Anna Sorokin, better known as Anna Delvey, is back in the news thanks to Inventing Anna, currently streaming on Netflix.
Since Jessica Pressler first put out her article about the ‘fake German heiress’ in The Cut, the world has been captivated. How did somebody who lacked the education, pedigree, and connections to enter New York’s elite smash through the social barriers not only to be considered one of society’s ‘It’ girls but put herself in the running for a $40 million investment, while defrauding the people around her for as long as she did?
Sorokin’s run hit a speedbump after a trip to La Mamounia, a luxurious resort in Marrakech, in 2016. She was accompanied by her personal trainer, who wasn’t named in the original article but was later revealed to be fitness powerhouse Kacy Duke, as well as Rachel Williams, a photo editor at Vanity Fair that she’d befriended, and a videographer to document the trip.
La Mamounia in Marrakech, Morrocco
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Julia Garner (Anna Delvey,) Katie Lowes (Rachel), and Laverne Cox (Kacy Duke)
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Julia Garner (Anna Delvey) and Christopher Lowell (Noah, the videographer)
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Sorokin’s cards were repeatedly declined and Williams put hers down on the understanding that Sorokin would pay her back. She never did and after months of begging, Williams went to the authorities who already had Sorokin on their radar.
Before the world ground to a halt during the pandemic, Cosmo ME met up with stars Julia Garner (Anna Delvey), Laverne Cox (Kacy Duke), Katie Lowes (Rachel Williams), and Christopher Lowell (Noah, the videographer) onset in Marrakech to discuss the woman behind the phenomenon.
During our talk Garner is in full Delvey hair and make-up, so to sit next to her after devouring all available articles on Sorokin is a bit unnerving, particularly since Sorokin still remained an enigma. How do you play someone that nobody really knows?
Here’s what the Inventing Anna cast really think of Anna Delvey
Discussing meeting Sorokin, Garner said, “I was surprised how funny she was, which makes her very likable. She’s hard to read, so that’s been a little challenging. That’s what made her hard to play. Obviously, I’m trying not to play this character as one-note as a sociopath or party girl. It’s so much deeper than that.”
What makes Garner’s performance so compelling is perfecting Sorokin’s accent. “Not knowing everything about her even ties into her accent – you don’t really know where she’s from. I started with the German accent and then I had to put Russian in there, but in a way that I had to hide that I was Russian, but still have to have certain influences. The letter ‘L’ is more Russian sounding. But then, she’s a European person trying to sound American.”
Sorokin compensated for the lack of readily available information about her by choosing what outsiders could know with a carefully curated Instagram feed. It was a highlight reel of a seemingly perfect life which is so common on social media, coinciding with the idea that this life is attainable, provided you work for it. Currently, #hustle and #grind have been used on 28.7 million and 24.8 million posts respectively.
Julia Garner (Anna Delvey) and Katie Lowes (Rachel)
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The flip side is that if you are battling poverty or are disadvantaged in any way and you don’t reach certain levels of success by a certain age, you simply haven’t leveraged your talents, work ethic, and available hours in the day, a sentiment that recently backfired on Love Island participant Molly-Mae Hague.
Lowell, much like his character Noah, takes a very pragmatic stance. “I think she wanted that lifestyle. She learned how to harness social media hype, and in a lot of ways exposed how vapid it is and how little you actually need to make it look like you are living the life of everyone’s dreams.”
She exploited this tool to the point where she was able to recreate herself, taking steps she thought were necessary to pursue her dream. The Anna Delvey Foundation was to be an exclusive art club that would house galleries, restaurants, and even hotel rooms for its members. She wanted to expand into Los Angeles, London, Dubai, and Hong Kong. The potential was immense.
Granted, what she did was criminal and dishonest, but she is not the first to do it or even the first to be caught. But because she was essentially a ‘nobody,’ an example needed to be made of the young, foreign woman who’d embarrassed so many financial institutions. If it were a bad business concept, she wouldn’t have got as far along the financial due diligence process as she did.
Julia Garner (Anna Delvey)
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“There’s something so ‘right now’ about this story and the American Dream,” said Cox. “When I read about Anna Delvey falsifying assets to get a loan, I couldn’t help but think about the President of the United States [Donald Trump] and how he is alleged to have overvalued properties for loans but undervalued them for taxes. So often the American dream is tied up with corruption.”
It’s difficult not to have a begrudging admiration for Sorokin, as Lowes aptly put it. “There’s something so Robin Hood about her. We love watching her work the system and take it down and I think people are going to feel conflicted. Rachel is also pretty polarising. Some people are really going to understand and like her, some people are going to think she made a huge mistake and should pay for it. She put it into a book and made her own money, and I think people are going to judge her for that.”
For Lowell, there was a definite feeling of schadenfreude. Living in Soho he knows the featured hotels and restaurants and how they gatekeep their entry, which Sorokin manipulated with ease. “You want those people who think they’re untouchable to get knocked down to size. It’s an interesting story for the show because she’s our hero and yet what she’s doing is so immoral. When you’re reading through the script, you want her to get away with it. You want to see how far she can go.”
Chris Lowell (Noah)
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Following a guilty sentence for eight out of 10 charges of second-degree grand larceny, theft of services, and one count of first-degree attempted grand larceny, and for defrauding banks and hotels, Anna Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, was released in February 2021 before being detained by ICE for overstaying her visa. She is currently still in custody.