Shonda Rhimes’ Inventing Anna debuts on Netflix soon (February 11) and I, for one, cannot wait to see how Rhimes brings this incredible true story to life for the small screen.
Like thousands of other people, I first learned of the con-artist misdeeds of Anna Sorokin/Delvey via Jessica Pressler’s expose in The Cut titled How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People and immediately became engrossed in this wild tale of a Russian grifter who claimed to be a German heiress.
Since then, I have found myself consistently drawn to the story as the case unfolded before the courts — for Sorokin surely fell from grace and was exposed as the fraud that she is — vacillating between horror that someone could so callously extort money from so many people and a weird sense of admiration for her moxy. Hell, if I were to try to attempt such a scam it would be over before it even started as I would no doubt immediately forget my chosen pseudonym and reveal my true (far less exciting) identity upfront.
It seems that, even behind bars, Sorokin is still exuding the kind of misguided privileged arrogance that she has become something of an icon for.
In an interview with Town & Country magazine, actress Julia Garner, who plays Sorokin in the limited series, revealed that she visited the convicted trickster in a prison outside Buffalo, New York in order to better understand the character she was about to inhabit.
“She’s actually really sweet,” Garner told the publication. “She was extremely charming. She’s very gentle. But then her voice gets less soft-spoken when she wants something.”
One of the things Sorokin wanted, apparently, was to hear what Garner had planned in terms of her accent, even begging to hear it (Delvey was born in Russia, grew up in Germany, learned British English, then mimicked American English by watching shows like Gossip Girl.) “She’s like, ‘Please, let me hear it,’” said Garner, explaining that she then gave Sorokin a taste of what she had been working on with a dialect coach.
“It got very meta,” she added.
The Ozark actress also explained that part of why she had wanted to meet Sorokin was to see if she had any remorse at all for her crimes (she has previously told The New York Times that she was not sorry for the things she did, only for the way she had handled certain situations, ultimately conceding “I’m not a good person.”)
Sorokin’s response, apparently, was “I don’t really have that much time to think” citing commitments such as tailoring classes and lessons in what she calls “stupid culinary arts.”
Speaking to T&C, Garner admitted, “I kind of love that about her, in a sick way. She’s in a full jumpsuit saying, ‘I’m obviously not going to make myself food when I get out of jail.’ ”
Ultimately, Garner’s reason for wanting to take on the role was fairly simple.
“People don’t necessarily have to agree with what she did, but I want to help people try to understand why she did it,” she says. “I’m curious what Anna’s going to think about me portraying her.”
Safe to say, if there is one thing we’ve learned about Anna Sorokin/Delvey, it’s that she will find a way to make her thoughts about Garner’s performance known.
Inventing Anna will land on Netflix on February 11, 2022.
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