The Ozark scene Julia Garner was too scared to shoot

While it doesn’t involve live rodents or guns, the scene in the season 1 episode “Tonight We Improvise” in which Ruth auditions for a sleazy strip club owner is harrowing in its own right. After Marty tasks her with infiltrating the club, Ruth ends up in the manager’s office on a nightmare job interview that involves pretending to seduce the man to secure the job. Considering the circumstances, it was no doubt an uncomfortable scene to shoot, but Garner saw it as an opportunity to dive deep into Ruth’s psyche.

“That scene was crazy to do. It is really important because that shows who Ruth is,” the actress told W Magazine during an interview. “At first, she’s kind of giving him goo-goo eyes, flirting, teasing him. Then, he’s like, ‘Turn around, let me see the back,’ and she turns around, and she really is mask-on, mask-off.”

According to Garner, it was important for audiences to see how easily Ruth is able to put on a fake demeanor in order to get what she wants. “You really don’t know what she’s going to do next, and you don’t trust her.”

Written by: Looper