"Anna Delvey is a masterpiece, bitches" or what the internet is saying about upcoming netflix series inventing Anna

Julia Garner as Anna Delvey. © Aaron Epstein/Netflix

​The titular character (Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey, a real-life socialite-wannabe who scammed NY's elite out of hundreds of thousands) shouts about herself in the third person in the trailer for upcoming Shondaland/Netflix mini-series Inventing Anna:

"Anna Delvey is a masterpiece, bitches!"

Continue reading to find out what the showrunner, actors, media outlets, and the public have to say about this exciting new show.

​the woman

Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey. © Matteo Prandoni/BFA

​Let me give you a brief introduction to this polarizing socialite swindler, for those of you having escaped the 2017 “Summer of Scam” — which Artforum’s Chloe Wyma describes as the “cultural moment marked by a popular fascination with grifters, from quack biotech girlboss Elizabeth Holmes to disgraced coworking-space messiah Adam Neumann to Fyre Festival douche Billy McFarland” — and of course the “Ponzi Princess,” Anna Delvey.
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Anna may call herself a masterpiece, but various media outlets across the internet have found other ways to describe her:

“… a faux heiress who charmed and then scammed the downtown elite while posing as an insouciant Eloise of Soho’s hippest hotels and restaurants.”-- Chloe Malle, Town & Country

“…a fraudulent, self-styled German ‘heiress’”— Jennifer Savin, Cosmopolitan

“… a hardscrabble arriviste who begged, borrowed, and stole from New York’s financial and cultural elite in a Gatsbyean crusade to erect her eponymous trophy museum–cum–Soho House–style members’ club in the landmarked Church Missions House building on Park Avenue South.” — Chloe Wyma, Artforum

and my personal favorite:

“… a Balenciaga Bernie Madoff”— Phil de Semlyen, TimeOut

Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey. © Richard Drew/AP

In May 2018 journalist Jessica Pressler broke the story for New York Magazine — a 25-year-old fake German trust-fund darling who had swindled NYC’s elite, skipping out on $30k hotel bills and globetrotting on her friends’ dime to the tune of $62k, all while rubbing elbows with the upper echelons of society and forging bank documents in an attempt to secure a $25M loan to launch an exclusive Soho-based art club called the The Anna Delvey Foundation.

Her scams, and the police, caught up with her in 2017 and after four felony convictions she found herself serving 4 to 12 years on Rikers Island — where she proceeded to sell her story to both Netflix and HBO, write a memoir, and plan a series of NFTs based on her time in prison.

Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey. © Richard Drew/AP

Despite her crimes and her aloof pretentiousness, actress Julia Garner, showrunner Shonda Rhimes, and journalist Jessica Messler who also works as a producer on Inventing Anna, all have more forgiving opinions of Anna — calling her “extremely charming,” “gentle,” and “brilliant.”

Garner explained her warmth toward the con artist, claiming:

“You can’t dislike the person you’re playing for eight, nine months. That’s going to come across on the screen, and the performance isn’t going to be as good. She had her reasons why she did all the things she did.” — Julia Garner to WSJ

And Rhimes maintains:

“Everybody has their idea of who Anna is, and everybody had their own experience of being with Anna.” — Shonda Rhimes to Variety

I’d say that true of anyone who has crossed her path — in NYC, Europe, or Rikers.

the series

Shonda Rhimes production company Shondaland acquired the rights to Anna Sorokin-Delvey’s story in 2018. Inventing Anna is the first show Rhimes herself has written since jumping from ABC to Netflix (in addition to producing the epically popular Bridgerton for the platform).

Rhimes explained her initial interest in Delvey:

“She’s got an eidetic memory. She speaks all these languages. There wasn’t much different about her than any other boy genius who takes over Manhattan — except for the fact that she was a woman.” — Shonda Rhimes to Variety

Julia Garner as Anna Delvey (left) and Anna Chlumsky as Vivian Kent (right). © Nicole Rivelli/Netflix

​Emmy-winning Ozark actress Julia Garner plays Delvey in all of her pseudo-glamour and gilded millennial narcissism.
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Inventing Anna positions the investigation into Delvey at the heart of the story. The tale of faux-fortune and eventual downfall is told through the POV of journalist Vivian Kent (based on Jessica Pressler) played by Anna Chlumsky (Veep).

Julia Garner as Anna Delvey (left), Katie Lowes as Rachel Deloache Williams (middle), and Laverne Cox as Kacy Duke (right). © Netflix

​Other cast highlights include Arian Moayed (Succession) as Anna’s real-life defense attorney Todd Spodek, Laverne Cox (OITNB) as celebrity trainer Kacy Duke, and Katie Lowes (Scandal) as Anna’s ex-friend Rachel Deloache Williams.

The show embraces it’s meta-ness, winking at viewers with a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode:

"This story is completely true. Except for the parts that are totally made up."

The Actress

​In preparation for the role of Anna Delvey, Garner visited her in Rikers prison, studied her mannerisms in interviews, and of course, practiced her elusive accent — which the inmate begged to hear.

Julia Garner as Anna Delvey. © Aaron Epstein/Netflix

​It wasn’t easy to perfect the otherworldly accent of a Russian-born, German-raised, London-educated, NYC-dwelling “aristocratic” millennial with a penchant for the dramatic.

Garner explained to Town & Country how much time and energy she put into Delvey’s accent, which required changing the way she moved her tongue and mouth in comparison to the accent of her character Ruth on Ozark, and was even caught by her husband speaking in the accent in her sleep.
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She recently showcased her process of developing the accent with Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show, to much public praise.

Julia Garner as Anna Delvey. © Nicole Rivelli/Netflix

Garner has received high accolades from others working on the show, as well:

“Julia approaches her roles from an intellectual place that allows for the precision and dexterity needed to delve into the mind and spirit of a character. Anna Delvey is a person who goes through many transformations to reach her goals. Given Julia’s range, we knew this was something she could deliver on.” — Shonda Rhimes to Town & Country

“They’re physically very different. Julia inhabits her without physically looking like her. It was amazing. That’s not hair and makeup, that’s proper acting.” — Jessica Pressler to Town & Country

​Julia Garner is a well-loved actress and, if the comments on the trailer are any indication, viewers thrilled to see her portray this larger-than-life woman.

the praise

​Whether it’s appreciation of Julia Garner, or the multitude of other A-list actors in the show, the fascination with the story, the loyalty of Shonda Rhimes and her television prowess, or a love/hate feeling toward Anna herself, it’s clear that anticipation for Inventing Anna is high.

​Obviously there is no way to determine what the response to the show will be after it airs, but if these comments are any indication, Inventing Anna is sure to be another checkmark in the “win” column for Rhimes and everyone involved.

Hey, maybe it will even join Bridgerton on the list of top ten shows streamed on Netflix.

The pushback

​Although the majority of people are excited about the new mini-series, some are criticizing the media’s obsession with Anna Sorokin/Delvey and argue that the attention and money she’s receiving from these projects is exactly what she was looking for, and perpetuates the idea that these types of white-collar crimes aren’t as condemnable as others.

​It’s true that Sorokin is being paid for Netflix’s rights to her story, but a large portion of that money was commandeered by the courts and used to pay the restitution she owed her victims. After being released from prison, Delvey was allegedly using the rest of the funds to pay a film crew to follow her around for an undetermined future project, before being detained by ICE in March 2021 for overstaying her visa.

For her part, Shonda Rhimes brings up the issue of gender, and describes how the actions that Delvey took weren’t much different than what men on Wall Street do every single day.

​“Had she been a man, I’m not sure it would have caused such a ruckus. If she had been a hot chick, I’m not sure she would have caused such a ruckus. But because she was an ordinary-looking woman, who was smart and brilliant and went for what she wanted, and felt no remorse about it, people were outraged or shocked or stunned or fascinated.” — Shonda Rhimes to Variety

Despite this argument, some commenters are concerned that Inventing Anna and other shows like it are contributing to the problem by glamorizing Delvey’s crimes.

​Despite whether the show ends up condemning Delvey’s actions or glorifying them, viewers only need to look to the real Anna Sorokin for proof that crime certainly does pay.

Regardless, it’s sure to be a wild ride.

​All episodes of Inventing Anna will be available to stream on Netflix Fb 11th.

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This article originally appeared in Fanfare on Medium.