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Anna Sorokin criticises Netflix’s ‘Inventing Anna’ portrayal of her life

It's the series that everyone's talking about

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Inventing Anna ‘star’ Anna Sorokin has slammed the hit Netflix show.

The scam heiress has got plenty of headlines thanks to the nine-part series.

And she hasn’t stayed silent about the show that has dramatised her life.

Real life star of Inventing Anna on Netflix - Anna Sorokin - talks to Australian news programme 60 Minutes
What has Anna said about the Netflix series? (Credit: 60 Minutes)

Anna Sorokin on Inventing Anna – the series that told her story

Inventing Anna dramatises the incredible story of scammer Anna Sorokin, who introduced herself to the New York social elite as German heiress Anna Delvey.

The 31-year-old Russian-born German national was jailed for up to 12 years after being found guilty of grand larceny in 2019.

Read more: The real Anna Delvey article – and real journalist behind Vivian Kent in Inventing Anna

Before then she had wreaked havoc – swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars from hotels, banks and the super-rich.

But while we’ve heard from her BFF Neff and journalist Jessica Pressler – who broke the story in New York Magazine that led to Anna’s downfall – what has Anna had to say about the whole story?

Scam heiress Anna Sorokin being interviewed in Inventing Anna
Scam heiress Anna Sorokin being interviewed in Inventing Anna (Credit: Netflix)

What did Anna say in the BBC Newsnight interview?

Currently in ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody, she hasn’t exactly been silent.

During a BBC Newsnight interview in March (2021), it was revealed she was paid $320,000 by Netflix to adapt her story.

Asked if crime pays, she said: “In a way, it did.

“I never asked for Netflix to buy my story, it just happened.

“And everything else, it just spun out of my control. It’s not like I orchestrated anything.”

However, in another interview with the New York Times, she clarified her position.

“To reference that BBC interview where I was asked ‘Does crime pay?’, I could not honestly say ‘no’ in my situation, because I did get paid.

“I didn’t say that crime pays in general.”

In the same interview, she said she felt “sorry” she resorted to the actions people think she’s glorifying now.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I would have changed lots of things, but this is just not how life works,” she continued.

Anna also revealed that much of the fee she received from Netflix has been spent on “restitution and legal fees”.

Anna Sorokin is interviewed by Australian news show 60 Minutes
Anna says she can’t watch the show (Credit: 60 Minutes)

Has Anna seen the Netflix show?

Reacting to the Netflix series as a whole, Anna wrote an essay for Insider.

She wrote it from her ICE cell in Goshen, Florida, after her release from prison early but re-arrest for visa violations.

Anna revealed that she has not – and cannot – watch the show.

“Even if I were to pull some strings and make it happen, nothing about seeing a fictionalised version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum setting sounds appealing to me,” Anna wrote.

Read more: Inventing Anna on Netflix: Who’s in the cast and which characters are based on real people?

She also said that the series was four years in the making and that the fact it’s from a journalist’s point of view holds no interest for her.

“And while I’m curious to see how they interpreted all the research and materials provided, I can’t help but feel like an afterthought, the sombre irony of being confined to a cell at yet another horrid correctional facility lost between the lines, the history repeating itself,” she wrote.

How con-artist Anna Sorokin ripped off the New York elite and became a star  | 60 Minutes Australia

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

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