Convicted scammer Anna Sorokin — more commonly known by the name Anna Delvey — thinks the depiction of her in the hit Netflix series “Inventing Anna” in a bit of a con.
“I don’t think I ordered people around as much,” Sorokin recently told Cosmopolitan of Julia Garner’s portrayal of her in the Shonda Rhimes-produced hit. “I think I’m more self-aware of the way I come across. Not all the time, but I just don’t think I’m so brazen and shameless.”
The fake German heiress — who’s also known as the “The SoHo Grifter” — was arrested in 2018 for swindling banks, luxury hotels and several individuals out of more than $200,000 to bankroll her lavish New York City lifestyle. A Manhattan jury convicted her on one count of attempted grand larceny, three counts of grand larceny and four counts of theft of services in 2019. She caught nationwide attention after her story was reported in a viral New York magazine article and an essay written by a former Vanity Fair photo editor who said she was forced to pay $62,000 after Sorokin invited her on a trip to Morocco and couldn’t foot the bill.
Sorokin was released from prison in 2021, but six weeks later, she was rearrested by immigration authorities for having overstayed her visa. She is currently in ICE detention, where she is fighting deportation to Germany.
Sorokin spoke to Cosmopolitan about how “Inventing Anna” — a dramatized version of her life in her 20s — has shaped public opinion of her and the impact it has on her life right now.
“I personally moved on a very long time ago and I’m absolutely not in the same place, but I’m also being affected by the way the world sees me and by what people think of me,” she told the magazine. “I exist in relation to everybody else and to the world, I don’t just exist on my own.”
She added: “I did move on in some aspects. But in some others, I’m still in the same place.”
Sorokin isn’t the only person depicted in the Netflix series who has publicly said that the show portrays them in a somewhat skewed light. One of the show’s central characters, Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky), is inspired by Jessica Pressler, who wrote the New York magazine article about Delvey. The journalist told Vulture (which is New York’s entertainment website) in February that while Vivian and her share similarities — like their background and reporting styles — Vivian is a bit more dramatic than she is.
“When I met Anna Chlumsky, she was like, ‘I’m not doing you,’ and I was like, ‘Great!’” Pressler said. “Vivian is like an all-caps angry email of me, but there are things that are very real mixed into it.”
Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Here’s how.
