‘Inventing Anna’: Julia Garner Says ‘Everything’s Fake’ About Her Appearance as Fraudster Anna Sorokin in the Netflix Series
Anna Sorokin/Delvey conned New York’s elite into giving her money for the Anna Delvey foundation, which never existed. Now, Julia Garner is playing a fictionalized version of the con artist in the Netflix series Inventing Anna. Becoming the Russian-born faux-German heiress took more than a Russian-German accent on Garner’s part – becoming Delvey required a team of people because, as Garner put it, “everything’s fake.”
Julia Garner was ‘nervous’ about pulling off Anna Sorokin’s look
Per an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Garner admitted she was nervous about accurately becoming Sorokin, whose face has been on newsstands across the nation. “I look nothing like her,” she told the outlet.
But Garner has transformed for other roles before, like Ruth Langmore in the gripping Netflix series Ozark. “Given the real Anna Delvey has many different sides to her, Julia felt like the absolute right choice,” said showrunner Shonda Rhimes.
“Everything’s fake,” Garner explained of her look for Inventing Anna. “I have the wig, butt padding, like, four cutlets — two on each boob.” At Garner’s suggestion, fake teeth were added to more accurately capture Sorokin’s “baby doll face.” Said Garner, “I put them in, and not only did it change the teeth aspect, it made my face rounder.”
Julia Garner’s accent is also fake in ‘Inventing Anna’
Sorokin has a very particular accent; one Garner described to Jimmy Fallon as a “girl saying that she’s German, but she’s really Russian.”
“The accent was a job on its own because it gives so much away of the character,” Garner told Entertainment Weekly. “You don’t know where she’s from; you don’t know who she is. She’s a mystery.”
Garner filmed Inventing Anna and season 4 of Ozark at the same time. As she explained to Town and Country, “playing those two parts at the same time was probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life.” She added, “Those are not easy women.”
Julia Garner’s dedication to playing Anna Sorokin is 100% authentic
Garner doesn’t agree with a lot of the things Sorokin did, but she wanted to play the part as accurately as she could so audiences would “see what made [Sorokin] be in that situation.” And as Rhimes pointed out: “I am not advocating for the laws that she broke, but ultimately she was hustling for what she believed to be her American dream.”
To honor Sorokin in that way, Garner spent time visiting her in prison. Sorokin was convicted in May 2019 on eight counts, including grand larceny, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison (via ABC).
Garner also watched interviews with Sorokin while preparing for the role. As the Ozark actor explained to Town and Country, she became so engrossed in Sorokin’s psyche, it became one with her own.
“My anxiety was through the roof,” she told the outlet. “I realized it was because Anna had really bad anxiety.” Garner’s husband, Mark Foster, even caught her sleep-talking in Sorokin’s accent.
See Garner in Inventing Anna beginning Feb. 11, 2022 exclusively on Netflix.
