Julia Garner on Inventing Anna, Meeting the Real Anna Delvey, and the Scammers Who Inspired Her

Julia Fox and Anna Delvey are two viral sensations of 2022 and apparently, they are friends. Kanye West’s former muse and the fraudster are even working on a secret project together.

curiously accented faux socialite Anna Delvey, née Sorokin, managed to swindle hotels, banks, investors and many a jetsetter into believing she was an entrepreneurial German heiress on a mission to build a cultural arts mecca. In reality, she is the Russian-born daughter of a truck driver whose ambitions exceeded her means. Sorokin lived the high life before being convicted of grand larceny and serving time in prison.

The new series Inventing Anna is currently number one on Netflix and fans want to know more about the real-life people who inspired the characters.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorWhen bringing a “whole story [that] is completely true, except for all the parts that are totally made up” to life, “Inventing Anna” costume designers Lyn Paolo and Laura Frecon had to dive into Instagram.“The very beginning of the project was actually more about research and matching everything that the real Anna wore for her Instagram — which sort of became our Greek chorus,” Paolo told Variety. “And that was extensive research… Even before we got into the fashion elements, we had to recreate that whole Instagram wall, and also all of the court looks.”“Inventing Anna” follows faux-heiress Anna Delvey (née Anna Sorokin) (Julia Garner) as she awaits trial for grand larceny and theft of services.

Shonda Rhimes’ limited Netflix series about Anna Delvey above the typical true-crime drama is the designer fashions the characters wear onscreen. Like, which Delvey watched to learn English, and, directed by David Frankel, who helms two of the series’ episodes, is as much about the fashion as it is about a young woman who pretended to be a German heiress to con her way through the rich and elite of New York City.

No thank you. Playing the faux German heiress Anna Delvey on Inventing Anna has made star Julia Garner realize that fame is often more trouble than it’s worth.

“Inventing Anna” may be based on true events, but it heightened the drama according to Jessica Pressler.

Only one degree separates fraudster Anna Sorokin from entertainment megastar Kanye West.

, celebrity trainer Kacy Duke is sharing how she really feels about the Netflix series. Portrayed by Laverne Cox, Duke was one of the many people sucked in and then conned by Anna Delvey, aka the “Fake German Heiress” convicted of scamming some of New York’s elite, high-end hotels and restaurants and banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Wow, what a ride it’s been,” Duke tells ET’s Lauren Zima after watching all nine episodes of the binge-worthy.

Fake heiress Anna Sorokin, otherwise known as Anna Delvey, is working with Surviving R. Kelly producer Bunim/Murray Productions on a limited documentary series.

Inventing Anna sees Ozark star Garner playing fraudster Anna Delvey – whose real name is Anna Sorokin – in a new Netflix series about her life.The show tells the true story of how Sorokin scammed banks, businesses and acquaintances out of money under the fake guise of her being a wealthy German heiress.In 2019, she was convicted of crimes including grand larceny, and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. She was initially released in 2021, but was then taken back into custody for violating the terms of her visa.Earlier this month Sorokin wrote an open letter about her feelings on the show, to which Garner has now responded.In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Garner said: “I respect whatever Anna does in terms of whether she wants to watch the show or doesn’t want to watch the show.“That’s her choice and that’s totally fine.

Netflix series Inventing Anna.The series, which was released last Friday (February 11), chronicles the rise and fall of scammer Anna Delvey (aka Anna Sorokin) who is played by Ozark star Julia Garner.Williams who is a journalist played by Katie Lowes, makes an appearance in episode six of the series, as the show goes on to document a disastrous holiday that the real-life Williams went on with Sorokin in 2017.The journalist wrote in detail about her trip to Marrakesh in a 2018 article for Vanity Fair titled ‘My Bright-Lights Misadventure With A Magician Of Manhattan‘ and in a 2019 book titled My Friend Anna.She has since responded to her portrayal in the series in an article for Time Magazine in which she clarified that she “was not involved with the show”.Williams explained that she “expected there would be times when the dramatisation of my experience would make me uncomfortable” and added she “understood that stepping into the spotlight came with certain risks”.“I would only have so much control over how I was portrayed,” she wrote but added that “this Netflix description felt shocking”.She went on to quote one section of her character’s description which states that “the woman she becomes because of Anna” and said that these “seven little words in one fell swoop stripped me of my agency, accomplishments, and truth”.Williams added: “Were we meant to believe that the woman I had become was not on account of the parents who raised me, the love I shared with family and friends, my own efforts or personal growth, but because of Anna?” As reflected in Inventing Anna, the journalist was pressured into footing the bill for the lavish holiday when Sorokin said she was experiencing trouble with her bank.

Critics might have found fault with Shondra Rhimes‘ admittedly bloated Anna Delvey miniseries “Inventing Anna,” but after early screenings, it was obvious to any member of the media it was going to be a smash. That prediction has easily come to pass with the limited series landing at the top spot of the streaming service the entire weekend.

Inventing Anna is , but perhaps none as heart-pounding and relatable as episode six, which takes place in Marrakech at the ultra luxurious . In the episode, Anna Delvey—who scammed nearly everyone in her path by pretending to be an heiress from Germany—takes “friends” Rachel, Kacy, and Noah to Morocco for a swanky getaway.

Anna Delvey, who swindled New York’s elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars  – if only the show had faith in its own premise. Now streaming on Netflix, “Inventing Anna” is based on a viral 2018 New York Magazine article about Delvey (nee Sorokin), 31 — Russian-born and raised in Germany — who defrauded banks, hotels and acquaintances while posing as a trust-fund heiress in New York between 2013-2017. She was convicted for multiple accounts of grand larceny, indicted in 2017 and incarcerated from 2019-2021. Helmed by Shonda Rhimes and starring Julia Garner (“Ozark”) — a skilled actress who seems to have been given bad directing to hide behind a distracting marble-mouthed accent to play Delvey — “Inventing Anna” is a bloated affair, with episodes regularly clocking in at over an hour, which feels punishing.

Julia Garner is having quite a year!First, the actress returned to the screen in her Emmy-winning role as Ruth Langmore on, capping off the first episodes of the crime drama's fourth and final season with a meme-worthy scream and a promise to exact revenge on the drug kingpin who murdered her cousin, Wyatt.«It's always funny because… by the time it comes out, I forget like, how intense it was,» Garner told ET recently of the revelations that set up 's final episodes, due out later this year.«You’re just going to have to wait,» she teased. «It gets more intense. It gets very intense. The ending of season [4A], the first half, was just the beginning of the intensity, that ending.»While fans wait for more , Garner can next be seen playing a completely different but equally compelling role: convicted fraudster Anna Delvey, in Shonda Rhimes’ true-crime limited series, . A far cry from Ruth's Southern drawl, the actress had to master a complicated accent in order to portray the German expat, who pretended to be an heiress as she conned hundreds of thousands of dollars out of New York’s high society and financial institutions. Garner first started by learning “a German accent and then Russian and then put it all together,” she explained, adding that she had to subtly layer in a British accent. And because Anna spent so much time in New York City and interacting with Americans, “musically it shouldn’t sound European.

NEW YORK -- Julia Garner admits to feeling “intimidated” when she met Anna Sorokin — who posed as a German heiress in New York society named Anna Delvey — and was later convicted of fraud.Garner portrays Sorokin in the new Shonda Rhimes series for Netflix, “Inventing Anna,” debuting Friday. What surprised Garner at that prison meeting? Sorokin was likable.“I just really wanted to get her energy,” said Garner. “What was coming across — that I didn’t expect — was how bubbly she was, how charming.”Garner walked away with insight into just how Sorokin was able to pull off her schemes.“When I got out of that visit, I was like, ’Wow, that’s why she was so close in getting everything that she wanted.

Netflix show about her, she has a ridiculous tech entrepreneur boyfriend.On the series, which stars Julia Garner in the title role and is out Friday, Anna’s on-screen love interest is Chase Sikorski (Saamer Usmani, “Succession”). Chase is introduced to the audience in episode 2, when he’s giving a Ted Talk about the potential to “cloud source” your dreams.

Angelique Jackson When a story about a faux-heiress called “Anna Delvey” first appeared in New York Magazine in May 2018, actor Julia Garner was among the voracious readers who pored over journalist Jessica Pressler’s account of how Anna Sorokin, a twentysomething Russian-born German woman, had scammed her way into the top branches of New York business and society by pretending to have a $60 million fortune.“I had the same reaction that the whole world had,” Garner recalls, telling Variety she read the piece, titled “Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It,” the week it published. “Then two months later, when I heard that it was going to be a series, I was not surprised about it at all.

, there’s renewed attention surrounding Anna Delvey, aka the “Fake German Heiress” and convicted fraudster who scammed some of New York’s high society, hotels, restaurants and banks between 2015 and 2017. While Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, was found guilty of larceny in 2019 and was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison, one of her former friends is lashing out against the Netflix series for “running a con woman’s PR.” Rachel DeLoache Williams, who once was a part of Delvey’s inner circle and was later stuck with a $60,000 bill, writes in an essay for that the series is making Delvey “a star again.” Not only that, but it’s “repositioning the character of Anna Delvey from fraudster to front-row.” “Take it from someone who knows: This is the art of the con, a shell game that proffers irresistible thrills for low stakes, while a sleight of hand carries out the high-roller business unseen,” Williams writes.