Actress Julia Garner has revealed that she actually met Anna Delvey, the con woman she plays in the Netflix hit drama Inventing Anna.
In a cover interview for Marie Claire Australia's March 2022 issue, the 28-year-old actress spoke about her bizarre prison meeting with the woman who pretended to be a wealthy German heiress.
Garner Met Real Life Fake Heiress In Prison
Ozark actress Julia Garner told the story about how Anna Delvey, 31, had bluntly asked her: "How are you going to play me? Can you do me right now?"
She found this question hilarious: 'It was very intimidating, but when I just repeated what she was saying, she thought it was so funny,' Julia told the fashion magazine.
Russian-born Delvey, real surname Sorokin, gained notoriety after she pretended to be a German heiress and scammed wealthy New Yorkers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
'They don't have to agree with what she did, but they should be open and willing to understand why she did it. People make mistakes and Anna is a person,' Garner explained, citing that she never wanted to turn the woman into a joke or parody. ' I don’t think she sees a difference between being hungry and being ambitious.'
German Heiress Scammed The Wealthy To Fund Lifestyle
Between 2013 and 2017, she defrauded banks, hotels, socialites and friends out of a total of $275,000 to fund her lavish lifestyle. The Shonda Rhimes nine-part drama investigates how she conned the elite out of their wealth.
Delvey was finally arrested in October 2017 and was found guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny, in April 2019. The Russian-born scammer was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison and was released in February 2021, before being imprisoned again for overstaying her American visa.
Admitting it was surreal to meet the woman she had been playing for so long. 'She’s very funny, when you meet her in real life, and so I knew there had to be that comedic aspect to the show. Very funny, very likable, and she wanted to talk, as much as she was able to.' Garner understands how so many people fell for her charm, believing she would be quite fun to hang out with.
