[theme music playing]
[Chris Mundy] 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.
[Laura Linney] More than any other show I've ever been on,
it's been the most collaborative environment.
[Jason Bateman] It is a real team sport.
[Linney] 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.
[Patrick Markey] 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?"
[Mundy] We hope that it's relatable to people in their own life.
It's just most people aren't, you know…
[laughs] …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.
[Mundy] 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."
[Mundy] 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.
[Sofia Hublitz] 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.
[Julia Garner] 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.
[Mundy] 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.
[Martin Zimmerman] 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.
[Markey] 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.
[Garner] 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.
[Mundy] 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.
[Markey] 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.
[Markey] 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.
-[Wendy] 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.
[Linney] 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.
[laughing] She's all of those things that I think many people are.
[Hublitz] 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.
[Mundy] 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.
[Mundy] In some strange way,
because they've been through this insanity,
they're the only people that can understand it.
[Marty] 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? -[sparking]
[man] What the fuck is that?
[Skylar Gaertner] 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.
[Linney] 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.
[Lisa Emery] A big turning point was killing my dear Peter Mullan,
who played Jacob, my first husband.
I love you, Jacob. You just rest. [sobs]
[Tom Pelphrey] 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.
So I really got-- I feel like I got to really savor it, you know, in a way.
[man] What beautiful human feeling.
Beautiful. What a beautiful day.
As far as who had it coming, I think that's gotta-- that's gotta be Helen.
She was just playing every single party in the Ozarks.
Just completely playing them.
[inhales] I never saw you as the Ozark type.
We adapt or die.
I loved playing Helen.
People really liked Helen as a character.
The audiences really liked Helen as a character,
and I think part of that was because she was a woman.
I really do think that, because it's more surprising somehow.
And part of that because the writing is so fantastic
and she had such incredible lines.
Let's not pretend we both don't know how badly they fucked you over.
I knew I was doing one season.
Then they asked if I'd do one more season.
So, as an actor, you know if you're doing one more season,
you're gonna die. I mean, what else is gonna happen?
-[Omar] I hope you had a pleasant journey. -[Wendy shouts]
I cannot tell you how many times we rehearsed getting out the camera moves,
the this, the dry runs, as it were.
Endless amounts of times.
And then we did it in one take.
It was crushing to learn that I was gonna be killed,
and yet, I could smell it coming.
I mean, you can't keep someone like Darlene kicking around forever.
She's gotta get her comeuppance.
I think maybe if we--
And then killing Wyatt. Oh, break my heart.
In a way, he's innocent.
He, um-- I don't wanna say he's in the wrong place at the wrong time,
but he wasn't posing a threat to-- to the cartel's business,
but he kind of gets caught in the crossfire.
When I first learned that Wyatt and I were-- were gonna become an item…
That was awesome.
I thought it was very daring, a daring thing for them to do.
I've been around long enough to know what I'm doing.
[laughs]
[Mundy] I called Charlie,
and Charlie laughed for a solid two minutes
before he said anything.
It just-- he just-- just laughed his ass off.
Chris Mundy called me and-- and told me,
um, a couple months before we started shooting,
and we were just cracking up.
I think he mentioned it started as kind of an inside joke in the writers' room,
and they were like, "What if Darlene and Wyatt went together?"
[baby crying]
[inaudible]
Chris called me, and he said, "Hey, I need to talk to you."
And I said, "What?"
And he said, "Uh…"
And I said, "Wait, let me guess." I said, "Am I dying?"
And he said, "Yeah. How'd you know?"
I said, "It is like a Greek tragedy."
She really wanted to get out of that place that she was in.
And she felt stuck,
and she felt like she was gonna be here for the rest of her life.
So I think she always wanted something better,
but didn't know how to get it.
[Mundy] The decision to kill Ruth was by far
the hardest thing in the entire course of the show.
There was a point where, all of a sudden, it's where the story was going.
There couldn't be no consequences.
And in some ways, the Byrdes had been this invasive species.
They came in, and they wiped out-- They-- all the Langmores are gone.
I think it would have been untrue if-- if Ruth didn't go.
In our world, it's-- it's good to be one of the smart ones.
Remember that.
[Linney] The reason our show is so successful is three people.
There's Jason Bateman. There's Patrick Markey.
And there's Chris Mundy.
And the three of them working together have really been a remarkable trio.
I think the most important thing in any show, to me, it's the writing.
I've seen how everybody works, and I watch how hard they work,
and it-- it starts at the top.
[Garner] Chris Mundy, not only is he insanely talented,
and everybody knows that,
but he is the nicest person, and that sets the tone for everything.
He is an actor's dream writer,
which is someone who is open to responses,
is open to suggestion.
[Janet McTeer] He's so clear about the-- the themes of the piece
and where this goes
and how you mislead this and do this. It's all so clever.
He really has been the architect of this sense of community
that we've had here on-- on Ozark.
[Emery] I'm just gonna be that cliche that just says it's like a family,
and it is like a family.
There's just not a person in the crew, in the cast, the van drivers,
who isn't really a great person.
And, you know, it trickles down.
[Hublitz] I can't reiterate enough how close we all are,
from the top to the bottom.
The showrunners, the producers, the cast,
all the way to grip and electric, the art department, everyone.
We all just love each other so much, and we get along so great.
-[woman] Nice! -[Garner] Yay!
[woman] Very nice!
What I always tell the directors before they come in
is that this is a director's set.
Shoot just the things that you want to see in your cut, much like a film set runs.
We've had some great directors. A lot of them I'd worked with in the past.
There are people we brought in the first couple years,
you kind of try to figure out what the story's about
by bringing in different directors.
[Hublitz] Love working with all the directors
and getting to meet all of them
and-- and learn their styles and their critiques on different scenes.
It's-- it's really special because you learn so much.
I feel very bad for directors, guest directors, who come into a show
with a community of people who all know each other well
and know the stories and have a common history,
and then you're the new person on the block.
[Bateman] It prompts much more preparation
and-- and much, sort of, finer execution
from behind the camera and in front of the camera.
And-- and everyone gets really excited about that, I think.
I knew going into this, you have to do your homework.
I watched seasons one through three, I think, 47 million times. [laughs]
See the different director styles and see where you can fit your vision in,
while still adhering to what Jason Bateman and the others created,
the visual aesthetic for the show, as well as the tone.
The producers of the show take great care of me as a director.
They take great care of their cast. They take great care of their crew.
And that just makes my job easier and more pleasant.
Everybody was just fantastic to work with, but what an incredible crew.
You feel like your foundation is so thick
to have that many experienced crew members.
[Markey] We've been blessed here in the last year with Robin Wright
and, uh, getting Amanda to come back.
The difference between acting and directing
on the show here is nothing more than the obvious.
You know, as a director, you need to understand all four corners
of-- of every episode and every scene and every shot,
every character, all their arcs and their motivations
and all of the stuff that you might get presented with a question about.
I love working with Jason as a director. He's the best.
I mean, they're all great, but I love Jason.
[Frank Jr.] I should fucking kill you.
Come get you some.
[Garner] He knows what he wants.
Sit tight.
And he's hilarious, and humor goes a long way. [chuckles]
-[grunts] -[groans]
-Stupid bitch! Come on. -[groaning]
-[both shout] -[crowd clamoring]
[Garner] And he's very kind,
and he wants the best always for his actors.
One of the things that made working on this show really exciting
is knowing that he would trust the writing,
and-- and we would trust the directing.
He's incredibly meticulous.
Obviously, he is someone who has been on set, you know, his whole life.
He has absorbed. He has soaked up everything.
And he has a great passion for it, and he obviously brings that
to the directing of Ozark too in terms of the visual style.
[Markey] He set the look of it. He set the feel of it
and then continued to keep that going throughout the seasons.
Like, there's a break in the lyrics there.
Playing the guitar on that cut,
that'll be an easier thing sound-wise to blend.
[Linney] Did you have a good time?
From season one, both Jason and our producer Patrick Markey
had been pushing me to direct.
There were enough of us pushing and pushing, but she's so prepared.
Actually, it comes out of theater training.
She's so-- like, there's nothing she's not prepared for as an actor.
And then she was exactly the same as a director.
[Bateman] Her taste is undeniable.
And an hour into the first day, everybody saw that it's just been,
you know, like she's been doing it for as long as she's been acting.
I did it, and I'm very, very glad I did it.
I had a wonderful time.
-What? -Hey, talk to her like that one more time.
I make a single phone call and have you killed.
[chuckles] What the fuck did you just say?
-You heard me. Want me to repeat it? -Just get back in your fucking car.
-[driver] Fuck you, bitch! -Oh, suck my cock, asshole!
-I blame them completely. I blame them. -[man laughs]
[Mundy] I think the show's really efficient in the way it tells its stories,
and I think it finds its beauty.
[Hublitz] The visual cues of the show are so important
because what you're getting visually sets the tone for the audience.
[Bateman] You're meant to be unsettled when you're watching
because this family's dealing with stuff that is not altogether predictable.
[Mundy] We're not a super busy show. We don't cut a lot.
The tones, especially at the beginning, were a little cooler.
We always wanted people
to have to lean into the show just the littlest bit,
and hopefully, it would be worth it.
[Bateman] The low level of light or the use of a fill side and a key side
and the color timing and the desaturation and--
all of this stuff comes together,
along with the-- with the score and the editorial pace of things,
is to create, hopefully, a little bit of an atmosphere.
[David Bomba] My job is to create a space for the actors
and to create a space for the-- for the script.
And this show is so well written,
so I'm given so much information from the story and from the script.
[Zimmerman] The lake is right there.
Right? So it's-- it's always present in the background.
So you always feel the world, even in these private family moments.
And I think that that does an incredible service to the series.
[tires screech]
[Bateman] George has been giving us great, great things
to point the camera at all these years,
and our locations department's been great in providing
all kinds of tasty, kind of gritty environments.
[Felix Solis] Another testament to this crew, the people
who are able to put together these sets and everything,
I've never not felt like I was in a hacienda in Mexico, you know.
[Linney] The Byrde house means the most to me.
It became a character unto itself.
We were all so happy when we were there.
It's stunningly beautiful.
[Bateman] This house is everything that was described in the script.
We were really, really fortunate to get this.
And our production designer, David Bomba,
has done an incredible job in maintaining it.
[Hublitz] Charlotte's bedroom we do on stage
and when I go in and look at it and I'm working on that set,
I'm just reminded of the first time that I ever saw it.
For some reason, it really has stuck with me all these years.
[Mundy] I'll miss the Langmore trailers more than anything else.
It's just peaceful.
You could just go and spend the day out there, sit by the water, hang out.
And, like, the most unpeaceful things happen there in the show. [chuckles]
[Charlie Tahan] And especially season one, there were a lot more
of the Langmore family members around, and it always kind of felt like a party.
There was lots of fireworks and fishing,
and I have lots of fond memories from-- from the Langmore trailers.
The Snell property just kills me.
It was just my favorite place to shoot.
I love the house.
[Markey] The look is very specific.
Ozark has been able to establish a signature from the beginning.
The Emmy for supporting actress in a drama series…
You know I have an Oscar.
…goes to
Julia Garner!
[cheering]
I feel so lucky and fortunate that I got cast in this.
And I just love Ruth.
It's always nice to be recognized by your peers for work that you're doing,
and a lot of those awards come from people that we know and work with.
I love playing Ruth so much,
and every single day, I-I just feel so lucky to be doing this.
And, um, yeah, this is-- this is-- this is special, so thank you so much.
I'll remember this forever. Thank you so much!
-[chuckles] Thank you! -[crowd cheering]
[Bateman] The response and the-- the support,
the encouragement of the critics
is obviously something that everybody appreciates.
The acknowledgment for directing on this show was,
you know, very humbling and surprising.
And the Emmy for directing in a drama series goes to…
-Jason Bateman! -…Jason Bateman, Ozark!
[cheering]
[Bateman] I can't be holding this without a whole lot of people
that make this show I'm so lucky to be a part of, uh, work,
uh, especially as a director. So, thank you, guys.
That was big for me
because that was what I was originally attracted to with this job.
-Jason Bateman, Ozark. -[cheering]
Thank you to, uh, the writers of Ozark,
the cast, the crew, who I'm gonna be able to thank in person tomorrow.
Thank you.
The fact that people actually like watching it as much as we like making it,
you know, is-- is satisfying, and--
and just feels good. It just feels right.
And the Actor goes to…
-Jason Bateman! -…Jason Bateman!
[cheering]
I think we're all realizing that the end's gonna be tough.
I'm really glad Jason's directing it. That's where we started.
-…coming off her even works better. -Exactly.
[Bateman] It is a real team sport,
and there's so many moments along the process where it can go off the rails.
This is like a family that we've been with for five years,
so there's great memories.
When I first showed up, I thought the set was gonna be the tone of the show.
[laughs] And it's the complete opposite. We're a bunch of knuckleheads.
We made a lot of jokes.
Peter and I were at the craft table
trying to pick out really gassy things to eat before we shot the scene. [laughs]
We keep people fed. We keep 'em happy. Nobody likes to be hangry.
I always like "Shut your fuck-nugget mouth and get the hell out."
I always thought that line was really funny, and I remember doing it.
It was a tongue twister, so I was like, "I have to get it right
because it's too funny to, like, not get it right."
Shut your fuck-nugget mouth and get the hell out!
[Gaertner] All the way back in season one, it was, like, incredibly hot,
and so flies were coming in to escape the heat
and were kind of disrupting all the shots.
So Jason offered to pay anybody who got a fly 20 bucks per fly.
So everyone immediately got to work, and Jason was like, "Yeah, I'll give you--
I'll give you 100 bucks if you can catch one completely unharmed."
I just snatched one right off the top of the syrup bottle.
And I've-- I've yet to see, like, the 200 or so bucks
that I-I should-- should have earned there,
so, you know, Jason, if you're…
[laughs] …if you're seeing this, pay up, buddy.
The $200 number that I owe Skylar sounds vaguely familiar.
I'm not saying it didn't happen, but we'll probably end up settling.
I'm not gonna pay the full 200.
-Lake of the Ozarks? -Yeah, Lake of the Ozarks.
Southern Missouri, the redneck Riviera, baby. [chuckles]
[Mundy] So to me,
everything we do in the finale is in the DNA of the show from the beginning.
It's funny. The first thing we shot day one of the pilot
was this little piece of him
in the backyard of the Byrdes' house in Chicago,
leaving a message for his partner Bruce, and we never used it. We cut it.
And we ended up using it as a memory in this season.
So it's old footage that no one's ever seen.
-[line beeps] -Hey, Bruce. Marty.
Buddy, let's-- let's pull the trigger on that office, okay?
Let's-- let's-- let's lock that down.
It's actually been a real thrill for me to be involved in it
and have it be so successful.
And this caught the zeitgeist, for some reason.
And Laura, obviously, and JB and little Ruth coming out of nowhere.
Julia Garner kind of blew up on us.
We've been very, very blessed is what I would say.
We're grateful for the success of it.
After so many seasons of death and destruction…
[chuckling] …we should be pretty good
at saying goodbye to cast members at this point,
but I know it's still gonna be in-- incredibly sad.
[Hublitz] I feel like I've grown up on this show in so many ways.
I feel like I've been raised by the best in the business.
I've learned so much from these people,
and I'm so lucky that it was on this job, on Ozark.
[Linney] It's been wonderful
to be a part of someone's early years and to give them an example of,
"This is how you should work. This is how prepared you should be."
You know, you don't wanna shove it down a young person's throat,
but you hope that you're able to give them some tools
that they can then take on, you know, to the next job.
[Mundy] It's been a great group of people.
It's been a really talented group of people.
The writers have all been talented.
Our crew is amazing.
The actors, from all of the main actors to everybody we've brought in
and new people each season, have been amazing.
[McTeer] It can be very hard as an actor,
if you're coming into a really established bunch of people.
And so to always kind of, "Hello, I'm so-and-so"
and "Hey, welcome to the crew."
It doesn't cost a lot, but a lot of people don't do it, and they did.
It made everyone feel important
and everyone feel wanted and loved.
I've been doing this 22 years.
I have never worked with a better crew in my entire career.
Everybody's just… They're brilliant.
And they take their time to make one of the best shows that is on right now.
So it's a blessing to watch.
These shows end, and people scatter.
It's like feathers in the wind. We just all go.
But there is always, I really believe this, in shows like this,
there's an invisible string that sort of connects all of us.
[Bruno Bichir] Everyone is so nice and committed.
And it's a wonderful show.
Um, I really love the people. They're very friendly.
Uh, they make you feel like family.
They treat us nice. They treat us good.
It's been a really, really good show to work on.
The atmosphere with cast and crew is very close-knit.
[Linney] There's something sad when something like this ends
'cause, you know, there's some people who you'll see again,
and there are others who you probably won't.
So you're trying to lock in memories. You're trying to burn in memories
as-- as deep as they'll go while you still have the time.
[Mundy] Jason and I talk about, "Let's recognize it in the moment."
You know what I mean? "Let's, like, actually enjoy it now."
"Let's not realize it ten years from now."
That's been the best thing, like, honestly.
If no one was watching, we all would've been home four years ago.
So everybody is very, very grateful for all of that support.
And I'm really just so proud of everybody and their ability
to have gotten pretty close to the target.
[group panting]
[Marty exhales]