There aren’t many actors who can break your heart or break your nose with equal aplomb, but that’s the block Julia Garner has claimed in her still burgeoning career.

As Ruth Langmore, the spitfire foil turned partner to Jason Bateman’s slick money launderer Marty Byrde, she is the most captivating part of Ozark, routinely smacking down – literally, strategically or rhetorically – derisive men who mistake her delicate features and springy curls for weakness. In the second season, which just debuted on Netflix, Ruth wrecks a marina in an extortion scheme, breaks up fights in the strip bar she manages and, at one point, kicks over a vulgar old lout in a wheelchair.

Along the way she contends with the return of her toxic father (Trevor Long), emotionally oscillating between the toughness and vulnerability of a disappointed but still hopeful daughter. It’s a beguiling tenderness that also enlivened series like Waco, in which she played one of David Koresh’s Branch Davidian “wives”, and The Americans, in which she was a mark for Matthew Rhys’s conflicted undercover KGB agent.

“I go wherever the good story is,” Garner said recently. “It’s just a coincidence that I have weird relationships with these middle-aged men.”

In a phone interview, Garner discussed the new season of Ozark and the toughest scene she’s had on the show. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Ozark season 2 - Official Trailer

How do things change for Ruth this season?

She’s in a much more vulnerable place. She’s really struggling and having an identity crisis because of her dad. With season 2, I think you have a much deeper understanding of why she behaves like she does. People always go, “Oh Ruth is such a badass character — how does it feel to play her?” And it’s much deeper than that. It’s more that she has no choice.In many ways, she’s torn between two fathers.

Yeah, and she hates the fact that her dad doesn’t respect her and Marty does, even though she really loves that Marty acknowledges her and listens to her.

Even though Marty has her running a strip club and laundering money. He hasn’t been a model mentor.

No, but I don’t know who is great on the show. Well, the pastor’s baby is great. No one’s gonna be like, “Oh that baby, what a jerk.”

Are the strip club scenes awkward to shoot?

No, I’m so used to it already. Everyone is just doing their jobs.

Why do you think crime shows almost always include a strip bar, besides presumably for cheap titillation? It’s a trope that refuses to die.

Because it’s uneasy. You feel like anything might happen at any moment. Isn’t that a weird thing? People are intrigued but also scared about things that are uneasy.

This year you appeared as a Branch Davidian in Waco. You seem to spend a lot of time in cults.

A journalist once described me as “go-to cult girl Julia Garner”, and I thought that was really funny. Those are the interesting parts! Everyone is interested in cults. But I wouldn’t say I’m a go-to cult girl. I did Waco right after I did season 1 of Ozark, and the story was really interesting and I also thought it was very different from Ruth. She was a sister-wife, and she was stuck in a scenario and she wasn’t this rebellious girl, unlike Ruth. Everything has to be different from the last thing I’ve done. Even if it’s another cult.

Your characters are often tough on the outside with vulnerability showing through the cracks. Is that something you do consciously, or does it happen naturally?

Maybe a little bit of both. People don’t have just one colour. They have multiple things on their mind – even when they’re listening to another person, they’re thinking of something else. So you have to show multiple layers. And I think naturally, I’m a very sensitive person so sometimes I have to even tone it down. So I don’t know – it’s a combination of both, it’s weird.

Ozark got some Emmy nominations, but you did not. Was that disappointing?

Nah. The most important Emmy nomination was for Jason [Bateman] – he got them for actor and director. Jason is the show so that was great. He is like a mentor, in a way, and he really took me under his wing and I feel like he changed my life. I get recognised for this more than I have for any other project, I think because Netflix is just such a big thing now.

Without giving anything away, Ruth is involved in some very intense scenes this season. What’s the toughest thing you’ve had to shoot?

You’re going to laugh: It was the scene when I held the mouse in season 1. I have the worst fear of rodents. I can’t stand them. They had to use a hand double – I couldn’t breathe and I nearly got a panic attack. I’m like the least badass person on the planet.