Inventing Anna- Sorokin vs. Delvey
From a German heiress to homeless penny pincher, read to get a breakdown of Netflix’s documentary of one of the most infamous con artists Anna Sorokin in “Inventing Anna.”
Netflix, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The infamous logo used as the title screen for the Netflix show.
Private jets, luxurious Moroccan riads, and a private club that could challenge even Soho House.
This was the life of Anna Sorokin- better known as Anna Delvey, the millionaire German heiress set to inherit sixty million dollars from her affluent businessman father. However, it was all a lie. Delvey had no money to her name, and that wealthy father of hers? Nonexistent. So how did she manage to con the elite of New York- lawyers, investors, realtors, socialites- out of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
The Netflix show, Inventing Anna, investigates this question. Julia Garner (well known for portraying the character Ruth Langmore in fellow Netflix production Ozark) plays the infamous lead role of Anna Sorokin/Delvey and Anna Chlumsky stars as Vivian Kent, a journalist that chases after Anna’s story in an attempt to save her own career after a past mistake. The show also features actors Laverne Cox as celebrity fitness coach and former friend to Sorokin Kacy Duke, Katie Lowes as Rachel Williams, Alexis Floyd as hotel worker and Sorokin’s friend Neff Davis, Arian Moayed as Sorokin’s defense attorney Todd Spodek, and Anders Holm as Kent’s supportive husband.
Created by Shonda Rhimes, Inventing Anna was released exclusively on Netflix for consumers on February 11th, 2022. The entire show was inspired by a New York Magazine article released by journalist Jessica Pressler in 2018. In fact, the character of Vivian Kent is heavily molded around Pressler. Pressler spent months pursuing Sorokin’s story before finally publishing it. The article gained traction and was supported by another article written by one of Sorokin’s former friends and Vanity Fair staffer, Rachel DeLoache Williams.
Inventing Anna combines fact with fiction. For example, the character of Chase Sikorski, Anna’s tech-genius entrepreneur ex-boyfriend and helpful aid to Kent whilst writing her article, doesn’t actually exist, he’s just a made up figment of imagination created solely to drive the plot. On the other hand, Anna’s desire to create a social club for the elite and the wealthy- the eponymous Anna Delvey Foundation- was a real project Anna had undertaken, although it ultimately ended in failure when she was unable to prove that her supposed fortune existed and could not secure the funding required.
The incident most associated with Sorokin that was depicted in the Netflix show is the infamous Morocco trip that she took with Rachel Williams, Williams’ (possibly fictional) love interest and videographer Noah, and personal trainer Kacy Duke. On the doomed trip, the group managed to rack up a sixty-two thousand dollar bill at the luxurious five star resort La Mamounia. Knowing that the resort was pricey, especially for Williams and Noah who didn’t even make sixty-two thousand in a year, Sorokin offered to pay for the entire trip- including the flight, food, day trips, and any
other expenses the group may come upon. The group experienced both the luxuries of the resort and the sights of Morocco. Whilst purchasing some Moroccan kaftans and to everyone’s surprise, Sorokin’s cards were declined. However, it was all written off as some sort of card glitch due to Sorokin not telling her bank that she was traveling abroad. Williams offered to pick up her friend’s tab with Sorokin promising to reimburse her once her finances were in order.
The trip was continuously halted and interrupted by the resort’s staff urgently trying to obtain some sort of payment from Sorokin. For days, the staff lobbied her with pleas to put some sort of usable card on file so that they could charge her for the stay. Of course, Sorokin managed to bluff her way out of the situation every time, always blaming the banks for the payment issues, or even putting the blame on the hotel’s card readers and systems. By this time, Duke had suffered from food poisoning and was stationed in bed, unable to do anything without getting nauseous.
One day, when Williams, the videographer, and Sorokin were arriving back to the hotel after a day trip to the Atlas Mountains, they were stopped by two men, insisting that someone provide a functioning payment method. This part in the show is heavily dramatized for the sake of entertainment (this includes a private tour of Yves Saint Laurent’s home in Morocco, to which no one can foot the bill). The next day, Duke left to go back home, feeling much too sick to continue the trip and enjoy it. In a panic, and feeling threatened by both Sorokin and the two security guards, Williams offered her own card as a placeholder on the promise that she would NOT be charged and that the
bill would be settled by Sorokin once her financial affairs were in order. Williams returned home the next day before Sorokin (in the show, it’s depicted more as a last-ditch attempt at freedom with Noah.) This was when Williams realized something horrifying- her card had been charged for the trip, all sixty two thousand dollars of it. And to make it even worse, both her personal card and Vanity Fair work card were completely maxed.
In response to asking how he would feel if a friend did this to him, Lafayette High School sophomore Brandon Portillo said, “I think that I would feel betrayed, in a way, depending on how willing they are to pay me back and, like, show me that it was a mistake and that they didn’t mean for it to happen, I would be willing to forgive them. However, it’s still an uncomfortable situation to be in, since they did charge my bank account.”
High school junior Grace Oldenburg, after being asked the same question, said, “All of my trust for this person would go out the window, I would say that. Well, I probably would never vacation with this friend ever again. If I could add anything else, it would be that I wouldn’t trust this person when it comes to finances.”
The show continues to delve deeper into Sorokin and her life whilst masquerading as Delvey. Even Sorokin’s defense attorney, Todd Spodek, makes an appearance played by an actor as the show investigates the legal trouble Sorokin had to deal with after Williams reported her as a fraud to the police.
Overall, the show is a work of both fact and fiction, a beautifully tragic and unconventional riches to rags story. Some may say that Sorokin deserved what she got: four to twelve years in federal prison, in fact. Others hail Sorokin as a deliciously cunning entrepreneur who managed to cheat the system, after all, you would think that the hot shots running New York would be smart enough not to just trust some random girl claiming to be worth millions. However, Julia Garner’s portrayal of Anna Sorokin was done well and the show was of high production quality. I couldn’t fit a quarter of what the show covered in this article, so I highly encourage you to read the original articles, or watch Inventing Anna on Netflix, and if you don’t have a Netflix account, I’m sure you could convince someone to let you onto theirs.
