Have you been to the actual Ozarks?

No. I should go, but I just haven’t had the time. We shoot in Atlanta, where there are people from all over the South. It makes it definitely easier to do the accent, because there are lots of people that [breaks into her Missouri accent] basically talk like this.

Is there a trick to playing a Southerner without resorting to the redneck stereotype?

I have a journal, and every character that I play, I write as the character, how I feel about things and how I’m going to play it. So I will write, “Dear Diary, today I had a bad day because Russ and Boyd and my dad” and this and that. She’s a young girl and she wants the same things that any other young girl would want. She also has hope for a better life that she’ll do anything to get. That’s what makes it so sad, and also makes it human.

I don’t know if you remember, but I had that handbag. And I know it’s a prop, but it’s important because that’s Ruth — she wears something really ugly, but she’ll have the pink handbag she probably got at Walmart because she secretly wants a real leather pink bag. She wants nice things, and you realize this girl is a child.

What did you relate to about the role?

Nothing, to be honest. It was so hard to play her because I completely had to detach myself to get involved. But I am a very hopeful person, so I get that.

Earlier this year you appeared as a Branch Davidian in “Waco.” You seem to spend a lot of time in cults.