The real journalist behind Vivian in Inventing Anna on what the show gets wrong
Much of the hype around Inventing Anna has involved people looking into what fact and what's fiction when it comes to the adaptation of Anna Delvey/Sorokin's story. Now, the real life journalist who inspired Vivian Kent has spoken out about the inaccuracies in the show.
The Shonda Rhimes series has been trending on Netflix for weeks, following its release in early February. The drama is based on a New York Magazine article by journalist Jessica Pressler, about conwoman Anna, who defrauded New York's elite out of thousands of dollars by convincing them she was a Russian/German heiress.
Pressler was the inspiration for Vivian (played by Anna Clumsky) in the show, and has spoken to Vulture about what it's like to watch the story unfold on TV. "I think it was always going to be not me," Pressler says of Vivian.
"The show is fictionalised, and the character is a guide to this universe. When I met Anna Chlumsky, she was like, 'I’m not doing you,' and I was like, 'Great!' Vivian is like an all-caps angry email of me, but there are things that are very real mixed into it."
Pressler also said the bosses at her real-life magazine were portrayed quite differently on the show. "I think the show bosses are a stand-in for patriarchal offices in general. But this is a thing where fact is braided with fiction. It was not a no-brainer to do an 8,000-word story about a non-famous person. It might be now."
Oh, and sadly? There was no mystery wall with her piecing together all of the bits of Anna's story. Damn.
Inventing Anna is now available on Netflix.
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