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REAL LIFE INVENTION
Inside Inventing Anna cast including TedTalk boyfriend, parents & those who inspired it like Anna Delvey & Alexis Floyd
CAST members detailed the real-life people portrayed in Inventing Anna, from Anna Delvey's boyfriend and family to her closest friends.
The Inventing Anna mini series tells the story of Anna Sorokin, a convicted con artist who swindled money from Manhattan's elite, along with banks, hotels, and friends.
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She went by Anna Delvey and claimed to be a German heiress and socialite as she tried to get people to invest in The Anna Delvey Foundation.
The actors who play Sorokin and others in the Netflix mini series opened up about the real-life people they portrayed.
Julia Garner as Anna Delvey
Netflix released Inventing Anna on February 11, 2022, with Julia Garner portraying Anna.
Garner told that she met the real Anna to get a sense of her "energy and spirit" while preparing for the role.
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"The thing that I was the most surprised about, and at the same time it made the most sense, was how bubbly and likable she was," Garner said.
"I was taken aback because it's very intimidating meeting somebody like Anna, but then at the same time, I'm like 'of course, she's likeable that's why she was able to do what she did.'
"She was able to have all those people invest in her and believe in her and she was able to accomplish what she did, bad or good or whatever it is, she did it and it was because she was extremely intelligent."
Sorokin was reportedly paid $320,000 from Netflix to turn her rollercoaster life into a TV show, reported.
Garner went on to say she aimed to portray Anna's bubbly personality in the series.
Anna Chlumsky as Vivian
Anna Chlumsky of Veep plays Vivian in the series, a role based on Jessica Pressler, author of a about Anna Delvey.
Chlumsky told Newsweek that she worked with Pressler, who helped produce the film, and closely studied her written work.
"My character is a fictionalized version of that role and so I didn't have to match her exactly, so the first sort of decision to make was what to borrow and what not to," Chlumsky said.
"I worked very closely with her notes. I poured through them, I just drank them up. They were like, my vitamins.
"I read all of her articles, I felt like playing somebody who expresses themselves so well and so clearly in her own voice, that really the written word was giving me the most anchor that I needed. So that was my way in."
Alexis Floyd as Neff
Alexis Floyd of The Bold Type plays a New York City hotel concierge who Anna befriended while staying at 11 Howard hotel.
Floyd said she met up with the real-life Neff Davis while studying to play the part.
"She was very generous and open to sharing her time and her story with me, and that stayed true throughout the process," Floyd said.
"I was really fascinated by how well she knows herself, so I wanted to get to know her as much as possible, because she just seems like she has this really beautiful kind of graceful self-confidence that I think is so unique, and almost regal and I wanted to celebrate that as much as possible."
Floyd said she also focused a lot on Davis' rhythm, love of music, and her "DC and New York blend going on."
"I spent a lot of time you know, just walking around listening to her speak, kind of putting her mouth and body talking out loud to myself on the streets of New York," Floyd said.
Arian Moayed as Todd Spodek
Arian Moayed of Succession took on the role of Anna's defense lawyer Todd Spodek in the series.
Based on her real-life attorney, Moayed said he was attracted to the part because he sees Todd as "a good guy."
"He's a dad, he's trying to climb up the ladder," Moayed said.
"In my audition scene, which was the scene in the pilot, where he's like, essentially saying, 'I was a valet for my mom to help pay for the rent,' I really relate to that, I'm an immigrant, I grew up in an immigrant family and an immigrant community.
"And I know those moments where your summer job is really to help pay rent and so that was an easy thing to latch on to."
Laverne Cox as Kacy Duke
The role of Kacy Duke, played by Orange Is The New Black's Laverne Cox, portrays Anna's personal trainer who traveled to Morocco with Anna and her friend.
Cox told that the pair had a four-hour lunch where Duke shared her entire life story.
The real Duke shared her thoughts on social media about Cox playing her in the series.
"It was all Magical Marrakech until it wasn't!" she wrote in one post.
"@lavernecox giving you a very @kacyduke moment! Consider me a proud twin! Thank you, Queen! Get Ready! Inventing Anna on @netflix February 11th!"
Ben Rappaport as Billy McFarland
Ben Rappaport of Ozark depicts Billy McFarland, who became famous for the failed Fyre Festival and ensuing fallout.
Episode four features Billy telling Anna about his plans for the festival, and the two did know each other in real life.
Anna lived with McFarland in 2013 at the headquarters of a credit-card company he launched, Newsweek reported.
McFarland remains in jail on wire fraud convictions and is set for release in 2023.
Katie Lowes as Rachel
Katie Lowes, of Scandals fame, depicts the real-life Rachel Deloache Williams in the series.
Williams was a photo editor at Vanity Fair when she was scammed into paying more than $62,000 for a trip to Morocco with Anna.
She eventually went to police with concerns about Anna and the report led to the investigation that ultimately landed Anna in jail.
Williams published a book about the situation and it was considered for production by HBO.
Saamer Usmani as Chase
Chase Sikorski, played by British actor Saamer Usmani, depicts a boyfriend of Anna's in the show, a role loosely based on a real person.
In her article, Pressler describes Anna's boyfriend as a "futurist on the TED-Talks circuit who'd been profiled in The New Yorker."
The journalist said the two dated for two years and were like a team as Anna sold her vision of the private club she wanted to open.
The Chase that viewers meet in Inventing Anna, along with his Wake app, are entirely fictional, according to
Anna's parents
The real Anna was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of about $199,000 after her arrest in October 2017.
Anna's father Vadim Sorokin said in interviews that he disowned his daughter after she was found guilty of grand larceny and other charges in 2019.
Her father told that he knew little about his daughter's time in New York City and was one of many whom his daughter had taken money from.
He said he didn't understand how Sorokin had gotten her life to this point as he and his wife had "raised her well."
"I do not have any influence on her life and what she does," he told the news outlet in 2019.
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"It is down to her what she has done."
Anna was released from prison in February 2021 but taken back into custody a month later for overstaying her visa.
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