“I liked that she’s the bad guy”: Margaret Qualley on How to Make a Killing

Margaret Qualley discusses embracing the deliciously unlikeable Julia Steinway in John Patton Ford’s How to Make a Killing. The actress reflects on her character’s flirtatious dynamic with Beckett, praises co-star Glen Powell’s effortless movie-star charisma, explains what drew her to Ford’s script and reveals how Chanel helped bring Julia’s glamorous wardrobe to life.

Tell us about Julia and her relationship with Beckett.

Julia is someone that Beckett has known since she was a little kid. I liked that she’s the bad guy. I don’t know that Julia is that relatable. She’s more like guilty pleasure fun. Like, if I were bad, what would that be like? You know, rather than super relatable.

I think they had, you know, this kind of bullying, flirtatious relationship – bullying coming from Julia! But also sweetness from Beckett, and they were both impactful on each other in different ways. Then they don’t see each other for a long time, and they run into each other as adults. Once again, Beckett makes quite the impression on Julia. Drama ensues!

They both value money a lot. Beckett, coming from a lower-income family, has this relationship to the Redfellow name and the inheritance, and that means a lot to him. And then for Julia, I think status and money mean a lot to her.

The scene we shot last night is when Julia calls Beckett out of the blue. He’s just gotten his promotion, and she kind of flirts with him, f*cks with him and baits him into asking her out on a date, only to be like, “No, I’m married.” Yeah, but it’s kind of a dommy, flirtatious, sweet scene.

What was it like working with Glen Powell?

Glen’s great. Classic movie star. He’s kind and talented and smart and charming and thoughtful and looks perfect. He has some kind of superpowers. I’m constantly asking him, like, “What are you drinking? Like, what are you doing? You’re doing it better! Whatever you’re doing, I should do too. It’s better. You’re happy.”

I’m happy too, but, you know, he’s got something sorted. It’s my favourite thing to do to bully a male actor. Come on. They deserve it!

What makes John Patton Ford such a special filmmaker?

I met with John once in LA. I really loved the script and thought the character was fun and special and would be a fun thing for me to kind of pop in and play around with.

John, I think he’s just… I think he’s really smart. I love the script that he wrote. I loved Emily the Criminal, his first film with Aubrey Plaza, and I had just worked with her. She had the best things to say about him, and I know they worked together really intimately.

I’ve only worked with him for a couple of days, but all of our correspondence so far has been very thoughtful and considerate, and he’s super smart.

Tell us about Julia’s costumes.

I’ve been lucky enough to have Chanel give us a bunch of really special pieces to work with for Julia. Right now, I’m wearing Chanel from head to toe, but it’s rare that you play a character who can have that kind of quality clothing. It’s very glamorous, so it’s been fun to do that. It was nice for Chanel to lend all these clothes because it certainly looks wealthy.