‘Who is Anna?’ has become the latest phenomenon of Netflix. Created by Shonda Rhimes Based on a striking real case, the series takes several licenses regarding what happened in the Anna Sorokin case and then we are going to review the 7 most important changes about what really happened.
Obviously, from here you will find spoilers for ‘Who is Anna?’
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Names of characters and places
The series itself highlights at the end of the last episode that some changes have been made. For example, Vivian Kent’s character is actually inspired by journalist Jessica Presslerwhile Anna’s financial adviser is named Andy Lance in real life and not Alan Reed.
In addition, the magazine in which the protagonist works is called Manhattan, while Pressler worked for New York Magazine. Another notable change is that the hotel where Anna spent months giving tips of 100 dollars it’s actually called 11 Howard and not 12 George.
Vivian’s damaged reputation
‘Who is Anna?’ it makes special emphasis on the fact that Vivian’s reputation is in a very low hour after an article that went wrong. Something similar did happen to Pressler in real life, but had already recovered with the publication of a report in 2015 that ended up serving as the basis for the film ‘Wall Street Swindlers’.
Vivian did not convince Anna to go to trial
The Netflix series sells the idea that Vivian’s participation is essential for Anna to reject the deal she has been offered and decide to go to trial. That didn’t really happen Pressler did not discover Anna’s existence until she had already made the decision to go to trial.
The reason for Vivian’s trip to Germany
As in the series, Pressler visited Germany to learn more about Anna’s origins, but he did not do it on his own. Sorokin herself helped Pressler organize the trip., recommending places to visit that were important during his adolescence. And besides, Anna’s parents were aware of her visit.
The end of Vivian’s pregnancy
The Netflix series kept the fact that Jessica Pressler was pregnant when she worked on Anna’s story, but Shonda Rhimes seems to have gone for dramatic effect by linking its completion to the moment when Vivian gets upset. Birth. That didn’t really happen that way, since Pressler didn’t have her baby until a couple of weeks after the text was finished and delivered.
The support of Anna’s family
‘Who is Anna?’ She proposes that the protagonist’s parents have little more than given up on her daughter, completely ignoring what could happen to her. It is not that the treatment was very close between them in real life -for example, there was no trace of them in the trial or during the reading of the sentence-, but they did take the trouble to write a letter to the judge in her case asking them to be kind to her.
Anna’s remorse
The Shonda Rhimes series preferred to highlight Anna’s first reaction to what happened. And it is that she said that she did not regret what she had done, but the way in which she did certain things. Nevertheless, Sorokin retracted in October 2019 at a hearing to see if he would be granted parole. There he stressed that they had been taken out of context and that he was “really embarrassed and sorry“for his actions.