Julia Garner Is Perfecting the Complex Woman

"I want to make people feel uncomfortable," Julia Garner says of her work as an actor. It's a blunt statement from the 30-year-old, but it's not surprising when you consider her celebrated body of work—a lengthy résumé portraying some of the most nefarious, deviant, and criminally minded characters on our screens today. Intensity, as I come to learn, is not something the actress shies away from. In fact, Garner thrives in this space. She adds, "I'm interested in things that are a little bit scary that people are intrigued by at the same time."

So far, Garner has accomplished exactly what she's set out to do. The Bronx native, three-time Emmy winner, and face of Gucci is known for her dark and mercurial roles—from Ozark's Ruth Langmore, for which she won a Golden Globe, to Inventing Anna's Anna Delvey, the infamous fake heiress who scammed her way through elite New York society in the mid-2010s, to a struggling young dancer in the psych thriller and Rosemary's Baby prequel Apartment 7A. Perhaps what is most noteworthy is the level of curiosity and nuance Garner brings to each of these roles that makes you question whether characters as unsavory as hers might be worthy of redemption after all. It's in this discomfort where art is most effective and impactful, Garner insists. "I like when people can walk away and change their perspective on something. A film or TV show should be an experience," she says.

When I meet the actress via Zoom on a quiet mid-December afternoon, she's fresh off the heels of a particularly grueling period of work that started with filming Wolf Man, the horrifying werewolf thriller out this month, in New Zealand followed by The Fantastic Four: First Steps in London before wrapping production on a third project, the horror epic Weapons that's slated for early 2026.

"I've been memorizing some kind of dialogue since January up until two weeks ago," she says. Although this kind of cadence can be par for the course for a successful working actor like Garner, she admits she's never traveled quite this much before—not even while concurrently filming the final season of Ozark and Inventing Anna. She describes these frenetic periods as "circus acts."

To say it's been a busy time for the actress would be the understatement of the year, but during this brief downtime before heading to Los Angeles for her Who What Wear cover shoot, Garner is enjoying some calm before "another different, crazy storm." It's the storm of press appearances and interviews that comes with promoting new work.

Garner's superpower is making it all look deceivingly easy. Behind that textured blonde bob, razor-sharp cheekbones, and piercing blue eyes is one of the most driven people in Hollywood. "I think all the best things should never be too easy," she laughs in response to my question about the notoriously grueling "Madonna boot camp" she participated in—and won—in 2022. (I'm still holding out hope for the project to see the light of day.) No challenge, I'm starting to gather, is too much for the actress. She's always ready to roll up her sleeves. Whether she's attending clown school in her spare time for fun (yes, really), working with a dialect coach to perfect her next accent, or doing subconscious work to tap into her characters' inner psyches, Garner is forever a student.

You don't become one of the most convincing actresses of our time without a fine-tuned process, and Garner is exacting in hers. It's a culmination of modalities that include journaling, meditation, and what she calls dreamwork. For each role, she keeps a journal as the character but will never outright say their name. Instead, she'll describe things about them, always writing in the first person as a way to trick the brain into getting into character. "I look at certain scenes and write down what my character actually means behind that line. Everything is subtext, so I think about my intentions and what I want in life," she tells me. To Garner, getting to know her characters on the deepest level possible is how they become real people. She'll often ask herself, How do they get dressed in the morning? What does their day look like? Most importantly, what is their subconscious saying? "I always view the audience like they're the character's subconscious," she asserts. Thinking about the character 24/7 before filming is a crucial part of Garner's process, but once you're there, she says, you just forget about everything. "You just see what appears and let the adrenaline kick in. It's already in your bones. That's the key. You have to prep to the point where it's in your bones," she explains.

On some days, that prep work looks like meditating, and on others, it looks like a shopping trip. "I'm very particular about a lot of my costumes," she says. "I will go shopping before the movie starts in character and pick out things that I feel the character will like, and then I'll either screenshot it [to send to the costume designer] or bring it to the fitting. Picking out things that you as the character would like, not even things that I would personally like, is what's going to make you get to know that person quicker." Sometimes, that even means bringing her own clothes. In one of the opening scenes of Wolf Man, Garner's character Charlotte is wearing almost exclusively items from the actress's own closet, including a tailored pantsuit and a white shirt that was passed down from her grandmother. Even on the set of Ozark, Garner became infatuated with the idea of her character Ruth wearing a pair of wedged flip-flops, especially in the earlier seasons. "I feel like now it would be popular because Bella Hadid would be wearing it, but not in 2016 [when the show took place]," she says.

For Wolf Man, she narrowed in on another crucial piece: a red turtleneck. Given that she's in the same outfit for about 90% of the film, the producers were nervous the color would clash with all the blood, but Garner knew better. She says, "I learned this on Ozark—quite literally a very dark show—that you need bright colors that pop."

Watching Wolf Man is an experience of pure suspense and terror that sees Garner as a mother desperately trying to escape the horrifying monster her husband, played by co-star Christopher Abbott, is transforming into. Directed by Leigh Whannell, the film is a modern take on the 1941 American werewolf classic The Wolf Man. Being the cinema nerd that she is ("I really love film history"), Garner was especially excited by Whannell's desire to embrace the traditional roots of the original by crafting the movie's mythical elements exclusively in the hair and makeup chair in lieu of CGI and special effects. "It's so important that it feels as real as possible because it's so supernatural," Garner beams.

As I came to find out during our nearly two-hour chat, the actress feels right at home in these dark, brooding environments with morally bankrupt figures. In fact, she delights in putting her audiences on edge. "The only thing that I have in common with all the roles that I've played consistently since I started is that there has to be a sense of curiosity with that character. I think people get short, and they can appear harsh when they're not," she contemplates. They might be unlikable, but Garner sees them for their complexity. "You have to find the fragileness so that you can balance the toughness," she insists. When I ask what it is about these characters that draws her in, Garner is quick to list some of her biggest influences: "I look at the actresses that I admire—Gena Rowlands, Bette Davis, Sharon Stone—and they can all tap into this feral energy. They snap. I think it's more interesting when a woman snaps because it's a little more serious. We're a little more complex. We're not as simple as men, in certain ways. I think that there's something really interesting about playing a complex woman."

For her next act, Garner will venture into brand-new territory: the superhero genre in this summer's highly anticipated The Fantastic Four: First Steps. "Going into the Marvel space was a big interest," she admits, but it was not for the reasons you might think. "I feel like what a lot of actors don't value enough is trying to reach every kind of audience. I think that's really important. I'd be crazy to expect that everybody is going to watch Inventing Anna or Ozark or The Assistant. But to reach all kinds of people and build fans from everywhere? I was really excited to step into that universe." Of course, it had to be the right character. She says, "With the Silver Surfer, there's still something very mysterious about it. That mystery is very important to me as an actor. It's such an iconic character, and it felt very different for me. I've never played a character like that." Even the very process of being in front of the camera was a learning curve for Garner, who shot the project exclusively in a motion cap. "You have to imagine everything when you're doing it, as if you're auditioning," she describes. "Even though we had the sets, I didn't have my costume or hair and makeup or anything."

Needless to say, there was no shopping trip this time.

When I ask about her favorite movies to watch, Garner's inner cinephile quickly comes to the surface. Watching movies was a favorite pastime in the Garner household.

Garner comes from a very creative and cultured family—her mom is a therapist, and dad is a painter and art teacher. "Art was definitely a North Star in our household," she says. Growing up, weekends were spent going to museums and the theater and, of course, watching a lot of movies. "All About Eve is my favorite. I watch it at least once a year, and I can always learn something new when I watch it," she says. Casino, the 1995 crime drama, was influential for Garner too. "When I met Sharon Stone, I said thank you to her because I would not have the interesting roles that I've been very fortunate to have if she did not do the work that she did in Casino. She paved the way for so many actresses because of the way that she played that character. It put a lot of pressure on writers for how they write for female roles," she asserts, adding A Woman Under the Influence to that list.

Garner is well-versed at making films, and like most actors, she is equally as voracious in consuming them. She's an active user of Letterboxd, the social platform for cinephiles, and a peek at her Instagram feed confirms her near-encyclopedic film knowledge. Interspersed between glossy shots of her in movies, on red carpets, and in fashion campaigns are collections of mood boards filled with references to the obscure films, art, and music that have inspired her recently. "I have a lot of things that live rent-free in my mind," she remarks.

It's not only classic films she holds in high regard—it's classic beauty too. Garner is fiercely protective of her image, and rightfully so. Her famous blonde ringlets have become the actress's calling card, but her hair wasn't always something she saw as an advantage. "They wanted to straighten my hair and give me veneers," she tells me of the feedback she received while auditioning in her pre-Ozark days. "Luckily, I didn't listen to any of it."

It was ultimately her work in fashion that helped her realize her natural features were a huge asset rather than a disadvantage. "I have to give a lot of credit to the fashion and editorial worlds. It was [celebrity hairstylist] Guido [Palau] who told me how great my hair was. I didn't believe it because I felt like people always wanted to change it. He was like, 'Don't,' and I said, 'What about my teeth?' And he's like, 'Don't—it's great.'" she says. Looking back, it was a pivotal moment. For Garner, her curls aren't just proof of her resistance to societal beauty standards. They're a testament to always staying true to herself. "I don't want to ever change just for other people. That's really what it is," she says.

That authenticity is just one of the reasons why Gucci Creative Director Sabato De Sarno has made Garner one of his muses. The actress has starred as the face of many brand campaigns—including the Gucci Guilty fragrance, the Horsebit 1955 Bag, and a recent holiday shoot co-starring her husband Mark Foster—and worn numerous custom gowns for her red carpet cameos. Garner may be incredibly captivating on-screen, but her red carpet ensembles never fail to leave us equally as moved. Two looks stand out in her mind as favorites: the plunging floor-length silver sequin dress she wore as a presenter at the 2024 Golden Globes and the emerald gown with a flowing train that she wore to the Asteroid City premiere at Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

Garner, with the help of longtime stylist Elizabeth Saltzman, has an affinity for creating looks with longevity. Timelessness is a term that often comes up in their conversations, she tells me. "How is this going to age? Can somebody go back and look at that photo and reference it one day? That's what we always try to aim for," she says, adding that they're no strangers to taking risks when it's warranted. One instance comes to mind: a sculptural Off-White gown she wore to the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party that made its debut at Paris Fashion Week just 10 days prior. "I was so nervous to wear it after Naomi Campbell," Garner remembers. "I couldn't believe I agreed to it, but honestly, I felt really good in it. It was a little scary, but I was very happy to hear that [Campbell] approved."

By now, it's clear that traditional markers of success in the entertainment world, like award-winning performances and notable fashion campaigns, aren't what drive Garner despite having earned bragging rights for them. Instead, she insists "the most important thing about film is reaching out to people emotionally." With so much major work under her belt, it's easy to feel as though Garner is already a Hollywood veteran, but the actress is just getting started. Whatever Garner does, be it horror or drama or action, her immersive performances are the kind that will leave us forever altered—and uncomfortable.

Photographer: Morgan Maher

Stylists: Chloe and Chenelle Delgadillo with @aframe_agency

Hairstylist: Bobby Eliot with @thewallgroup

Makeup Artist: Sandy Ganzer with @forwardartists

Manicurist: Emi Kudo with @aframe_agency

Venue: Heaven or Las Vegas

Set Designer: Francis Cardinale

Video Director: Samuel Schultz

DP: Samuel Miron

AC: Ashley Jackson

Gaffer: Pedro Penteado

Sound Editor: Dennis Schweitzer

Video Editor: Collin Hughart

Video Producer: Kellie Scott

VP, Creative: Alexa Wiley

Editorial Director: Lauren Eggertsen

Executive Director, Entertainment: Jessica Baker

Producer: Erin Corbett

Designer: Ally Quirk

Copy Editor: Jaree Campbell