'Ozark' star Julia Garner thinks fame can be “gross” and “unhealthy”.
The ‘Inventing Anna’ star cited the example of Anna Sorokin - a con artist who defrauded New York high society, banks and her friends by pretending to be a German heiress - a “dangerous” by-product of being a celebrity.
Speaking to The New York Times, the 28-year-old actress said: “I think fame is gross to be honest. To have it be an unhealthy higher power, I think that’s dangerous … so much so that look what happened with Anna.”
Julia - until she got famous for her roles - “never thought” she was “interesting” enough to be interviewed.
She added: “I never thought I had anything interesting to say. It’s weird that people are asking you all these questions.”
Her character was convicted of her crimes - four counts of service theft, three counts of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny - and now serving a four to 12 year sentence, along with fighting efforts to deport her back to Germany, where she moved as a teenager from Russia.
At the time of her sentencing, the convicted criminal said: “The thing is, I’m not sorry. I regret the way I went about things.”
To better her understanding of the character in the 10-part Shonda Rhimes Netflix show based on the Cut article by Jessica Pressler that exposed Anna’s scheme, Julia went to Rikers Island to meet with the heiress grifter.
She said: “I went to go and visit her in jail and she was like ‘So, uh, how’s the shoot going?’ I said it’s going well and she asked, ‘How are you playing me? What are you doing with my character?'"
"I didn’t know what to do and just started mirroring what she said and she was like [giggling], ‘That’s so funny!'"
Julia did such a good job becoming Anna that her “anxiety went through the roof” as she felt she too had done something terrible.
She said: "I kept on having this feeling like I was going to get caught all the time. My anxiety was through the roof. I didn’t know why at that moment, but it was really because it was the character."
