The Real Anna Delvey Has Some Thoughts About ‘Inventing Anna'

"I don't think I order people around as much"

US-CRIME-JUSTICE-FRAUD-SOROKIN
Timothy A. Clary via Getty Images

Anna Delvey/Sorokin, the inspiration for the titular character of the hit Netflix Shondaland show "Inventing Anna," sat down to watch the show — and she has thoughts.

“I think I’m more self-aware of the way I come across, not all of the time, but I just don’t think that I’m so brazen and shameless,” Sorokin told Cosmopolitan reporter Emily Palmer, who has also covered Sorokin's financial crimes for the New York Times since 2019.

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Palmer and Sorokin set up a time to screen the show together over video chat, according to Cosmopolitan — and Palmer was able to get live reactions from Sorokin while watching the episodes.

"I personally moved on a very long time ago," Sorokin told Palmer. "I'm absolutely not in the same place, but I'm also being affected by the way the world is seeing me, and what people think of me."

The show has inspired lots of media reactions, including a "Saturday Night Live" sketch with Chloe Fineman impersonating an Anna Delvey-esque version of herself titled, "Inventing Chloe."

In May 2018, Jessica Pressler, a New York magazine journalist, turned Sorokin's tale into a story for the magazine — which, in turn, inspired Shonda Rhimes to create a (slightly fabricated) show about her life and crimes.

Since the release of the show, audiences are doubly fascinated by her tale and how the real Anna compares to Julia Garner's realistic representation of her in the show.

Sorokin is now released on parole after spending four years in prison for scamming hotels, banks and her friends out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

After six weeks of parole, she was taken into federal custody for overstaying her visa. Now, she is still in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention at Orange County Correctional Facility in NY, where she is fighting deportation from Germany.

When Sorokin watched the show with Palmer, she said that in some aspects, she has moved on from this story, and in some other ways, she has not. 

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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