Inventing Anna: Real-life Rachel Williams condemns ‘dangerous half-truths’

Williams said show creates ‘problematic’ empathy for a ‘sociopathic, narcissistic, proven criminal’

Journalist Rachel DeLoache Williams has criticised Inventing Anna for its blurring of fact and fiction.

The new Netflix series, which was released on Friday (11 February), chronicles the rise and fall of scammer Anna Sorokin, played by Ozark star Julia Garner.

Inventing Anna tells the true story of Sorokin, a twenty-something socialite who was convicted of fraud and grand larceny after she conned friends and big banks out of hundreds and thousands of dollars by posing as a rich heiress under the surname Delvey.

The Williams character first appears in episode six of the series, played by Katie Lowes, as the show goes on to document a disastrous holiday that the real-life Williams went on with Sorokin in 2017.

Williams was a photojournalist at Vanity Fair when she struck up a friendship with Sorokin.

The journalist wrote in detail about her Marrakesh trip in a 2018 article for Vanity Fair titled “My Bright-Lights Misadventure with a Magician of Manhattan” and in the 2019 book, My Friend Anna. The rights to Williams’s story have been bought by HBO with Girls star Lena Dunham attached to the project.

Williams, who was not involved in the Netflix production and who was herself conned out of $62,000 by Sorokin, told Vanity Fair in a new interview: “I think promoting this whole narrative and celebrating a sociopathic, narcissistic, proven criminal is wrong.”

She added: “Having had a front-row seat for far too long, I’ve studied the way a con works more than anybody needs to. You watch the spectacle, but you’re not paying attention to what’s being marketed.”

Katie Lowes plays Williams in ‘Inventing Anna’ (Netflix / YouTube / ABC News)

Williams also argued that the Netflix series blurs fact and fiction in a concerning way. “This story is completely true, except for all the parts that aren’t,” reads the disclaimer in the show.

Williams said: “I think it’s worth exploring at what point a half-truth is more dangerous than a lie. That disclaimer gives the show enough credibility so that people can believe [the fictional elements] more easily. I think that’s really dangerous territory.

“Plus, it affected real-time criminal-justice proceedings.”

She said that the narrative is “designed to create empathy for a character who lacks it” and called the whole project “very problematic”.

Williams said of her own experience: “This is the hardest thing I’ve gone through – the betrayal as much as the money. Having been betrayed by someone I trusted – and to have been betrayed in a huge way.

“Her entire identity had been a complete sham. That really sends you into a ricochet of memories, looking back trying to look for all the signs you missed.”

You can read more about what exactly is fact and what is fiction in Inventing Anna here.