She pretended to be a rich German heiress and cheated New York high society, banks and hotels out of a total of almost $300,000: The antics of the impostor Anna Sorokin not only made headlines, but also gave Netflix plenty of explosive material for the series released in 2022. Inventing Anna”. But the role model of an important figure is now accusing the streaming provider of deviating from the truth itself – and has filed a lawsuit.
Former Vanity Fair editor Rachel Williams was friends with Sorokin and later played a key role in the scammer’s exposure. However, she is not at all enthusiastic about her own portrayal in the series. Her lawsuit alleges she was misrepresented on the show as “unethical,” “greedy,” “snobish,” and “disloyal.”
In fact, Rachel Williams’ character (played by Katie Lowes) doesn’t come off well on the show: she gladly accepts expensive gifts, but later betrays her friend in court without hesitation. Williams, on the other hand, emphasizes that she herself was swindled out of $62,000 by Sorokin and ended the friendship when she found out about the scam. She therefore sees herself primarily as a victim.
To the “Hollywood Reporter” Williams said, “Netflix intentionally used my real name and real aspects of my life to create a totally false and defamatory characterization of me. The truth means something and it takes a sense of responsibility to portray real people.”
Series creator Shonda Rhimes had an interview with “Hollywood Reporter” admitted that the series also contains a lot of fictional elements: “There were things that we invented because they had to be invented to really make the story ring out and make it what it was supposed to be.”
Sorokin was arrested in 2017, Williams assisted the authorities. She publicized her experience with Sorokin herself in an article for Vanity Fair and later wrote about it in the book My Friend Anna: The True Story of How Anna Sorokin Screwed Me and Half of New York.