Shonda Rhimes’ heroines are anything but perfect and predictable, and Anna Delvey might be her most morally ambiguous lead yet. Although Anna Sorokin, the real-life inspiration behind her new series Inventing Anna, was arrested, dubbed a “fake heiress” and a “scammer,” and ultimately convicted on eight counts of grand larceny and theft of services, Rhimes says her story is compelling, in part, because she isn’t a clear-cut villain.
“You understand why someone like Anna would do what she did. Because we press everyone’s nose to the glass of a different kind of life, and then we tell them they can’t have it,” Rhimes told Time in a Jan. 5 cover story. And, without defending Delvey’s actions, she pointed out that there’s a hypocrisy in the way we talk about her demeanor and behavior. “People were outraged by her arrogance, her use of social media to create a frenzy around herself — all things that we applaud in many a person right now.”
Sorokin was accused of masquerading as a German heiress and defrauding hotels and banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Her lawyer, however, says she never had fraudulent intent, and Sorokin told ABC News that she “always knew” she couldn’t afford her lifestyle and never claimed to come from money.
Along with the rest of the world, Rhimes was drawn to Delvey’s story after reading journalist Jessica Pressler’s 2018 deep-dive for New York Magazine. “She was such a complex, interesting, unknowable person,” Rhimes told Time. “If she had been a man, would she have gotten in so much trouble? Would people have even been as fascinated by her? If Anna Delvey had been what is typically called a hot chick, would people have been so outraged?”
Rhimes also called out this double standard in a November interview with Variety. “I don’t think she did anything different than what any guy on Wall Street’s done. None of them have done any time, and she’s been in jail for quite a while,” Rhimes said. “Not to say she didn’t do anything wrong! I’m just saying: Gender did play a part.”
In 2017, Rhimes signed an exclusive multiyear deal with Netflix and produced the record-breaking Bridgerton in 2020, which will return for a second season this year just one month after Anna premieres.
With these shows, Rhimes might be ushering in a whole new era of Shondaland. But if you’ve been following Meredith Grey, Olivia Pope or Annalise Keating, you’ll find another complicated, ethically dubious and anything-but-boring antiheroine in Anna — and by the time you finish watching the entire season on Feb. 11, maybe you’ll understand her a little bit, too. Just don’t try the wire transfer thing at home.
