As Julia Garner told Interview magazine, she began taking acting classes at the age of 14, and although the New York native always loved movies, she revealed, "I didn't think it was a real job." The award winning actress admitted, "I didn't know anything about the business, and also I never thought I would be involved in it." As The Cut noted in a profile, Garner tends to be drawn to more offbeat, "darker" characters, as evidenced in her breakout role in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Garner revealed, "There's always something kind of wrong with my characters." 

She added, "Whenever I read a script I'm like, 'Oh, I want to be that girl. The odd one out.'" Rather than limiting her, however, this focus has led to a variety of interesting work, including walking in the Balenciaga show at Paris Fashion Week in 2015. She jokingly recalled to i-D, "In rehearsal on the runway I had a Derek Zoolander moment where I couldn't turn left. I did the whole blue steel thing when I couldn't turn left!"