Despite the excitement surrounding Netflix’s miniseries, Inventing Anna, the real-life figure behind the story, Anna Sorokin (also known as Anna Delvey), didn’t watch. This miniseries delve into the true story of Delvey, a notorious con artist who defrauded New York’s elite out of millions. Debuted on Netflix on February 11, 2022, the series features Ozark’s Julia Garner in the role of Delvey, alongside a talented cast that includes Anna Chlumsky, Anna Deavere Smith, Anders Holm, and Katie Lowes.
Directed by Shonda Rhimes, Inventing Anna draws inspiration from Jessica Pressler’s article, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People.” This series delves into the dramatic rise and fall of Anna Sorokin, who masqueraded as a wealthy German heiress named Delvey to embezzle millions.
After deceiving New York’s high society, her web of lies ultimately unraveled, resulting in her arrest and conviction on eight counts of larceny and theft. The notorious con artist received a prison sentence of 4 to 12 years and was released in February 2021.
However, her troubles didn’t end there. She was swiftly taken into ICE custody for overstaying her visa, where she remains to this day. Anna Delvey revealed her reasons for not watching Inventing Anna. She noted that as audiences engage with Garner’s fictional representation of her life, she is still incarcerated in a cell at Orange County jail.
Despite the fact that her visa overstay was not her fault, she remains in detention with no visible route to release. Delvey also mentioned that Garner visited her while she was imprisoned, and while she is curious about how Inventing Anna interprets her story, she feels like an afterthought. The series may recount her narrative, but it overlooks the reality of her ongoing situation in ICE custody.
According to Julia Garner, “No, it seems I won’t be watching Inventing Anna anytime soon. Even if I could arrange to see it, the idea of watching a dramatized version of myself in a criminally insane asylum is far from enticing. For a long time, I had hoped that by the time Inventing Anna premiered, I would have moved on with my life. I envisioned the show as a sort of closure, a way to wrap up and finalize a lengthy chapter that had finally come to a close. After nearly four years of effort, countless phone calls, and visits, the show is based on my experiences and narrated from a journalist’s viewpoint. While I am intrigued to see how they have interpreted all the research and materials I provided, I can’t shake the feeling of being an afterthought, the grim irony of being trapped in a cell at yet another dreadful correctional facility, lost within the narrative, as history seems to repeat itself.”
In her essay, Delvey illustrates a rather dismal scenario regarding her time in ICE custody during the COVID-19 crisis. She asserts that she is the only woman in ICE custody at the Orange County jail. Because of the quarantine measures, she frequently remains locked in her cell for weeks, which she describes as a “petri dish for viruses and bacteria.”
The jail suffers from a lack of staff, and she hasn’t seen a qualified doctor in more than four years. Delvey also mentions that fans of Inventing Anna will not witness her new habit of biting the skin around her nails as a way to cope with the monotony of isolation.
Delvey’s choice not to watch Netflix’s Inventing Anna is quite justifiable. The show portray her astonishingly true narrative as a scam artist, but it won’t accurately reflect her present circumstances. During the show’s development, Delvey believed that by the time it aired, she would be out of prison and moving on with her life.
However, her visa overstay and detention with ICE have created further hurdles to her release, even after fulfilling her restitution and serving her sentence. Naturally, Delvey is disinclined to watch Inventing Anna, knowing that her dramatized story will attract public interest while she remains largely forgotten in ICE custody.
While Delvey’s scandal is bound to captivate viewers of Inventing Anna, it remains uncertain how much focus her ongoing situation will garner.