It's a great tragedy for Julia Garner fans everywhere: the Madonna biopic starring Ruth Langmore herself, has been shelved. Due to Madonna's recently announced world tour, the latest Garner project has been postponed indefinitely. Given that Garner is a force of pure acting talent and is arguably one of the major talents of her generation, we have no doubt that she would have absolutely killed it as the Queen of Pop. She can totally nail whatever character she's playing, and she can go pound for pound with any actor, no matter how seasoned they may be. Let's take a look at some of her best performances in her relatively short career, from Ozark to Inventing Anna, and everything in between.
7. Terra Newell in 'Dirty John' (2018-2019)
Dirty John is the acclaimed true crime anthology series. The first season depicts the story of Debra Newell (Connie Britton), a multiple divorcee desperate for love who falls for a serial con man, John Meehan (Eric Bana). Julia Garner plays the role of Terra Newell and is instrumental in the series. After Meehan’s identity is accidentally revealed to Newell, he attempts to kill her and Terra kills Meehan in self-defense. This performance sees Garner’s first foray into true crime on TV. Of course, she more recently appeared in the true crime story Inventing Anna.
6. Kimberly Breland in 'The Americans' (2015-2018)
This epic Cold War thriller is filled with mass hysteria and paranoia as the CIA and KGB go toe to toe in espionage. Julia Garner stars in the series as Kimberly Breland, the daughter of Isaac, a CIA operative. Breland’s parents have been absent for most of her life, and she’s left with a burning inner conflict toward her father. Her bitter emotional rage is ripe territory for the KGB to take advantage of in order to get to her father. The Americans is really an essential Julia Garner performance because she humanizes the world of espionage and the Cold War in a way that’s absolute. Her character brings fresh life to the jaded clichés of espionage stories by depicting the complex and emotionally charged familial lives of those engaged in espionage.
5. Michele Jones in 'Waco' (2018)
This is a dramatic account of one of the great American tragedies, what has come to be more commonly known as the Waco Massacre, in which a group of a radical religious sect, the Branch Davidians led by David Koresh, were killed. The group was surrounded by the ATF, who suspected the group of having illegal weapons. What followed was a horrific siege that resulted in the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians.
The group was portrayed by the government and media essentially as a cult. Waco gives an unfiltered portrayal of the sect and the siege and shows the honest to god sincerity, humanity, and the imperfection of the Branch Davidians. In this series, Garner plays one of the Branch Davidians Michele Jones. Her character is a 14-year-old minor who is pregnant with Koresh’s child. Her character plays a pivotal role in the series, as her relationship with a new church member, David Thibodeau (Rory Culkin), raise questions about Koresh’s mental stability and morality. Garner brings a real innocence to Michele and the scenes between her and Culkin are filled with the warmth and magnetism of first love. This might be the most tender, emotional, and physically vulnerable character Garner has yet played.
4. Jane in 'The Assistant' (2019)
The Assistant was one of the first real #metoo films. Garner plays the role of a secretary, Jane, in the office of a film executive that clearly owes inspiration from the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Behind the secretive office doors and mundane bureaucracy is a system of abuse and misogyny, which she becomes more and more aware of but struggles to do anything about. It’s an incredibly interesting setup, but the script really lacks onscreen dramatic conflict. But Garner is the saving grace of the film because she brings all the dramatic conflict — it's on her face and in her every action, in every scene. The trauma and sense of danger she experiences at having to work in such a toxic environment really becomes what this film is about.
3. Ellie Landsberg in 'Maniac' (2018)
Maniac is a quirky sci-fi drama miniseries directed by virtuoso auteur Cary Joji Fukunaga. Owen Milgrim (Jonah Hill) and Annie Landserg (Emma Stone) are two strangers who participate in a clinical trial for a pharmaceutical company. Test subjects are connected in a dreamlike state, where they struggle to overcome issues that haunt them. Julia Garner plays the role of Ellie Landsberg, the sister of Annie. Ellie died in a car crash and Annie feels responsible. Throughout the series, Annie interacts with different versions of her sister in her dreams. Garner's role here is central to the show as she helps Annie to make progress. The different incarnations of Ellie mean we get to see Garner use different accents and act in lots of different kinds of scenes. For example, in one episode she plays an elf opposite Emma Stone. The surreal quality of the show mixes sci-fi drama and comedy, and we get to see a more surreal Garner here than in anything else.
2. Anna Delvey in 'Inventing Anna' (2022)
The hit show that took the world by storm, Inventing Anna is based on the true story of Anna Delvey, who pretended to be a wealthy heiress with a massive trust fund. Garner brings Delvey to life with some of the best accent work on TV, mixing Russian, German, and American tones. Garner also embodies the nuance and specificity necessary to bring a character as narcissistic and self-obsessed as Delvey to life. The accent isn’t some aesthetic device, it makes her character real, and reinforces her actions. As Delvey spends exorbitant sums on the latest high fashions and cons her way into Michelin-star restaurants and five-star hotels, the audience is never in doubt about this being possible. Garner makes it work, without making it feel impossible or outlandish.
1. Ruth Langmore in 'Ozark' (2017-2022)
Garner really burst onto the scene with the role of Ruth Langmore in Ozark. Garner's gritty and fierce performance in the hit crime drama earned her an Emmy Award. Langmore comes from a tough local crime family, and becomes involved with working for the Byrdes (Jason Bateman and Laura Linney) in laundering money, before being drawn into conflict with them. There’s an unpredictability to Ruth that makes her such an enjoyable character to watch, and Garner is totally at home in the role. Out of all of Garner's roles, Ozark without question reigns supreme, as it really familiarized Garner with a much larger audience and made her a star.