellent episode of the show and a totally normal conversation between two civil adults. It also featured the line, "You look like someone who's never been punched in the face." But there was something else he said that I really enjoyed, besides the whole punching in the face bit. And it was about acting and performers and how there's, quote, "No inner meaning of the character." This is something Mamet has been talking about for decades now. "The actor does not need to become the character," Mamet wrote in True and False, "because there is no character. It's just actors saying their lines."

• 1:21Sam Fragoso?

  But I was thinking, in preparation for today's episode with Julia, what if it isn't just that? What if a performer does invest in interiority, does create narratives around the character that the audience may not see in the finished film or show, but that help create the performance we so greatly enjoy? What actor Julia Garner does and has been doing for over two decades is, in many ways, a repudiation of the ideas we heard last week from Mamet. You need only to seek out her body of work as evidence. Films like The Assistant, Wolfman, The Royal Hotel, or her television work in Ozark, The Americans, and Ben D'Anna.

• 2:05Sam Fragoso?

  Each of which she imbues with the unique understanding of what director Kitty Green calls "her character's inner world", the entire film written on her face. Her latest act of shapeshifting comes in Weapons, directed by Zach Craigor. In it, Garner plays elementary school teacher Justine Gandy, who suddenly comes under fire from her community when 17 of her students randomly and simultaneously vanish at 2:17 in the morning. Here's a clip from the trailer.

• 2:45Speaker 01

  I, I just want to say how

• 2:51Speaker 01

  very sorry I am for- She should be locked up until she tells us what happened. The truth is, is that I want an answer just as bad as all of you.

• 3:02Speaker 02

  We're talking about 17 kids and one classroom. I want to know what happened in that classroom. Why just her classroom? Why only hers?

• 3:13Speaker 01

  I love those kids.

• 3:16Speaker 03

  This is a true story that happened right here in my town. A lot of people die in a lot of really weird ways in this story, but you're not going to find it in the news.

• 3:29Speaker 04

  Those kids walked out of those homes. No one pulled them out.

• 3:33Speaker 04

  No one forced them. What do you see that I don't?

• 3:37Speaker 04

  Show me, where did you go?

• 3:40Speaker 05

  There is something very, very wrong going on.

• 3:48Sam Fragoso?

  That was from the new film Weapons, now available in a theater near you. And it really should be seen in the theater, by the way, because horror movies, like comedies, they play best in a crowd. And Weapons is no exception to the rule. The director, Zach Craigor, last traumatized movie-going audiences with this film Barbarian. I remember leaving the theater of that one and having to buy like an extra heavy dose of melatonin that night. But Weapons, I have to say, is more haunting than horrific. What it lacks in jump scares, it makes up for in Garner's unnerving but tender portrayal of a teacher in disarray.

• 4:28Sam Fragoso?

  She loves her students more than just about anything and has now found herself being accused of being responsible for their disappearance. The film hinges on Garner's ability, as Greene said earlier, to have the film written on her face. Sometimes, it's just an actor saying their lines. But sometimes, it's what an actor doesn't say, the secrets they keep for themselves and for their characters. And so today, I talked to Julia about playing everyone from social icon artist Anna Delvey to being part of a Missouri mob family in Ozark. We also discussed her Noah Baumbach-like childhood, growing up in New York City, her

• 5:10Sam Fragoso?

  earliest performances delivered around the kitchen table, and how she toggles between what Jason Bateman has called "her innate vulnerability and uncanny ferocity." Speaking of Ozark, you'll notice that the show comes up quite a bit in this episode with Julia. You may also notice that I tend to refer to the show as Ozarks, like with an S. I don't know why I do this. I think I may have thought the show was called Ozarks. It doesn't just happen once or twice, which is why I'm mentioning it here. I would encourage everyone who was going to comment or email a correction to instead just take a sip of whatever you're drinking every time I mess up.

• 5:53Sam Fragoso?

  We're long overdue for a listener mailbag episode, so if you want to contribute to that, drop us a line or leave us a voice memo with any questions, comments, or feedback for Dave and Mamet. You can do so at [email protected]. If you want to watch this episode with Julia Garner, you can actually do so on our new YouTube page, which has been linked in today's description. And so with that, here is the star of Ozark, which is the last time I'll be getting the title right today: Julia Garner.

• 6:45Sam Fragoso?

  Hi Julia.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  Hi.

• 6:46Sam Fragoso?

  Nice to meet you.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Nice to meet you, Sam.

• 6:48Sam Fragoso?

  How are we doing?

• 6:49Speaker 01

  I'm good. I'm just, you know, here on your show, very excited.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  But yeah, I'm good.

• 6:56Sam Fragoso?

  Okay, so you have two movies out at the moment, and I thought we start with Weapons, which I've heard you refer to as, quote, "a horror Magnolia." Now, when I think of Magnolia and the scene of like the frogs falling down, that feels like a horror movie to me. But explain to people who haven't seen it, how you see the film.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Well, I also think too, it has comedic elements to it. It just feels like a long nightmare, a real nightmare. And it feels very intimate, because it feels like it could just be your everyday life. But it's, it's not everyday. It's a crazy ride.

• 7:38Sam Fragoso?

  I was about to say, what does your everyday life look like?

• 7:41Speaker 01

  Not Weapons.

• 7:42Sam Fragoso?

  Weapons is pretty far away from mine.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  I mean, it was Weapons when I was shooting it.

• 7:47Sam Fragoso?

  Did you wake up every day at 2:17?

• 7:50Speaker 01

  In the morning, with fuming, with anxiety. Not for that job.

• 7:54Sam Fragoso?

  Right. Oh, there's another one?

• 7:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, a different job, I guess. Yeah.

• 7:57Sam Fragoso?

  The logline of the movie is, so like, you're a teacher at a school. Her name's Justine. You come in a class, only to discover that all of your students, except for one, have vanished in the night at the exact same time. It's my understanding that you keep a journal for each character, writing as the person you're about to play. So on the page, what did Justine sound like in your diary? What was she afraid of?

• 8:26Speaker 01

  Not feeling enough. And like, feeling like this sense of shame, in a way. And I think that's not what the movie is about, but the movie has aspects of addiction, each character in a way. And I think, you know, with addiction, behind the addiction is shame. There's that sense of not feeling worthy or like lovable. But she loves those kids. She loves those kids.

• 8:55Sam Fragoso?

  And in the film, we see her with a drinking problem, or the very least.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  She doesn't think she's like a functioning alcoholic.

• 9:02Sam Fragoso?

  Right.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:03Sam Fragoso?

  She teaches kids at times, maybe a little bit drunk. It's not, it's not exactly clear.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  It's ambiguous.

• 9:08Sam Fragoso?

  It's ambiguous whether she crosses that line or not.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  She just shows up to work like just slosh like, hey kids.

• 9:15Sam Fragoso?

  Not being enough is a, it's a lot.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've been told that. No, I'm kidding.

• 9:21Sam Fragoso?

  No, it's good. It's good. I mean, on the page, the diary that you keep for each character. Do you get a new Moleskine for each one?

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Each one?

• 9:30Sam Fragoso?

  Or is it in the notes app?

• 9:32Speaker 01

  No, I have a Moleskine and it's not, you know, I don't finish the whole journal.

• 9:37Sam Fragoso?

  For each character.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  For each character. But I can go back to every character I've ever played in my life, in my career, and look at that time. And it's really funny.

• 9:49Sam Fragoso?

  That's amazing.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  Like my handwriting, I mean, my handwriting is still really bad. It used to be really good when I was a kid and then it just stopped.

• 9:56Sam Fragoso?

  We tried to impress people more when we were kids.

• 10:00Speaker 01

  Right. Why do you think that is?

• 10:02Sam Fragoso?

  I think we're told that we ought to.

• 10:04Speaker 01

  Do you think it's because we were more open? So we didn't want to disappoint?

• 10:09Sam Fragoso?

  Were you more open as a kid?

• 10:11Speaker 01

  For sure. I think everybody's more open as a child. I also think that's why they're the best actors.

• 10:16Sam Fragoso?

  Hmm. Although child actors, you're a rare exception. Sometimes it doesn't work so well.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  I mean, I started when I was 16 though.

• 10:24Sam Fragoso?

  I guess it's like a child adjacent.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  Exactly. It's not, it's like now looking back and I'm like, wow, I was a kid. But when I was 16, I thought I was not a child and, you know, I wanted to go everywhere by myself.

• 10:36Sam Fragoso?

  That's true. So when people saw you in Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene, even as a performer, it seemed like you had figured something out already by then.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  No.

• 10:46Sam Fragoso?

  Nothing.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  No, I was like.

• 10:48Sam Fragoso?

  You were that good at faking it.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  I've been acting my whole life, basically. Facts, actually. No, it, that, I started, I did that movie when I was 16. That was my first movie. So the thing that I learned from that job was just to be on a film set. I just didn't really get it and, but it was an incredible first job.

• 11:08Sam Fragoso?

  Did you diary for that one too?

• 11:10Speaker 01

  No, cuz I was such a new actor.

• 11:12Sam Fragoso?

  You were figuring it out.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  I was figuring it out and, you know, I didn't even know if I was gonna do this for the rest of my life, you know, I was still sixteen and I knew that I loved film, but you're just playing around when you're that age.

• 11:23Sam Fragoso?

  The fact that you have a mole skin of all your characters, that you have entries for most of them.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  There's different things, there's like, I'll tell you.

• 11:30Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, okay, that's why I want to know the process.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, so what I do is that I will write different characteristics. I don't like, you know, talking in third person, but I will for this. It's a big pet peeve of mine. Um, I will write as Julia.

• 11:49Speaker 01

  And then just different characteristics. And then I'll write like how my different relationships in my life.

• 11:57Sam Fragoso?

  So for Justine, walk us through what that was.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  Well, I'll write like what my relationship is with my father, with my mother, with Paul, with the kids, like the different relationships in my life. And bullet points, have bullet points for that. And then I start writing as her. Instead of saying Justine, or she, or whatever, I'll write I.

• 12:21Sam Fragoso?

  And does that help?

• 12:23Speaker 01

  It helps a lot because you already have everything, all the bullet points marinated and then you kind of can just write whatever, you know, she's feeling in a way.

• 12:34Sam Fragoso?

  Do you remember when you started doing that? Like, where did that process even come from?

• 12:38Speaker 01

  It came from like taking notes. I also don't love to write in my script because I don't want people to see my notes.

• 12:46Sam Fragoso?

  You're protective of them.

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I have a trauma with that, actually.

• 12:50Sam Fragoso?

  Go on.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  I had, a long time ago, I had a director once that I found out they're like, yeah, maybe don't write so much on the script cuz you're giving it away and, which is not so crazy, but like that's.

• 13:03Sam Fragoso?

  Was someone peeping at the script?

• 13:05Speaker 01

  I think, I think so. And then, but that kind of opened up a different thing for me, which is. I think secrets are very important. You know, art, you need three things. You need love and passion, passion slash rage and secrets.

• 13:22Sam Fragoso?

  Wow. Love, passion slash rage and secrets.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  I also think too, like, you know, you ask the director questions. He gives you information, all the things. And then I think that, you know, you discuss things with whoever you're working with. And then I think you also just keep things for yourself because everybody has secrets.

• 13:43Sam Fragoso?

  OK, so in the film, Justine is like this pariah in the community. Parents start accusing her of knowing where their children are, like as if she's part of the plan. On the side of your character's car, someone graffiti's the word witch. And that's how she's kind of made to feel in the community, like a witch. Now, during the actor's strike, when you went to clown school under a coach that I feel like I'm going to mess up his name, so I don't want to mess it up. Philippe Gullier?

• 14:12Speaker 01

  Gullier, yeah.

• 14:13Sam Fragoso?

  Gullier, OK. Like Sacha Baron Cohen studied with him, a lot of people studied with him. Two questions. One, at the school, what did he cast you as?

• 14:25Speaker 01

  A witch.

• 14:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, because he's like, you look like a witch. And I was like, OK.

• 14:34Sam Fragoso?

  And that is his accent.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is. It is what happens in clown school stays in clown school.

• 14:41Sam Fragoso?

  Well, I learned a lot about clown school last night.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  Was that the biggest research you were doing for this?

• 14:46Sam Fragoso?

  That's actually all clown questions.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  I am technically a certified clown.

• 14:51Sam Fragoso?

  I believe it. I can feel it right now.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  No, I have a certificate.

• 14:53Sam Fragoso?

  That'd be great if you came to every interview bringing your certificate.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  And my clown notes?

• 14:57Sam Fragoso?

  Your clown notes.

• 14:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:58Sam Fragoso?

  What I want to ask you is what did you get from the trading? That you didn't know you needed. And feel free to deliver this in his accent.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, I will, Sam. I think, no, I think.

• 15:14Sam Fragoso?

  That's amazing.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  I just, I'm good.

• 15:18Sam Fragoso?

  He has like a drum in class.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  He has a drum in class. He has this fake piece of shit. Sorry, can I curse here?

• 15:25Sam Fragoso?

  Yes, you can.

• 15:26Speaker 01

  It's a complete cheat. It's just absolutely awful. Uh, no, but he's amazing.

• 15:33Sam Fragoso?

  His main criticism of people is that they are boring.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  Well, I think he also talks about being an idiot.

• 15:38Sam Fragoso?

  Yes.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Which is really important.

• 15:40Sam Fragoso?

  Here's a quote. He said, you have to find your idiot, your innocent, special, marvelous idiot. Which if he met me, he'd find that in about 30 seconds. But what does that mean?

• 15:51Speaker 01

  Well, Sam, um, I think it's funny that he said the word innocent because it goes back to what I was saying about the openness of a child. So I think that things stop when you start closing up.

• 16:07Sam Fragoso?

  And when did you start, stop?

• 16:09Speaker 01

  Stop. When did I start closing up? Is what you're about to ask. This is like a therapy session.

• 16:14Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, you know the show.

• 16:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, I like it.

• 16:18Sam Fragoso?

  Part of therapy, part clown.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. You know what? It's funny, like, there was a lot of changes that happened in my life. You know, after Ozark and my career and everything. And when something like that happens after, you know, getting attention like that, it affects your confidence in a way where it's either, I notice people either drink their like own cool way in a way, or they, all of a sudden, they feel like, why me? Like, I realized that winning and losing is kind of ultimately the same feeling.

• 16:51Sam Fragoso?

  I heard you say that after you won your third Emmy, you never had less confidence in yourself.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. And that's why I went to clown school. Because I realized I was closing up and I didn't know what was wrong. And then going there and failing in front of people and them having this expectation that I was gonna nail it.

• 17:13Sam Fragoso?

  Right.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  In a way.

• 17:14Sam Fragoso?

  Because you're Julia Garner from Ozark.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 17:17Sam Fragoso?

  Or Martha Marcy May Marley.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  Any of the projects.

• 17:20Sam Fragoso?

  Or Not Fade Away.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  Or Not Fade Away, the list continues.

• 17:23Sam Fragoso?

  The dream scene.

• 17:23Speaker 01

  Or, or Talk Easy.

• 17:25Sam Fragoso?

  What character did you play in that dream scene in Not Fade Away?

• 17:29Speaker 01

  I played a clown.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  I guess people always are like, well, she's two things. She's either a witch or a clown. Do I have witch clown energy?

• 17:38Sam Fragoso?

  Um, I can't answer that yet, but when I connected that the clown part of Not Fade Away to the clown school that you went to, to the witch of it all and weapons, I was like, I, I need to go back to therapy. I've gone too deep.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  You're like, I'm interviewing a clown witch.

• 18:00Sam Fragoso?

  Yes.

• 18:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. This is my last interview.

• 18:03Sam Fragoso?

  This is what my life has led to.

• 18:05Speaker 01

  Sorry. I'm so sorry.

• 18:08Sam Fragoso?

  So at the school, you were on stage. You said he had a piece of.

• 18:12Speaker 01

  Fake poop. Yeah.

• 18:13Sam Fragoso?

  In his hand.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:15Sam Fragoso?

  And so when you performed up there, did he like?

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Did he ever lift it up?

• 18:18Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  No.

• 18:19Sam Fragoso?

  Okay.

• 18:20Speaker 01

  I mean, he's definitely said something was bad, but he did say it wasn't boring, though.

• 18:24Sam Fragoso?

  Okay.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  Which is good. That's the worst thing you can be.

• 18:26Sam Fragoso?

  All right, so he's in some way one of your influences now. I mean, having gone there for two weeks.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  I think what influenced me was realizing that it doesn't really matter because failure is so important. Cause if you don't fail, you're not gonna have a win and you're not gonna have success. And it's funny, I was like that my whole life and I think.

• 18:49Sam Fragoso?

  Did, tell me about that.

• 18:50Speaker 01

  Well, I failed a lot in my life.

• 18:52Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, exactly. But, but I don't think people would think that, given that it started to work pretty quickly for you.

• 18:58Speaker 01

  Well, cause I always had like the, what's the worst mentality? Just because I was extremely sick as a child. I had very bad epilepsy and it was kind of like, I had a great day if, at the end of the day, if I didn't get a seizure.

• 19:14Sam Fragoso?

  Would you get them in school?

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, on the bus.

• 19:16Sam Fragoso?

  Oh, God. Wait, how on the bus?

• 19:18Speaker 01

  From the sunlight.

• 19:20Sam Fragoso?

  When did you realize as a kid, like, oh, this is not happening to other kids?

• 19:24Speaker 01

  Very early on.

• 19:26Sam Fragoso?

  And that felt what way to you?

• 19:28Speaker 01

  I mean, it was always a reminder, like, a lot of medications didn't work for me. So even when I would go to a birthday party, like, I couldn't eat the food. Cause certain foods trigger.

• 19:37Sam Fragoso?

  Epilepsy?

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:38Sam Fragoso?

  How long did this last for?

• 19:40Speaker 01

  When I was four, till I was. I think twelve thirteen was my last seizure.

• 19:46Sam Fragoso?

  Okay.

• 19:46Speaker 01

  It's funny. It's like I had very bad reading problems also. I had a lot of issues. But it it's kind of funny. It kind of prepped me that a sense of lack of control. There's a lot of lack of control when you enter this business. You know, when you know that you cannot control your body, you kind of just you have to accept it.

• 20:07Sam Fragoso?

  Everything.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  Everything and just let go. That's it. And then so that kind of prepped me for that. And then also with my learning problems, it I kind of just acted the whole time that I was smarter than I actually was. So.

• 20:22Sam Fragoso?

  That's what you meant by I've been performing forever. Ah, so you grew up in Riverdale. Is that right? In the Bronx? You've compared your childhood to a Noah Baumbach film. Your mother was a therapist, your father, a painter and art teacher from Ohio. Baumbach wise, was your childhood more like Squid and the Whale or Marriage Story?

• 20:45Speaker 01

  Oh, neither. I mean, my parents are still together.

• 20:47Sam Fragoso?

  I know.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  No, but it was just very New York.

• 20:50Sam Fragoso?

  Very New York.

• 20:51Speaker 01

  I grew up with going to a lot of museums and theater. And, you know, my parents are extremely, extremely creative. They're the most creative people I know. If I have, if I want an interesting idea, I just go to my parents and my sister.

• 21:08Sam Fragoso?

  I heard that one of your earliest performances was delivered with them. Anytime a telemarketer called.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:17Sam Fragoso?

  And you were sitting around the kitchen table.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  The whole, it was a family activity.

• 21:20Sam Fragoso?

  Okay, so why don't you walk us through this?

• 21:22Speaker 01

  So every time like a telemarketer would call, we would pick it up and we would keep them on the phone and we would just troll them as a family. So my dad would have his voice and then my mom would come in with her voice. And then my sister would come in with her voice. And then I would do like a bird sound and then they're like, sorry, my my parents flying around. We can come back and it was like chaotic as a family.

• 21:48Sam Fragoso?

  So they'd call, they'd be like, hello, is Tom Garner here?

• 21:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then we would prank call people I didn't really love and just when prank calling was a thing.

• 21:57Sam Fragoso?

  Oh, like classmates?

• 21:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:00Sam Fragoso?

  And your family would all get in on pranking your fellow classmates?

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not good.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  Yes, this is, this is the childhood that I grew up in.

• 22:10Sam Fragoso?

  By the way, can I say, can I say something?

• 22:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:12Sam Fragoso?

  It makes total sense that you play an Anna Delvey though.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  Untrustworthy. I am playing untrustworthy characters. You're like, you are a clown witch, untrustworthy witch.

• 22:23Sam Fragoso?

  Aren't you playing Sam Bateman Freese's girlfriend?

• 22:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, those are interesting.

• 22:29Sam Fragoso?

  I think they're amazing.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  Next question, next question.

• 22:38Sam Fragoso?

  That's good. Your family was supportive of you. They, they thought, no bully is only your bully. They're all of ours. We're gonna take it on our, on our own hands.

• 22:45Speaker 01

  Exactly. And they were only kids that were mean. They weren't doing it to like.

• 22:49Sam Fragoso?

  And, and why don't you name a couple of them?

• 22:51Speaker 01

  No, no. You know who you are.

• 22:53Sam Fragoso?

  You, you do know. You still kind of know a little bit.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  Remember who they, of course. I don't forget.

• 22:58Sam Fragoso?

  They lived there.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  What did you do as a family?

• 23:03Speaker 01

  What did you do?

• 23:06Sam Fragoso?

  My childhood was definitely like a Noah Baumbach film. The divorce part especially. But we watched movies, as I think.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, same.

• 23:14Sam Fragoso?

  You guys did. The holy trinity for Julia Garner, as I understand it. Betty Davis in All About Eve, Sharon Stone in Casino, and Gina Rollins in A Woman Under the Influence.

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:29Sam Fragoso?

  It's kind of an amazing holy trinity of dysfunction though.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, because I think they changed the game for how writers write for women. I feel like I would not have the career that I've had of interesting characters like that, female characters, if those movies didn't happen and if they didn't do that with the part in a way. And I, I actually told that to Sharon Stone. I, my, I was at the Met Gala. This is so, I was at the Met Gala. No, but I, I was. And so I was walking and, and then I tripped on my dress. I was like, oh my God, this is so embarrassing. And I fell on someone's lap and I looked up.

• 24:09Sam Fragoso?

  And it was Sharon Stone?

• 24:10Speaker 01

  And it was Sharon Stone. The light on, I was right on her legs. I was like, oh my God. And, and the light hit her face like perfectly. And she was like, hello, Julia Garner.

• 24:21Sam Fragoso?

  This could be a scene in All About Eve.

• 24:23Speaker 01

  I was just like. I was like, hi, Sharon Stone. I was like, oh, my God. And then we ended up talking and she was telling me how much she loved Ozark and the assistant. And I told her, thank you. Because without, you know, her performance in Casino and her career and everything like, I would not have the career and get the parts that I've gotten without that performance. And then we ended up hanging out the whole night and told me a bunch of great stories. And I love her.

• 24:56Sam Fragoso?

  It's kind of a perfect icebreaker.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  Mm.

• 24:58Sam Fragoso?

  That you fell.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  In her lap. Yeah, quite literally.

• 25:02Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah. What did she say when you said that? Because, you know, that movie is one of my favorites, but her career did not work out the way she wanted. And she's talked about it in her memoir. She talks about how she was passed over and discriminated against. There were all kinds of rampant blatant misogyny within the industry. And you would think after doing something that great, she would get to do all the things that she totally deserved to do. And so for you to say that, I wonder where that landed.

• 25:33Speaker 01

  Well, I don't think you ever get the credit when you're a trendsetter. And I think that's what she is, or she's pre even trendsetter. I mean, you know, there's certain people that do things first. And I think when you do things first, you don't always, you don't always get the credit. But you're always going to be that person and everybody knows it and they can't compete with that.

• 25:53Sam Fragoso?

  I bet it was nice also for you to say that. I mean, I'm sure she knows it, but probably not told it enough.

• 26:00Speaker 01

  No, and, and I think there are certain performances that they do change the game for actors in a way. And people want to see people be a mess. And I think when you can be messy and unapologetic on screen, there's a sense of authority and that's extremely attractive.

• 26:24Sam Fragoso?

  Those three performances, I was thinking how like when you were a kid and you had epilepsy till you were a teenager, dyslexic, you had this quote where you said that, "Once I started performing, I could say everything that I couldn't say in my life."

• 26:41Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 26:42Sam Fragoso?

  And I wonder now, like now that you're early 30s, or you just turned 30?

• 26:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, or 31.

• 26:48Sam Fragoso?

  What did you want to say that you couldn't then, but can now?

• 26:52Speaker 01

  I don't know, because I don't, like, I was really shy as a kid and I, and this business forced me to not be shy. And I'm not super comfortable getting asked a lot of questions. I like asking questions. And so I always felt like I had a lot to say. I had a lot of feelings and a lot of thoughts in here and I would never express it, or I couldn't feel like I could express it. So I felt like any sort of opportunity that I could say other people's words, but express my feelings, just depending on what the scene was even. It felt like I was expressing something that was like my voice in a weird

• 27:36Speaker 01

  way, even though it's somebody else's words.

• 27:38Sam Fragoso?

  Do you remember an early performance where you got to do that?

• 27:42Speaker 01

  I took a scene study class. I was the youngest one there. They made an exception. I was 14. There was like all these, you know, older teenagers. And I remember the first time feeling like I got lost in the moment. And I also remember feeling like I expressed everything that I wanted and needed to express. My whole life, that is something I still struggle with. I, you know, sometimes feel completely misunderstood. And the only time that I don't is when I'm acting.

• 28:15Sam Fragoso?

  After the break, more from Julia Garner.

• 28:25Sam Fragoso?

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• 29:10Sam Fragoso?

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• 29:53Sam Fragoso?

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• 30:36Sam Fragoso?

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• 31:12Sam Fragoso?

  Coming back. Laura Linney, who's a fantastic actor in her own right and someone you worked with on Ozarks, says Julia throws herself into the work with an abandon. She doesn't even remember what she's done after they yell "cut." You can see her face morph in a way that you cannot do if you're self-conscious. She sticks her finger right into the socket.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  That's very nice that she said that, and that means a lot because she's brilliant.

• 31:42Sam Fragoso?

  Kitty Green, when I asked her this morning, she said the same thing.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  I'm gonna cry because I love both of those women so much.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  You know, I'm always constantly trying to chase a flow state, and that's really hard. And because there's a lot of distractions going on on set. And I also like to, I prepare, I prepare, but then I get to the point where I, I throw everything away and then I want to surprise myself. If I can surprise myself, I feel like that is like a successful day.

• 32:18Sam Fragoso?

  What was the first film in which, or show, we felt like, oh, I surprised myself on that?

• 32:24Speaker 01

  I think the first one was probably Ozark because I remember doing season one. And before that, what I would always get cast is kind of like the quiet frail girl who leaves a cult or gets pregnant or is maybe a mute or I don't know, like just like that kind of part. And then Ozark was more, I had to be this aggressive wounded dog and like, you know, animal.

• 32:52Sam Fragoso?

  One journalist called you the go to cult girl. You played cult members, a pregnant Mormon girl, cannibals, a girl who was in love with a KGB secret agent who wore weird glasses. And he said, even the time I play a teenager in Grandma, she's pregnant.

• 33:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I always got the freaks. Hollywood didn't want to cast me as the love interest, which is totally fine.

• 33:20Sam Fragoso?

  Did that bother you?

• 33:22Speaker 01

  When I was younger, it did because I felt like, oh, my God, I'm like, am I just like so like weird looking that I have to like get these kind of roles? But then it didn't because the prepping for that was so much fun and just so interesting. And it was harder. So it trained me.

• 33:42Sam Fragoso?

  Did you feel like you were weird looking?

• 33:44Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, yeah. Oh, my God. I mean, when I first came to LA, I was probably 17 and like the amount of producers and just people were like, oh, my God, she needs to straighten her hair or she needs to get veneers. And so it was like always this thing. And I remember very early on that I knew I wasn't going to get my break here. And if I were to get a break, it would probably be in New York and Ozark, the casting was out of New York.

• 34:14Sam Fragoso?

  When things started to change and turned for you, what was it like to field calls from the exact same people who said just years prior that you should change everything about yourself?

• 34:27Speaker 01

  Nice. That my instinct was right.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  I notice a lot of times when I don't listen to my instincts. Now I always listen to my instinct because it's usually right. Cause I'm a witch, no kidding.

• 34:39Sam Fragoso?

  I think a little.

• 34:40Speaker 01

  Do you think so?

• 34:41Sam Fragoso?

  Mm hmm.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  No, well. But yeah, just that whole thing of very early on, I learned that. Very important in this business to say no. And I'm not going to change who I am.

• 34:53Sam Fragoso?

  It's hard because uh it's already such a pain in the ass to get through your twenties.

• 35:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:02Sam Fragoso?

  And then to put that through the vessel of this industry. Even the way you diary. It feels like there's more time spent on the character that you're diarying for. Then for you, the person that has to play the character.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  I sound like I'm having an identity crisis.

• 35:24Speaker 01

  But I mean, in order to be a good artist, you have to make sure that you have experiences and you have a life, like you're a real person. Cause I'm not, I'm a person first and I'm an actor second.

• 35:40Sam Fragoso?

  I don't think that's easy. If you don't come from money, you don't come from it. I think it is hard to not put the thing that is your livelihood first.

• 35:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, everything has a price anyway. If you love something or passionate about something, it comes with a cost. You're putting yourself out there. And again, the openness.

• 36:04Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah.

• 36:05Speaker 01

  You know, setting yourself up for joy and hurt.

• 36:08Sam Fragoso?

  We're doing a new thing because we've asked a lot of tough, emotionally charged questions. This is called the Talk Easy Interlude. Okay, growing up in New York City, I heard you have a severe aversion to rats of any kind. How far did you make it into the film Ratatouille?

• 36:23Speaker 01

  I didn't finish it. So like probably like 30 minutes.

• 36:28Sam Fragoso?

  Okay.

• 36:28Speaker 01

  I, I know it's one of the greatest films of all time. I get it. It's just the idea of a rat on the top of someone's head, like pulling the hair. The guy's having an identity crisis, imposter syndrome. I mean, it's the whole thing is literally my worst nightmare. It's just awful.

• 36:42Sam Fragoso?

  In preparation for playing Anna Delvey, you went up to Buffalo to visit her in prison. When you met her for that first time. What did you wear? Was it designer?

• 36:55Speaker 01

  I don't remember what I wore.

• 36:56Sam Fragoso?

  Because she cares a lot about

• 36:58Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 36:58Sam Fragoso?

  those things.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  Yes. I probably, because it was so cold, I probably wore my uniform in the winter, which is just a black turtleneck and jeans.

• 37:08Sam Fragoso?

  Can you walk me through the steps to perfecting her accent? There's like three different things going on, right?

• 37:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was very stressful because I just finished Ozark and I had three weeks at the most until I started shooting Delve. So first I had to learn a German accent, which was crazy. So, yeah, but that wasn't, you know, that was bad. But my grandmother was German, so I

• 37:34Sam Fragoso?

  Did you ever do your grandmother's German accent when the telemarketers called?

• 37:38Speaker 01

  My mother did. My mother did my grandma's German accent.

• 37:41Sam Fragoso?

  Did she really?

• 37:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. And she's like, sorry, my parrot is flying all over the place. This is very bad German accent, so, but it's getting a little better.

• 37:51Sam Fragoso?

  It's getting better and better.

• 37:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, better.

• 37:53Sam Fragoso?

  The longer you do it, the better you'll get at it.

• 37:54Speaker 01

  And then you have Russian coming in.

• 37:58Sam Fragoso?

  Okay.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  A little bit like down here. I don't know what that is.

• 38:01Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, but can you do that? What did you have for breakfast today, Anna?

• 38:05Speaker 01

  I don't know. I don't eat breakfast. I have coffee, cigarette, you know. I don't, you ask too many questions.

• 38:15Speaker 01

  And then

• 38:16Sam Fragoso?

  See, by the way, can I tell you, listener?

• 38:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:19Sam Fragoso?

  She said that the characters get to say things that Julia cannot. And there you go.

• 38:24Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 38:25Sam Fragoso?

  You asked too many questions.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. That wasn't me. That was the Russian person that I was doing. The bad Russian accent that I was doing.

• 38:33Sam Fragoso?

  It wasn't you at all.

• 38:34Speaker 01

  And then

• 38:35Sam Fragoso?

  The third part?

• 38:35Speaker 01

  And then the third part is, you know, you have to make sure that when you do this, any sort of European, they probably learned English in the British way. So it has a little bit of hint of a British accent. And then she wants to sound like an American girl, like whatever.

• 38:53Speaker 05

  What the fuck? Why are you sulking like a little baby?

• 38:55Speaker 06

  So you are Russian?

• 38:57Speaker 05

  I was born there. Who cares?

• 38:59Speaker 06

  Who the fuck are you?

• 39:02Speaker 05

  We really don't have time for this.

• 39:05Speaker 06

  What else are you lying about? Who the fuck are you?

• 39:07Speaker 05

  I do not have time for this. I do not have time for you.

• 39:14Sam Fragoso?

  So you don't remember what you were wearing, but she definitely was thinking about what you were wearing when you met her.

• 39:20Speaker 01

  Probably.

• 39:22Sam Fragoso?

  I've been told that you are a big believer in astrology.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  Well, no, I grew up because my mother got my chart done like a few days after I was born. She's big in astrology.

• 39:31Sam Fragoso?

  Can you tell me what it means to have a sun in Aquarius, a moon in Libra, and Sagittarius rising? Because those are all terms I learned this morning.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  Okay, so it's so funny how things make it on the internet.

• 39:45Sam Fragoso?

  This is also, you know, we're here to get things right. If it's not important to you.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  So Aquarius is are very weird.

• 39:53Sam Fragoso?

  And she continues.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  And, no, but they're introverts, but they're, they sometimes, they're like, what are they saying? And then all of a sudden, it makes like, perfect sense.

• 40:03Sam Fragoso?

  I think I understand it now.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And then, but they think, they think outside the box. And you're always gonna get, you know, interesting, and they're a little stubborn sometimes.

• 40:13Sam Fragoso?

  And you feel that's pretty?

• 40:15Speaker 01

  It's pretty accurate. I can feel like people sometimes listen to me and they are hearing

• 40:22Speaker 01

  a little bit.

• 40:22Sam Fragoso?

  Do you think I've been doing that?

• 40:23Speaker 01

  No, you actually haven't. When's your birthday?

• 40:26Sam Fragoso?

  September 9th.

• 40:27Speaker 01

  Oh, so you're Virgo. Are you very organized?

• 40:30Sam Fragoso?

  Listener, she showed up before me today at the taping, so that may answer your question. In Ozark, how many takes did you get to yell, "If you want to stop me, you're gonna have to fucking kill me"?

• 40:41Speaker 01

  I completely disassociated that day. I really did. It was one of the most traumatizing days ever on set. I mean, by the way, it was a great day. It wasn't anybody else, but it was just, um, I was in a very, uh, interesting place in my life. You know, I was in a lot of pain at that time.

• 41:00Sam Fragoso?

  Is that a breakup?

• 41:01Speaker 01

  No, no, no, just, just stuff in my life.

• 41:04Sam Fragoso?

  You ask too many questions.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, too many questions. We remember, we like secrets a little bit, Sam.

• 41:12Sam Fragoso?

  I don't know what voice I'm doing.

• 41:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like this voice.

• 41:14Sam Fragoso?

  It's some kind of Russian thing, I don't know. So you were going through a lot.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I just, it was kind of one of those things. It was a really intense, intense, intense day.

• 41:26Speaker 07

  Okay, look, that man, that man works for the FBI and he runs a drug cartel. So even if he is responsible, he's not.

• 41:37Speaker 07

  Do not hurt this man.

• 41:39Speaker 05

  Or what, your whole fucking family will be murdered, huh? If you want to stop me, you're gonna have to fucking kill me.

• 41:51Sam Fragoso?

  Can we bring this back to like these new films and the work post Ozarks? I guess I'm also thinking about The Assistant a lot. How are you able to separate or divide the, I'm having a hard time in my life in this moment? As you were on the, you're gonna have to fucking kill me day of Ozarks.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  It's very hard. I feel more, when I'm working, I feel more like the character inside than myself. But I am presenting, like, again, third person, I hate talking about it, but it's Julia. Like, I don't, I feel more like the character, though.

• 42:27Sam Fragoso?

  Have you ever read the author Jennifer Egan? She has a book called, uh, Visit from the Goon Squad. And we had her on a couple of years ago and she has a brother who's schizophrenic. And he read her work and he said, it's unbelievable, Jen. And she says, what? She said, I read your book and, uh, when you talk in the voices of other people, you win a Pulitzer Prize. When I have other people talking through me, I'm in an institution.

• 42:59Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 43:00Sam Fragoso?

  And that, I'd like stayed with me.

• 43:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:02Sam Fragoso?

  In making art, like this thing that we're talking about and making jokes about while I do my bad accent work, to actually channel that and to also be able to hold on to yourself at the end of it. There's not a given.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  It's confusing.

• 43:19Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, confusing.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  And it is really hard. And it's also hard because, especially when you're on set, you want to make sure to keep the energy going. It's positive. So there's that sense of responsibility too. You don't want to, just because you're down, you don't want to ever drag other people down because people need to do their job.

• 43:41Sam Fragoso?

  I guess like on the other side of that, when you did win the Emmys and all that and you said like, oh, the reason I went to clown school is because I felt.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  I think what I realized once I got off the stage is that you go out there for 30 seconds, if you're lucky, because they cut it very short. And then you get off the stage and then the next day it's just your life. You know, so it's not about the result. It is really about the process. That's what I live for. I live for the process.

• 44:13Sam Fragoso?

  Ah, and the confidence that was shaken. Have you rediscovered that?

• 44:20Speaker 01

  Well, what is confidence?

• 44:22Sam Fragoso?

  I don't know, but it's but.

• 44:23Speaker 01

  What is confidence?

• 44:24Sam Fragoso?

  I think that depends.

• 44:24Speaker 01

  Because it depends, because I can't say if you were to ask me, do you know yourself? I would say absolutely. Do I know my limitations? Absolutely. And that to me is very confident in one sense.

• 44:39Sam Fragoso?

  Very confident.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  But in the other sense, it's like other superficial things that people, I don't know, like, what do you think confidence is? Because I'm trying to figure that out. I don't even know what it is.

• 44:52Sam Fragoso?

  I think it's your capacity and willingness to fall short, as I have a few times in this episode.

• 44:59Speaker 01

  Are you confident?

• 45:01Sam Fragoso?

  I feel confident in the research and the writing I do. And then we're in a room and, you know, I have a lot of stuff going on. You have stuff going on and shit happens.

• 45:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:13Sam Fragoso?

  And it's imperfect.

• 45:15Speaker 01

  But isn't that perfect, though?

• 45:17Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, especially with editing.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  No, but I love imperfections. I love imperfections.

• 45:22Sam Fragoso?

  I know, you just gave me the punchline, so I had to. Yeah.

• 45:25Speaker 01

  That's what makes people interesting.

• 45:26Sam Fragoso?

  What's confident to you? What were you trying to work out at the school? And now you're back from it. You've done these two movies. You're moving forward. You're saying you're trying to figure it out for yourself. What does that look like? What do you want to figure out?

• 45:41Speaker 01

  Well, it changes with age. You know, with the KLAN school, I realized it's just always stay open. Especially as an artist, you always have to stay open and magical things happen when you stay open. I think now for me, it's just the thing that I'm focusing on is just who I'm spending my time with. Whether it's who I'm creating with, friends, family, who I'm just spending my time with. I think time is the biggest luxury.

• 46:10Sam Fragoso?

  I was thinking that growing up in the Bronx, Noah Baumbach-like childhood. On the back of your door in your childhood bedroom, there was a mirror.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  I still have it. I still have the door.

• 46:23Sam Fragoso?

  You still have the door?

• 46:24Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 46:25Sam Fragoso?

  And what did you put on that door?

• 46:28Speaker 01

  Things that inspired me. It was like an inspiration door, and I wasn't even aware of it.

• 46:31Sam Fragoso?

  What was on there?

• 46:34Speaker 01

  Well, there was Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Betty Davis. And it was actually from those, remember when stamps used to always have like every month, they would have like a new special stamp? So I would, it would come with like a giant sticker.

• 46:52Sam Fragoso?

  Oh, yeah, okay.

• 46:53Speaker 01

  So I would cut it and then I would always collect those things. And then I had Kate Winslet from like a long com. I had all these, I had all these people that I just like loved, these women that I love. And then I had this like Daft Punk sticker, because my sister went to the Pyramid Tour and she got me like a sticker. She was cooler and older than me. So, yeah.

• 47:17Sam Fragoso?

  Is it weird to think that there are some young performers right now that may have a sticker of you on their mood inspiration board and wannabe actors?

• 47:26Speaker 01

  I've never thought of that. It is emotional. That's why I'm silent. It's overwhelming in a way.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  And it's also really nice that everybody, in a way, is kind of the same. Everybody starts out the same.

• 47:45Sam Fragoso?

  What do you mean?

• 47:46Speaker 01

  That like, things in life, it's simple. You are inspired to be something or someone. And you work, again, the process and then you maybe get there or you maybe you don't. Or just people, we kind of, yeah, we're the same in certain ways.

• 48:03Sam Fragoso?

  You said recently, I have to constantly make myself feel uncomfortable. And that's gonna make me feel comfortable as an artist. I feel if I have any sort of comfort, then something's deeply wrong.

• 48:15Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 48:16Sam Fragoso?

  Is that still the goal, this kind of discomfort? I mean, what do you think comes from that?

• 48:23Speaker 01

  I don't wanna know everything. I wanna learn. I always wanna learn something new. I don't wanna feel like I know everything or I kind of am doing the same tricks. I think it comes from that and also just constantly feeling like I'm, I'm growing in some way. And not changing, but growing and learning.

• 48:43Sam Fragoso?

  Do you feel like you are?

• 48:44Speaker 01

  I try. That's why I always look for things that make me uncomfortable, I guess. I don't know.

• 48:50Sam Fragoso?

  Hopefully, this podcast hasn't made you feel that uncomfortable.

• 48:53Speaker 01

  Not at all. Like, I've been very comfortable, truly.

• 48:56Sam Fragoso?

  Laura Linney says, you get lost in that character. Kitty Green, you worked with on two movies, says the same thing. I think Jason Bateman had a variation on this, that you kind of dissolve into the person. As a kid, and we talked about it, the characters said everything that you couldn't. At thirty one, is that still true?

• 49:24Speaker 01

  Mm hmm. Absolutely. I think that all the things that you feel as a kid or the struggles, they follow you for a lifetime. So, yeah, absolutely. But then they become a superpower. You can, I'll end it here, you can change the narrative in your own life. When you're a kid, your world is so small.

• 49:45Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah.

• 49:45Speaker 01

  And in simple in certain ways, you don't know how it's your life is gonna be. And I still don't know how my life is gonna be in a way, which is also exciting. And I love that.

• 49:55Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, I did too. Thank you so much for doing this.

• 49:58Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me. This has been like such a, again, I'm such a fan and I was, I was a little nervous. But then you were so cool and I was like, ah, he's a buddy. He's good.

• 50:07Sam Fragoso?

  Was it all right?

• 50:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was great.

• 50:09Sam Fragoso?

  Okay.

• 50:09Speaker 01

  Was it all right for you?

• 50:10Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, it was very all right.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  Because you have very smart guests.

• 50:13Sam Fragoso?

  That includes you. Julia Garner, thank you so much.

• 50:17Speaker 01

  Thank you so much for having me.

• 50:18Sam Fragoso?

  See you next time.

• 50:19Speaker 01

  Thank you. See you next time. We did it. Because I'm so sorry, I'm such a whack-a-doodle interview.

• 50:51Sam Fragoso?

  And that's our show. If you enjoyed today's episode with actor Julia Garner, and I hope you did because we all needed a fun one after last week. Be sure to leave us five stars on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you like to listen. If you want to really help us out, share the program on social media. Pagus at Talk Easy Pod. All of this really does ensure that we can continue making Talk Easy each and every Sunday. I want to give a special thanks to Christine Trupickio and the team at Shelter PR, Melanie Klein at Warner Brothers, the Rita House in Los Angeles, California, director Kitty Green, and of course, our guest today, Julia Garner.

• 51:35Sam Fragoso?

  Her new films Weapons and The Fantastic Four are now playing in theaters across the country. To learn more about her and her work, visit our show notes at talkeasypod.com. For more episodes with other great actors, I'd recommend, of course, Josh Brolin, Cate Blanchett, and Viola Davis. To hear those and more Lemonada podcasts, listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. You can also subscribe to Lemonada Premium for exclusive bonus content. It also comes with ad-free listening. Just hit the subscribe button on Apple or head to lemonadapremium.com. Talk Easy is produced by Caroline Reebok. Our executive producer, Janik Zabrava.

• 52:19Sam Fragoso?

  Today's talk was edited by Adam Jamal and Nick Zahn. It was mixed by Andrew Vastola. Our music is by Dylan Peck. Our illustrations are by Krisha Shanoy. Research assistance today comes from Kiki Giorgio. This episode was made in partnership with the good people at Lemonada Media, and I'm Sam Fragoso. So, thank you for listening to Talk Easy. I'll see you back here next Sunday with a brand new episode. Until then, stay safe, and so long.

• 52:59Speaker 08

  I'm Dan Heath. On What It's Like to Be, I interview people about their jobs. Here's a married couple that drives a long haul truck together.

• 53:07Speaker 09

  We backed up and they loaded fresh dead rats.

• 53:11Speaker 08

  I mean, how many rats would you guess were back there?

• 53:13Speaker 09

  There were 32,000 pounds of them.

• 53:16Speaker 08

  32,000 pounds of frozen dead rats.

• 53:20Speaker 09

  As I said.

• 53:22Speaker 08

  Find out what it's like to be a long haul trucker, a couples therapist, or an FBI agent, all on the podcast What It's Like to Be.

• 53:30Speaker 10

  History gets written, then rewritten, sometimes by scholars correcting the record, sometimes by committees deciding what a generation of kids will and won't learn. The version that makes it into the textbook isn't always the only story. It's the one that won out. That's the kind of thing Ground News was built for. It shows you how outlets across the spectrum tell the same story, side by side, so you can spot the shading for yourself. Ground News gives each outlet a factuality rating so you know how much weight to give the source and shows you who owns it, so you know what's behind it. The Nobel Peace Center called it "an excellent way to stay informed,

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  avoid echo chambers, and expand your worldview." So go to groundnews.com/rz. That's G-R-O-U-N-D-N-E-W-S dot com slash R-C for 40% off unlimited access vantage plan. Get it yourself or gift it to someone who'd rather know than not. Use my link, groundnews.com/rz, so you get the discount and they know I sent you. If you're a fan of learning all sides of history, then Ground News is for you. One more time, groundnews.com/rz.