‘Inventing Anna’: Julia Garner On The “Hardest Part” She’s Ever Had [Interview]

Critics might have found fault with Shondra Rhimes‘ admittedly bloated Anna Delvey miniseries “Inventing Anna,” but after early screenings, it was obvious to any member of the media it was going to be a smash. That prediction has easily come to pass with the limited series landing at the top spot of the streaming service the entire weekend. There are two reasons for its buzz-worthy success: Delvey’s own unbelievable story and, most notably, the performance of Emmy-winner Julia Garner as New York’s most notorious scammer.

READ MORE: “Inventing Anna” [Review]

Over the course of a few years, Delvey, whose birth name is Anna Sorokina, convinced some of Manhattan’s biggest power brokers and socialities that she was an heiress to a german fortune. Her goal, to anyone who would listen, was to open the first chapter of the Anna Delvey Foundation, a private club that would be located at the historic 281 Park Avenue building. And, while some would debate how close she came to pulling it off, it was almost a reality. That is until her web of fraudulent wire transfers, unpaid hotel bills, and lies came crashing down around her. Surprisingly, some of the friends she made during her scams stuck by her. And even Jessica Pressler, who authored the first in-depth investigation into Delvey’s life, admittedly still has sympathy for her.

Garner, who has previously demonstrated her enormous talents on “Ozark,” was lucky enough to meet her before filming the series. But she admits it was quite a process to do so. Thankfully, Pressler’s research material turned out to be a goldmine.

“I was very lucky because when we started filming, there was no footage of Anna talking online. Shonda was able to get footage from Jessica Pressler that Jessica Pressler [had] because Jessica Pressler interviewed Anna when she was in prison and taped interviews, hours, and hours of footage,” Garner says. “I also have footage from Morocco and I could get a sense of her from these videos, with her accent and the way that she moves her body. When I met her, I just really wanted to get her spirit and her energy. That was very important. I felt like it made things more conflicting, but at the same time, it made you understand why she was able to do what she did. The fact that she has that likability, she’s very likable, and yet dark. I wanted the audience to flip-flop throughout the whole thing.”

During our interview, which does contain spoilers regarding Delvey’s journey, Garner dives into her thoughts on Anna and gives a tease on the upcoming second half of the final season of “Ozark.”

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The Playlist: Had you heard about Anna before the project came your way?

Julia Garner: Yeah. I first heard about Anna when the whole world was hearing about her. When Jessica Pressler wrote that Cut article. I had the same reaction like the whole world. It was a fascinating article. I felt all the feelings. It wasn’t surprising when I heard that they were going to make a television show about this. Of course, I feel like it’s like a dream to tell the story in a cinematic way. I was surprised that I got cast. I knew that I could play a character like her, but I didn’t know that Hollywood would cast me, honestly. I look nothing like her and sometimes they’re hard to convince, in a way.

What was the process in landing the role?

I had a meeting with Shonda and there wasn’t a proper, proper, audition process, but there was definitely a process. It wasn’t a straight-up offer. We had the meeting and then I didn’t hear about it for a few months, but things take time sometimes. Two months later, I was trying on different wigs and I was just like, “Oh my God.” I’m trying on wigs, putting on a fake pair of teeth, and having this accent. That’s just what it is.

The show does a very good job of demonstrating how well Anna keeps track of her public perception. After you were cast, did you hear from her at all?

Obviously, she was in prison when we started filming this, and with prison visitations, it’s complicated. It’s not like you can just be like, “Yeah, let’s meet for coffee.” It’s not one of those things. You have to get approved and all of that stuff. That was a little bit of a process. I finally got to meet her. I was very lucky because when we started filming, there was no footage of Anna talking online. Shonda was able to get footage from Jessica Pressler that Jessica Pressler [had] because Jessica Pressler interviewed Anna when she was in prison and taped interviews, hours, and hours of footage. I also have footage from Morocco and I could get a sense of her from these videos, with her accent and the way that she moves her body. When I met her, I just really wanted to get her spirit and her energy. That was very important. I felt like it made things more conflicting, but at the same time, it made you understand why she was able to do what she did. The fact that she has that likability, she’s very likable, and yet dark. I wanted the audience to flip-flop throughout the whole thing.

Absolutely. We have sympathy for her, and then we also can’t understand why on Earth anyone would want to support her, which is one of the intriguing ideas in the series.

Then five minutes later you have sympathy for her again. That’s really what I was trying to accomplish, because, again, she’s extremely complicated. She’s very complex, very complex.

Was there anything specific you took away from meeting her?

The thing that I was most surprised about was, at moments, how bubbly she could be, but then with a matter of seconds, she got really dark, and then really bubbly and had a sense of humor. That, to me, was really important to put that in the project, because it made so much more sense why she was able to do what she did and why she was so close. She was so close to getting what she wanted.

Do you think that she was just naive, that this would all happen, or do you think she was like any other business person who, again, just got so close to it and it just fell apart?

I can’t say the word naive. I don’t think Anna’s naive. I think she was very close to getting what she wanted and it didn’t happen. Yeah, I would say that.

Do you think she always would’ve gone down this road, or that it just started spiraling out of control for her?

Here’s the thing, and I don’t like using the word con artist, especially the fact that I was portraying her. I never want to come from a judgmental point of view, but any person that is a con artist or just, I guess, scamming the system, at the moment they don’t think that they’re scamming the system. They have a reason. Sometimes there are things that people will do something wrong or hurt someone’s feelings or whatever it is, but when somebody says, “Why did you do that?”, you always have a reason to justify why you did something. Nobody’s like, “Yeah, I’m a con artist, I’m doing this.” She had reasonings, whether they were good or not, there’s always a reason behind everything.

Did you meet any of the other real-life versions of the people in Anna’s life?

The lawyer came one day on set, I met him very briefly, just because I was getting pulled around in two different places. Wow, the life of an actor. They’re like, “We need you in five minutes.” I’m like, “O.K.” I met him very briefly and Neff, the real Neff, got to come on set for a few hours and I got to know her. She’s really sweet. I got to know some of the people that this real thing happened to.

Was there anything Jessica told you that was helpful?

It was mainly that one time meeting Anna. It was very clear to me that before I went there, just not reading Jessica’s body language and the way she was talking about Anna, but it was clear that if I had certain questions that I wanted the answer, I wasn’t going to get the answer because Anna holds her cards very close and she’s a very private person. I never went into that meeting having the expectation that she was going to answer certain questions.

I also saw you on a Fallon earlier this week where you talked about how you came up with the accent.

That’s her accent. [in her accent]

Did you work with a linguist or did you come up with that by yourself?

No, I couldn’t do that by myself. It’s the hardest accent I will ever do, ever. It’s a combination of different accents. It’s an accent within an accent. That’s what the accent is. I will say this, it’s funny, there was limited footage of her, but the difference is, there was limited footage for the public. I had hours and hours of footage of Anna. Only recently, Anna has been making public appearances talking, for the first time. I already had hours of footage two years ago when I started making it. For me, the biggest inspiration, I didn’t make it up on my own, I was just mirroring her. That’s how she really talks.

I worked with my dialect coach, who was watching the footage, and we were walking through the accent. Barbara Rubin, I’ve worked with her on “Ozark.” I didn’t come up with that accent. It’s too crazy to come up with. It’s too unique, is a better way to put it.

Now that you’ve seen the whole series, is there any scene you’re happiest with?

To be completely honest, I don’t. If I think that way it means that I want to do it again, just because it feels like I’m not in the moment. It’s the objective. If I lose myself in the moment and I’m just, that means that I was very present, if I don’t really remember what I did, in a way. To me, the scenes that I, not so much like, “Yeah, that was awesome.”, but more that I had a lot of fun doing, were actually all the scenes in the trial when I’m doing that fantasy. When I read that, I was laughing out loud, when I read that on the script. On the day, there was a couple of takes where the door opened and I had to start walking out, and everybody’s like, “Oh my God.” I literally started bursting out laughing because it’s so ridiculous. It was just very funny. That was fun. It was just hilarious.

While I have you, I have to ask you about the latest season of “Ozark.” The end of the first half of the final season, to be exact. The last shot is literally of a furious Ruth in her car. Before the season started, did the creative team did they give you a heads up about where her arc was going to go for the entire season?

Yeah. Chris Mundy and Jason [Bateman], they’re so wonderful. Not only are they extremely talented, but they’re just dear friends and they’re such good people. They don’t get weird and secretive about where the series goes. They let everybody know what happens to their character and what’s their arc that season. Even before I got some of the episodes, I knew where my character was going and what was going to happen, and I could prep myself for how dark it was going to get.

Obviously, there are very dark aspects of “Inventing Anna,” but was it fun to do something that was just so the polar opposite of Ruth in so many ways?

It was fun doing something that was the polar opposite, but the thing was, it was equally as hard to shoot. It was a good shoot, but it’s a hard part. It’s probably, maybe the hardest part I’ve ever done. It’s extremely complex. Ruth is so hard, too. Ruth is emotionally exhausting. It’s just emotionally every day, it’s like, “Whew.” Yeah. I had fun making both shows, but they were both equally hard. They’re not easy shows.

Lastly, can you tease at all, anything, about the final second half of the last season of “Ozark?”

I feel like I say the same thing every season for promoting it, which is, it’s like, “Can you say anything about Ozark?” I always say, “It just gets darker and darker.” It’s true, unfortunately. There’s a part of me that I’m like, “I should just make up a rumor that the second half is a musical. It’s a Bob Fosse musical,” but it’s not. Or it’s a multi-cam sitcom, but it’s not.

“Inventing Anna” is now available on Netflix.