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Inventing Anna vs the “Real” Anna

Whimsy

By Whimsy
in Inventing Anna

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Whimsy

Whimsy

I thought it would be fun to talk about the show vs what we’ve seen on other documentary shows or read in articles, etc. Especially since the show makes sure to point out to say that “The whole story is completely true,  except for the parts that are totally made up”.  This story is already so complex, I don’t know why anything needs to be made up. 
 

I quoted “real” because I don’t think anyone will ever know the real Anna. 

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Melina22

Melina22

I was really surprised that they changed the real story so much. It's a long time since I read the book but I feel like they've made up lots of characters. 

For example the reporter who's one of the main characters... I could be wrong but I don't think she's real. The same goes for the various "friends". 

I'm only on episode 3, but so far only Anna seems to be real, apart from a brief mention of an ex-friend called Rachel. Someone called Rachel Williams wrote the book I read. She was a journalist. 

 

 

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Whimsy

Whimsy

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1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

I was really surprised that they changed the real story so much. It's a long time since I read the book but I feel like they've made up lots of characters. 

For example the reporter who's one of the main characters... I could be wrong but I don't think she's real. The same goes for the various "friends". 

I'm only on episode 3, but so far only Anna seems to be real, apart from a brief mention of an ex-friend called Rachel. Someone called Rachel Williams wrote the book I read. She was a journalist. 

 

 

I’ve done some reading on the show vs real life and more of it was real than I thought. Neff, Stacy, Rachel (keep watching) and even her boyfriend (although unnamed in articles) we’re all real. The journalist (Vivian in the show) is based on the real journalist Jessica Pressier (I’ll post the article in the media page). Enough is the same, and the real Jessica was an executive producer, that I’m not sure why Vivian was made up. 

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Melina22

Melina22

That's interesting! I sensed the various friends were based on real people only with different names. Certainly the general gist of the story was the same. 

Having read the book and seen various documentaries, I'm very satisfied with the portrayal of Anna in this show, right down to the accent that appears to annoy several people. Julia's whole affect and way of speaking is SO close to the real Anna. The expressions on the faces of journalists doing the real interviews are so similar to what we see on the show... half annoyed, half fascinated. 

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Melina22

Melina22

Now that I've watched the whole series, after reading Rachel's book, I can say that I thought its depiction of Rachel was fair in how it showed both sides of Rachel's story. 

On the one hand, Anna treated Rachel terribly. She invited her on a lavish vacation she had no way of paying for, then stuck her with the bill, knowing Rachel couldn't possibly afford it. To me, that was criminal. 

On the other hand, I felt Rachel really overreacted in many ways, considering Amex eventually forgave the debt, and she ended up making huge amounts of money from the story. Despite this, she kept repeating that it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. And if this is true, her life hasn't been that bad.

The book left me with mixed feelings about Rachel which were well expressed in the last episode. 

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FozzyBear

FozzyBear

23 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

Now that I've watched the whole series, after reading Rachel's book, I can say that I thought its depiction of Rachel was fair in how it showed both sides of Rachel's story. 

On the one hand, Anna treated Rachel terribly. She invited her on a lavish vacation she had no way of paying for, then stuck her with the bill, knowing Rachel couldn't possibly afford it. To me, that was criminal. 

On the other hand, I felt Rachel really overreacted in many ways, considering Amex eventually forgave the debt, and she ended up making huge amounts of money from the story. Despite this, she kept repeating that it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. And if this is true, her life hasn't been that bad.

The book left me with mixed feelings about Rachel which were well expressed in the last episode. 

Does the book get into her relationship with Neff? Did they actually know each other? I kept trying to figure out what the tension between them on the show was about but I couldn’t quite figure it out. At times it almost seemed like they were competing for Anna’s attention and resented each other as competition.  I guess maybe they just didn’t like each other. I have to say on both the show and in interviews I’ve read, neither come out great. Rachel does seem sort naïve and self involved and Neff seems a bit callous.

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Melina22

Melina22

I have zero recollection of anyone called Neff! If she was in the book at all, she must not have played a big part. Same goes for Kacy. The scene where Anna sits in her lobby did ring a bell, but the name didn't. I need to reread the book obviously. 

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SparedTurkey

SparedTurkey

13 hours ago, Melina22 said:

On the other hand, I felt Rachel really overreacted in many ways, considering Amex eventually forgave the debt, and she ended up making huge amounts of money from the story. Despite this, she kept repeating that it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. And if this is true, her life hasn't been that bad.

If the debt wasn't wiped and she didn't earn money for her story (I have assumed that is true) then I'd be pissed Anna got a not guilty for that. Not that what Anna did was right.

I think it would have helped if the show depicted more of the bald faced terror of being in a foreign country, not speaking the language and owing that amount of money when you don't have it. I'm sure that could have resonated with many people who have travelled and misjudged exchange rates or just had a total moment of stupidity and anyone who hasn't had that feeling is lucky. I reckon Rachel would have been justifiably scared in Morocco and if that drove her to help in getting Anna arrested - I understand that being a motive more than even being upset about the theft that had already been wiped. The show just made it look like a couple of air conditioned car rides and a few tears.

 

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FozzyBear

FozzyBear

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5 hours ago, SparedTurkey said:

If the debt wasn't wiped and she didn't earn money for her story (I have assumed that is true) then I'd be pissed Anna got a not guilty for that. Not that what Anna did was right.

I think it would have helped if the show depicted more of the bald faced terror of being in a foreign country, not speaking the language and owing that amount of money when you don't have it. I'm sure that could have resonated with many people who have travelled and misjudged exchange rates or just had a total moment of stupidity and anyone who hasn't had that feeling is lucky. I reckon Rachel would have been justifiably scared in Morocco and if that drove her to help in getting Anna arrested - I understand that being a motive more than even being upset about the theft that had already been wiped. The show just made it look like a couple of air conditioned car rides and a few tears.

 

According to the Fake Heiress podcast Rachel’s debt was forgiven but it took two years. The time line gets a little confusing for me but I think when she was working with the police and selling her story she didn’t know if it would be forgiven or not. I actually agree with the not-guilty verdict about stealing from Rachel, Anna didn’t force her or produce false documents or deposit bad checks like she did in other cases, but still did scam her. If I was in my twenties left with debt I couldn’t possibly pay and my reputation in shatters and the only way out was to cooperate with police and sell my story, I’d do it. Anna was guilty! No matter how annoying Rachel may have been it wasn’t her fault Anna was guilty.

i think one of the biggest tools the scam artist has is everyone’s fear of looking dumb. Public embarrassment is such a powerful fear that many people will convince themselves that the victims of scams are at fault and had it coming. It makes us all feel like we would be smarter, but we don’t know that and we probably wouldn’t be. But we want to believe it so we blame the victims instead of the criminals. Tapping into that fear seemed to be one of Anna’s strengths. She allowed people to feel superior to the ones crying fowl and therefore dismiss all the red flags about her behavior and story.

Edited by FozzyBear
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FozzyBear

FozzyBear

15 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I feel like in the end the only person worth rooting for was Jack, Vivian's husband. I hope he divorced her and took the baby tbh.

Ha! Vivian really did seem pretty terrible by the end. Did anyone look at her judgment here and think maybe she did screw up that story about the young kid and the stock market? I mean if she can get taken in this far by Anna…

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Whimsy

Whimsy

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I just rewatched the 20/20 episode on Rachel vs Anna.  I had seen it when it first aired and that’s why I went into this series already against Anna and on Rachel’s side. The real Rachel comes off better and more sincere than the character Rachel. But, what I came here to say is rewatching this make me just cringe at the “fashion show” in the courtroom they referred to both in the series and in the 20/20 episode because, to me, Anna still looked dirty and unkempt with greasy, unstyled hair. They showed several outfits that were not nice so it’s so confusing to me that anyone was impressed by what she wore. 

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Melina22

Melina22

56 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Do you know the episode number? I wanna watch it.

Sorry, I don't know the number, but it was worth watching. It was my introduction to Anna Delvey. After seeing it I got Rachel's book, which I can't totally recommend. Sooo much boring filler, but the parts about Anna were interesting. 

On 2/20/2022 at 5:56 PM, Whimsy said:

Anna still looked dirty and unkempt with greasy, I styled hair. They showed several outfits that were not nice so it’s so confusing to me that anyone was impressed by what she wore. 

She definitely didn't look that great, partly because she was forbidden to wear makeup in court. 

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Adiba

Adiba

On 3/2/2022 at 10:40 PM, xaxat said:

 Alexis Floyd (who played Neff) and Neffatari Davis (Who is the real life "Neff") had a conversation.

Gimme a break, real-life Neff. Anna got away with much because she's a good con. "Con" for confidence, that is--she knows how to draw people in, apparently. Also, Anna's weird accent and European identity helped muddy the waters in vetting her. And if Anna is all "alone" in America, why doesn't she just go back to Germany, as her criminal sentence requires, instead of staying in a NJ jail and suing because she got covid? All the while, the taxpayers paying for her because she does not have money left from selling the rights to her story. Her lawyer argues that Anna should be able to stay here because she has a "business" (!) and a place to live. Huh??

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Lakebum

Lakebum

On 2/18/2022 at 11:49 AM, ichbin said:

I'm confused.  Were we supposed to ultimately feel sorry for Anna? Hard to find someone to root for in this bunch of morally ambiguous characters.  

 

 

Agreed. I think that Anna should have to pay back every cent she stole, scammed, conned, etc. BUT the people she conned shouldn't get any of that money back. Maybe there should be a special fund for this sort of circumstance, and it could be used for good in some way.

I'm so glad I'm just an observer (via television, no less) and not an active participant in that particular world, because it is closer to Hell than anything in The Exorcist and The Omen combined. ALL of these people suck.

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kwnyc

kwnyc

On 2/18/2022 at 6:19 PM, peachmangosteen said:

I feel like in the end the only person worth rooting for was Jack, Vivian's husband. I hope he divorced her and took the baby tbh.

OTOH, he's a sculptor, which probably means Vivian supported him AND had him on her health insurance! (IRL, Pressler's husband is also a writer at NY Magazine.)

 

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Zonk

Zonk

This is bit meta, but god damn it, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

On reddit this show came up and a circle jerk started about how Garner nailed the accent of the real Anna. When I said that it wasn't accurate at all, I got downvoted to hell. I know a lot of people here agreed that it was a hard miss, so how can that be? Are people on reddit just too young and haven't heard many accents yet?

To reiterate, the real Anna has an accent that is a mix of german and russian. Garner, while being really good at Anna's affect and intonation, does an accent that is half Ozark and half all over the place (there was some irish, some english, but surprisingly little german or russian).

I know she said that her process was to try and combine a german and russian accent, but she obviously failed at it. Pretty hard.

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Zonk

Zonk

On 2/15/2022 at 8:55 PM, Melina22 said:

Despite this, she kept repeating that it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. And if this is true, her life hasn't been that bad.

To be fair, being stuck in another country, with a not so great justice- and prisonsystem must be traumatic. But yeah, seems like she lived a pretty sheltered life up until that point. I think they pointed that out during the trial.

 

 

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dubbel zout

dubbel zout

On 2/12/2022 at 9:06 PM, Whimsy said:

Enough is the same, and the real Jessica was an executive producer, that I’m not sure why Vivian was made up. 

I think so they could juice up Vivian's story. This wasn't a documentary, so liberties inevitably were taken.

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