Growing Up Byrde: The ‘Ozark’ Kids Talk Tackling Their Teen Years on Set

Growing up can have its challenges when your parents are laundering $500 million for a Mexican drug cartel. Likewise, tackling your teen years on a television set presents its own peculiar childhood experience — albeit with fewer federal crimes and less bloodshed. Skylar Gaertner and Sofia Hublitz got a taste of both. They’ve spent the last five years on Ozark playing Jonah and Charlotte Byrde, the initially begrudging and eventually complicit kids of Wendy (Laura Linney) and Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) — everyone’s favorite problematic parents on the Navarro cartel payroll. 

“We spent the last five years together shooting the show... this was my college experience,” Hublitz, who started on the series when she was just 17, tells Tudum. “I got to work six months out of the year, every year, with people who have become lifelong best friends of mine, some of whom I talk to every single day.”

For Gaertner, that closeness between the cast and crew was “almost instantaneous.” He explains that “it was a result of just a really good, solid group of people who get along. The writers seemed to have this family dynamic down from the very beginning,” which made it “really natural” for the young stars. 

Similarly, Ozark showrunner Chris Mundy saw how easily Hublitz and Gaertner would fit in fairly quickly in the casting process. “They were pretty easy decisions,” he says, remembering having Hublitz read the parts for both Ruth and Charlotte alongside Bateman in front of the show’s casting director, Alexa Fogel. “When Sofia finished her audition, Jason was like, ‘So, do you have any plans for the summer? You might not want to make any plans.’ We basically told her she had it in the room.” As for Gaertner, “He was so sweet, but also so smart,” says Mundy. “He is in real life, and I remember that really clearly.”

From casting onwards, the easy family dynamic continued to grow behind the camera, even as things got messy for their on-screen counterparts. Linney, who played Gaertner and Hublitz’s mom, took great joy in watching her on-screen children grow as their character arcs expanded. “It was wonderful that the storyline really did intersect with their own development as actors and as human beings,” she says. “It was great to see them learn lessons and get better at what they did. I’m glad that this was their first big experience.”

And while both Gaertner and Hublitz acknowledge that spending their formative years on television was a departure from “normal,” they also appreciate the unique experiences spending their teen years on location in Georgia afforded them. 

“There’s all sorts of random things I learned and adventures, being on a show like this,” Gaertner says, learning to drive a boat, spending time at the firing range and — according to Linney — making a “gorgeous” miniature version of the Byrde House out of wood, among them. Despite his weapon training, though, Gaertner says that early shooting scenes with a rifle in hand could weigh him down — literally. 

“There was that one scene [in Season 1] where Agent Petty [Jason Butler Harner] is trespassing on our property and Jonah finds him,” he recalls. “I had to hold that gun up for a couple of minutes and then do a dozen takes. By the end, my hands were shaking, my shoulders were coming up. It didn’t look very natural, but I was trying so hard... I'm like, ‘I’m a professional, I can handle this.’ But I would just see the barrel dropping lower and lower and lower.”

Gaertner — like his character — might’ve become more familiar with handling weapons as the seasons went on, but, apparently, something as simple as pulling out of a parking lot still presented problems for his on-screen father. 

When Gaertner first mentions “getting into a car accident with Jason Bateman,” you might assume he’s referring to the opening scene of the show’s final season. He’s not. Rather, the young actor is pointing to an entirely separate moment during filming, when Bateman — in a classic IRL dad move — exited a parking lot without paying attention and caused a collision. 

“We had to pull [the car] all the way out to get to the shot,” Gaertner explains. “They brought in one of those big crane machines that block the sun for you. I guess Jason wasn’t aware of that and he pulled out... and you hear a thud. We were in the zone, acting and, all of a sudden, we’re just looking at each other.”

Despite the on-set fender bender, Gaertner says Bateman was impressive behind the wheel in other environments, including cast outings to play WhirlyBall. “It’s very, very chaotic,” says Gaertner of the bumper car game that combines elements of lacrosse, hockey and basketball. “Somehow, Jason Bateman is very good at it. I don’t know why. I swear he went and practiced beforehand or something.”

Bateman wasn’t the only one developing extracurricular skills. When the cameras stopped rolling and her nose wasn’t buried in a book (a regular occurrence according to Linney), Hublitz was ready to rally the troops for an excursion. “I feel like I was always the one that was like, ‘OK, you guys, we’re going to do this and this on this day. I’m taking us all to Rock Springs Park. We’re going on a hike. I want to go to this restaurant,” she says. “I tried to make my time in Atlanta as meaningful as possible and really fill up my day. If I ever do a job [there] again, I’ve got some great friends down there and I know I’m coming back to a party. It’s a super special place to me.”

And you can’t spend your teen years on a television set without becoming familiar with the local cuisine. “You know on the harder days or long hours, a really redeeming aspect is the food,” she says. “We were in Atlanta, so if it was a late night and everyone was tired and they wanted to cheer everyone up, they would get Bojangles.”

Fried chicken and cast bonding aside, Gaertner and Hublitz — just like the audience — have also loved watching their characters evolve over time. For Gaertner, Jonah’s evolution from serious, brainy and mostly complacent adolescent to the nearly-adult teenager with several bones to pick was overdue. “I think it’s pretty amazing on his part that he didn't snap sooner,” Gaertner says. “I don’t know if I would’ve put up with it for as long as he did.”

Hublitz’s Charlotte, on the other hand, saw a different kind of moral metamorphosis. “In the first two seasons, Charlotte was very much against the grain,” Hublitz says. “[In the last season], you really see Charlotte aligning herself with her mother’s beliefs… and believing that, although maybe it’s not ethically good, it’s for the ‘greater good.’ Jonah’s more of the contrarian who’s like, ‘This is messed up, I can’t do it anymore.’ Charlotte’s thrown in the towel in a different way.”

And while both Gaertner and Hublitz wouldn’t trade their years spent on Ozark for anything, it’s still fun to imagine what teenage life would have been like for Jonah and Charlotte, had Marty and Wendy decided to play it straight.

“Jonah probably would’ve signed up to volunteer at an animal shelter or something,” Gaertner says. “And he probably would have started his own businesses anyways — maybe less money laundering.”

As for Charlotte? “I imagine [she would do] what any bored kid gets into in a very slow environment, which is drugs and trouble,” Hublitz says. “She’d probably be slinging beers with Ruth at the Langmores and smoking weed and Lord knows what else.”