‘Making Anna’: Netflix hits vs reality – BBC News

While Anna was arrested and awaiting trial, Netflix signed a $320,000 deal for the rights to adapt Anna’s story.

The nine-episode “Creating Anna” series became the top-grossing English-language drama immediately after it went live on Netflix this month, with 196 million hours watched in its first week.

Next, we take a look at the main characters in “Creating Anna” to see how the TV series portrays the socialite scam scandal, and how the plot differs from real people and events.

“Creating Anna” tells Anna’s story from the perspective of journalist Vivian Kent. Vivian’s character is set roughly according to New York Magazine, which first disclosed Anna’s true story. Reporter Jessica Pressler.

In the TV series, Vivian, played by Anna Chlumsky, visited Anna in prison many times, and was deeply attracted by Anna’s story, hoping to discover the insider and reveal it to the world to become a successful person reporter.

But in fact, although Jessica Pressler has visited Anna many times in prison and made Anna’s story public, she herself was already a successful reporter and writer before that. The Hollywood hit Hustlers, starring Jennifer Lopez, is based on an article she wrote earlier.

Anna Sorokin, a Russian-born, German citizen, played by Julia Garner, skillfully captures Anna’s distinctive accent and slightly direct way of speaking.

Anna was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison in 2019 for a number of fraud and theft-related charges. She was released in February 2021 after serving nearly four years in prison (two years before the trial). After her release, she was very high-profile. Appeared in many media interviews and hired a cameraman to profess to make his own TV show.

She also shared her past experiences in New York’s celebrity circle on social media, but weeks after her release, she was arrested again, this time for overstaying her U.S. visa, and she is still in prison. Deportation appealed.

Rachel DeLoache Williams was another well-known figure besides Anna herself when the fake socialite Anna infiltrated high society in New York’s high society fraud scandal The editor, after getting acquainted with Anna, also began to mingle with the high society of New York.

Rachel and Anna once went on vacation to Morocco together. The six nights of luxury vacation cost like water. Later, when Rachel received a bill of $62,000, she cried to the court and stated to the court that she thought Anna would cover all the expenses, and Said she was also a victim, suffering from stress and anxiety due to unexpected debts.

Rachel in Netflix’s “Creating Anna” is not cute, she is portrayed as shallow, vain and self-righteous, the real Rachel published a book “My Friend Anna” after the scam broke out ( My Friend Anna), which tells her own version of the story, and HBO is discussing plans to adapt the book into a show.

The real Rachel had no praise for Netflix’s “Creating Anna” series, and she also published an opinion piece criticizing Netflix for “doing PR work for a scammer.”

In the real world, Casey is a high-end fitness trainer who has coached many Hollywood stars on how to work out, including Dakota Johnson, Bruce Willis and Kirsten Kirsten Dunst, Anna hired her as a fitness trainer for $300 per class.

The employment relationship lasted for a while with the proceeds of Anna’s bank fraud. Kathy was not defrauded herself, but she suffered food poisoning on a trip to Morocco and returned to the United States early to avoid having to pay the bills. disaster.

Kathy was satisfied with her character in “Creating Anna,” and said she liked Laverne Cox, who played her.

Neff Davis is a concierge clerk at the 11 Howard Hotel, where Anna lives a luxurious life and owes a lot of bills, but in the meantime, she spends money on the attendants to show off her wealth .

After Anna was arrested, Neff seemed to sympathize with her. After Netflix’s “Creating Anna” aired, Neff said on social media, “Although I disagree with everything you do, I can’t forget you.”

Ana’s attorney, Todd Spodek, who received a lot of attention during the trial, had a strategy in his defence of Ana’s fraud case by portraying Ana as a “successful” person, arguing that what Ana did Everything is done for success in the big city of New York.

In the “Creating Anna” TV series, Todd took on Anna’s defense commission in order to become famous. In the real world, he did get the title of “false lady’s lawyer” for this reason.

Todd, Casey, Neff, and others also served as consultants for Netflix’s “Creating Anna.”

Todd told the BBC that Arian Moayed, who played him on the show, was doing a great job, but it was not true that the show said he was taking on a defense commission for free. In fact, there is no such thing as helping him organize the interrogation materials.

“When I took over Anna’s defense work, there was no media attention to this case at that time, and Anna’s case did not attract media attention until later. That said, when you hear that German fake ladies are involved in fraud, you I know there is a good show to watch.”