A Farewell to Ozark

It's not very often where you realize in real-time

how lucky you are to be getting to do something.

This has stayed really true to what I always hoped and dreamed that it would be.

More than any other show I've ever been on,

it's been the most collaborative environment.

It is a real team sport.

This has been a glorious experience for everybody.

It changed my life,

not only professionally, but personally,

I met my best friends on this show, and it's been a ride.

This is all very serendipitous,

and we're quite lucky to have landed on something

that is so successful and so popular.

I'm not letting go of anything until I know it's impossible.

If you loved me, you'd do the same.

Bill Dubuque wrote the pilot,

and, uh, Bill grew up going to the Ozarks in the summers.

But Bill is a feature writer

that lives in St. Louis and had never done TV,

so they needed somebody to kind of take the reins.

So that's kind of where-- where I came in.

Chris was instrumental in getting me in.

It was a good story about a family struggling

under very desperate circumstances.

And I liked that idea of, um, the class struggle

with the Byrdes coming from the North Shore of Chicago,

very comfortable, very safe life,

and dealing with Langmores and Snells and all the various people

who ultimately turn out to be a lot wiser

and a lot smarter than them in a lot of cases.

I remember very vividly it settling into this incredibly rich world,

which is something I think you're always looking for

when you're trying to imagine yourself writing for especially an hour-long drama.

You're looking for a world

where you can project forward all of these vivid characters.

And I-I remember the dialogue leaping off of the page

and-- and seeing it as-- as really exciting but also like a challenge,

you know, as a writer being, like, "Oh, how am I going to--

to help contribute to this really rich tapestry?"

We hope that it's relatable to people in their own life.

It's just most people aren't, you know…

…laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel.

I'm really, really grateful that we got to a finish line,

the finish line we wanted to get to.

That-- that we weren't kicked out of the party

before we could get to an ending

that-- that hopefully is-- is satisfying for the audience.

Jason, they approached as an actor,

and Jason basically said, "I'd be willing to act in it if I direct it."

Some of those earliest memories were

getting some of those initial first steps done,

like talking Laura Linney into doing it,

talking MRC into letting me direct the whole first season,

and then ultimately not being able to do that because of time and schedule.

Now we just have to pull off opening a fucking casino.

I wasn't looking to do a series. I wasn't.

But it was really just wanting to-- to see what Jason was gonna do,

and then talking to Chris and being like, "Oh, he's pretty great."

I was like, "Well, okay."

I remember saying, "Laura Linney's gonna do our show."

"Like, we cannot suck."

"It's not okay for us to suck if she's gonna be on our show."

Obviously.

I don't think any of us had any idea where the sh-- the show was going

or where it could go or even if it would go.

You don't really perceive what the show is on the outside,

but it's been special to see how many people love it

and how many people choose to make the show a part of their lives

and love all of these characters.

Everybody knew that the scripts were amazing,

and the people that we had lined up were amazing.

Everything just lined up, and it was just, like, this magical moment in a way.

That's right.

And if Daddy were here, he would have hung you out by your ball sack already.

You want me to tell him that you're disrespecting me?

Didn't think so.

Probably the biggest tells of a good--

of a good story is the character creation.

It's like creating characters that feel really-- really authentic and natural.

Morning.

I mean, we're spoiled in the writers' room

because we have Jason and Laura, I mean, honestly.

If Jason himself wasn't so incredibly likable,

people might not have even gone for the ride at all.

So I-I think we just start with a huge leg up because of that.

Chris always talked about the idea

that the show being about the Byrdes and the Langmores

and the idea that, obviously, you know,

the-- the sort of the plot engine of the show is-- is money laundering,

but that that's not the heartbeat of the show.

It's a show about two families that come from very different circumstances

and seeing how they work with each other,

how they're rivals of each other, how they play off of each other.

The Langmore family,

which would be the kind of low-rent version of the Byrde family.

And they end up always scrapping to keep their family together,

despite all the difficulty, the violence, and the crime that's been in their life.

The first season of Ozark was very hard for me

because I'm not aggressive, you know.

I don't have the confidence that Ruth has.

- Very funny. - Shut the fuck up!

I'm working with Martin so I can learn how to launder for us.

I'm not super tough like that.

Well, how about I pop those tits and squeeze out the silicone?

How'd you feel about that?

But the thing about Ruth that's interesting that I could connect with her

is she's very sensitive.

In some ways, the Langmores are cursed.

It's the, sort of, curse of capitalism.

I think people see their families in there

even though we all come from families, not nearly that screwed-up, in some cases,

but we see elements of people in there.

Gimme some time, then bring 'em here.

You were clear, and you have been patient.

Then you bring in the Snells, which is another whole story

about those people who were displaced.

I think Darlene's normal is probably different from all of ours.

I would say, basically, her life was kind of great

until the Byrdes came to town.

They would still be growing

whatever those subsistence crops are someplace else

had they not been uprooted.

So the Snells are another family, screwed-up.

- Hi. Here, come in. - Hey, Maya.

Charlotte, please, uh, settle Maya in for me, and, um…

It's not how I saw my maternity leave panning out.

Maya is a workaholic, but only because she cares so much.

So she's not just doing a job that is a clock-in and clock-out.

I think that she is on a mission.

Eat something.

Omar Navarro is the head of the Mexican drug cartel

that Marty and Wendy Byrde get involved with.

And so Maya Miller was somebody who Navarro realizes,

"Could this potentially be someone else who can become an asset?"

And one of the reasons why he's able to do that is because he trusts Marty.

And when Marty mentions to him

that there's a possibility for this FBI agent to be an asset to us,

then he starts to become more curious about her.

Season three really started as Marty versus Wendy.

And by the end of the season,

it was pretty clear that nothing could happen

if they weren't completely on the same page.

You really wanna do this?

You come anywhere near me, my family, or Ruth again,

the next time you see your son,

he's gonna be hanging from a bridge in Juarez. You got that?

The whole Byrde family has had to get a little bit more creative

in the things that they're able to justify for the ends.

Marty's changed a bit in that he's a bit more ethically limber.

He's able to justify many more things

that, uh, perhaps the purer version of Marty

would not in season one.

If Marty was as allergic to breaking the law now as he was in season one,

he would've turned himself in, and we wouldn't have had a show.

Love you.

Love you too.

I have a very hard time talking about characters

in an objectified way when I'm still doing them.

Maybe in a few years I'll be able to look back at it and have a better idea.

Wendy, she's complicated. She's loving.

She's angry. She's hungry. She's scared. She's frustrated.

She's all of those things that I think many people are.

I started shooting when I was 16, and now I'm 21,

so I think Charlotte and I have shared a lot of experiences

growing up somewhat together,

but I think she's stayed consistently herself.

Jonah, the family member who was kind of

most on board starts having problems with the family.

This business ends up defining their life, whether they like it or not.

And that's just what he was good at.

In some strange way,

because they've been through this insanity,

they're the only people that can understand it.

The important thing is, if all goes well,

we have a promise that we're free of our obligation to him, okay?

Six months, we could be completely out from under this, okay?

One of the things that I think is-- is most fascinating about the show

and what draws people to it is the fact that nothing is predictable.

Oh, Jesus!

Ozark is a murder and mayhem show.

And what more do you want in a murder and mayhem show

besides chaos and excitement?

What the fuck is that?

There's always something to shock you

and to talk about with your family and-- and everyone else on the set.

Today's no day to fall apart.

I really miss Buddy. I still miss Buddy.

I miss the character, and I miss the actor.

I miss-- I miss Harris Yulin, and I miss that character.

A big turning point was killing my dear Peter Mullan,

who played Jacob, my first husband.

I love you, Jacob. You just rest.

Ben comes to town,

and it's kind of either save Ben and we all die,

or get rid of Ben and everybody else has a chance.

Chris called me a few weeks before we started filming anything

and told me, basically, Ben's arc through the show, you know.

He's, like, coming into town, stop taking the meds,

really start to lose control, and eventually, you're gonna die.

So I knew it while it was happening.