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Julia Garner Transforms Into FTX's Caroline Ellison for Obama-Produced Netflix Series
Garner calls it the hardest role of her career: a dull wig, false teeth and a prosthetic nose to play the crypto fraud figure opposite Anthony Boyle's Sam Bankman-Fried in 'The Altruists.'
Julia Garner says disappearing into the role of disgraced crypto executive Caroline Ellison required the most extensive transformation of her career — and she's not just talking about the acting.
Garner stars as Ellison, the former Alameda Research CEO who became the government's star witness against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, in Netflix's eight-episode limited series "The Altruists," premiering November 19. In a new interview tied to the show's release, CBS News highlighted Garner's account of building the character from the outside in: a dull brown wig, thick glasses, false teeth, a prosthetic nose, brown contact lenses and a deliberately altered posture, voice and laugh.
'The hardest job' she's ever done
"The Altruists" dramatizes the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange whose implosion in late 2022 wiped out billions of dollars and became one of the largest fraud cases in American financial history. Anthony Boyle plays Bankman-Fried, with the series tracing the relationship between the two Alameda and FTX executives from idealistic beginnings to a courtroom reckoning. In real life, Ellison cooperated with federal prosecutors and received a two-year prison sentence for her role in the fraud, considerably lighter than the 25 years handed to Bankman-Fried.
A DULL WIG, FALSE TEETH AND A PROSTHETIC NOSE — FOR "THE HARDEST JOB" OF HER CAREER
The series carries extra Hollywood pedigree behind the camera: it's produced by Higher Ground, the production company founded by former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, and co-run and executive produced by Graham Moore and Jacqueline Hoyt. According to Netflix's Tudum, the eight-episode run was designed to unfold less like a true-crime procedural and more like a character study of ambition curdling into self-delusion.
Garner, an Emmy winner for "Ozark" and "Inventing Anna," has built a career playing women operating just outside the law, and Ellison's real-life cooperation with prosecutors gave the production unusually detailed source material to work from, including courtroom testimony and private messages that surfaced during Bankman-Fried's trial. Early trade buzz has pegged the series as a likely awards-season contender for Garner, who has described the shoot as physically and emotionally exhausting in equal measure.
"The Altruists" begins streaming globally on Netflix on November 19.