‘Ozark’ Cast: What They Look Like in Real Life
Talk about TV transformations! Jason Bateman and the cast of Ozark look quite different outside the confines of the Netflix drama.
The Emmy-nominated series debuted in July 2017 and became a hit for the streaming platform. Bateman (Martin Byrde), Laura Linney (Wendy Byrde), Julia Garner (Ruth Langmore), Sofia Hublitz (Charlotte Byrde), Skylar Gaertner (Jonah Byrde), Lisa Emery (Darlene Snell), Charlie Tahan (Wyatt Langmore) and Tom Pelphrey (Ben Davis) star in the show, which follows a family of money launderers after their move to the Ozarks.
Since its premiere, Ozark has scored 32 Emmy nods, with wins in 2019 for Garner in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category and for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.
Netflix renewed the series in June 2020 for a fourth and final season, which will air in two parts.
Showrunner Chris Mundy opened up about the show’s secret formula for success during Deadline’s Contenders Television livestream event. “Every single year and episode you learn a little more about them, so if you keep to that simple formula, even with all the craziness, then something good will probably happen,” he said in June 2020, referring to the two dueling families at the center of the series.
Bateman reiterated Mundy’s statement while pointing out that the viewership boost in season 3 was at least in part due to stay-at-home orders brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. “We are very proud of what we did, but we would be lying if we said we didn’t have a little virus aid,” the actor quipped. “We had some gratuitous timing with the show coming out when everyone had nothing to look at except their walls and television. Hopefully people liked what they were looking at.”
Linney, for her part, believed the actors hit their stride after three seasons of working alongside each other. “There’s something about familiarity,” she noted. “You can hit the ground running.”
Scroll down to see what the cast of Ozark looks like on and off screen!
The actor plays financial advisor Marty Byrde, who moves his family from Chicago to the Ozarks while laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel.
“I’m plenty dark. It’s always been in there,” Bateman said on Fresh Air in April 2020. “I enjoy getting to unapologetically speak some of that and behave some of that through this character. But I’ve always tried to put a little bit of darkness or — I don’t know if darkness is going to be the right word. But in the characters I play, even in comedies, I’ll rarely be the wacky guy. I’ll be mostly 'us.' I’ll try to be the somewhat tortured or unsettled Everyman or protagonist. And I like doing that because I’m 'us.' I’m the proxy. I’m sort of the portal that the audience receives all the craziness. Whether it’s an eccentric comedic character or a scary dramatic character, I’m the person that represents the audience. So when the camera goes to me, I’m reacting for you in the audience to keep it relatable.”
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Linney’s alter ego, Wendy Byrde, has gone through quite the transformation. “The fact that [the writers have] allowed not only my character, but every other character on this series, to constantly shed and grow and change and reveal is really unusual,” she explained on the “Little Gold Men” podcast in April 2020.
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The actress won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2019, thanks to her portrayal of townie Ruth Langmore.
“I feel very lucky. There are always parts for young girl love interests, or cheerleaders, or mean girls, or the shy girl in the corner reading a book at a party who doesn’t know how pretty she is, but she’s really a beauty. You know what I mean? That’s unrealistic,” she told Vulture in August 2019. “I’m really happy that I’ve never gotten those. At an early age, I knew that I wasn’t going to get those roles. Not that I’m ugly, but I’m not Hollywood-standard beautiful or that simple beauty. I was kind of weird-looking, different-looking.”
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Hublitz, who plays Marty and Wendy’s daughter, Charlotte Byrde, booked the gig on her 17th birthday. She attributes her success, in part, to “me actually being on time for something,” referring to her audition in an October 2018 interview with WWD.
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The actor portrays Marty and Wendy’s son, Jonah Byrde, in the Netflix series. Before landing the role, he appeared on The Americans, Nurse Jackie and Daredevil.
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The actress plays the murderous Darlene Snell, but fans are unbothered by her character’s actions. “I never get any negative reaction [from playing Darlene],” Emery told the New York Post in September 2018. “People … think it’s a riot to see Darlene Snell on the street in the East Village. I was waiting for a bus on 14th Street and this woman comes up to me and says, ‘Oh, my God, can I give you a hug?’”
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“I think he’s a character stuck in between two different worlds and his family and his past,” Tahan told The Italian Rêve of Wyatt Langmore in March 2020. “The area that he grew up in and lives in keeps sucking him back in and he’s not really sure about what he wants, and I believe it’s a natural reaction to staying stagnant when there’s a big change coming.”
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Pelphrey excited fans when he joined Ozark in season 3 as Wendy’s brother Ben Davis. “Everybody was extremely, extremely kind and welcoming, and within a few weeks, I felt like I had been there with them from the beginning,” he told Collider in April 2020. “That set, the Ozark set, is a very special place, and I think that was curated on purpose by Jason Bateman and Chris Mundy and certainly Laura Linney. The energy on that set is very calm, very respectful, extremely supportive of everyone, and all of the crew feels very equal and safe. So, to be a new person walking into what could’ve been an intimidating environment never felt like that. It very much felt like home.”
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