Before coming upon the tale of Anna Delvey, the real-life journalist had already written about the New York exotic dancers who would later serve as the inspiration for the movie Hustlers.
She once put the record straight on what is fact and fiction in the Netflix smash series, student in her early days. In addition, she revealed the truth about being conned by a high school student.
“What’s really interesting about all these con artist stories is that they inadvertently expose that we live in this poisonous culture,” Shondaland just published an interview with the journalist Jessica Pressler, whose piece served as the inspiration for the Netflix series Inventing Anna.
Shonda Rhimes, a producer for Netflix, adapted the book by Pressler, which follows the rise and fall of con artist Anna Delvey (real name Anna Sorokin) who purported to be a German-born heiress, into a miniseries. The series can be viewed on Netflix. Pressler was portrayed on the show as the fictional character Vivian Kent, who was portrayed by Anna Chlumsky.
Pressley, who was born in Massachusetts, is not unfamiliar with stardom. She has been writing for renowned publications such as New York Magazine, GQ, and Elle during her career that has spanned 10 years. Her work has been described as riveting exposés and feature articles.
However, there is no denying that her fame is growing; in the first week after Inventing Anna was made available on Netflix, people streamed a total of 77.3 million hours of the documentary.
In this article, we take a look at her interesting past, including how she became involved in the series and how she wasoned by a younger person who was only a high school student.
Jennifer Lopez’s Hustlers Was Inspired by Her Story
Before there was Anna, there was a character named Hustlers. In her piece “The Hustlers at Scores,” which was published in New York Magazine in 2015, Pressler described the interesting story of a group of exotic dancers who tricked wealthy men. This narrative was eventually adapted into Jennifer Lopez’s 2019 film, which received widespread acclaim from critics.
In 2016, her essay was considered for a nomination for a National Magazine Award, and as a result, Julia Stiles was cast in the role of the author in the film adaptation. She shared her thoughts with The Los Angeles Times, saying, “Early on, I kept worrying the character would get removed, because my sense was that journalist characters are not sexy.” She went on to say, “There’s no typing, which I believe is a very wonderful choice.” “There’s no typing.”
In real life, Pressler maintains a friendship with the former dancer Roselyn Keo, who served as the inspiration for the character of Destiny, which was portrayed by Constance Wu in the movie.
Read More: House of Gucci Netflix: Now You Can Watch ‘house of Gucci’ Online for Free!
Anna Sorokin Was Recommended to Her by a Photographer.
Pressler learned about Sorokin while working on the story that would become Hustlers, thanks to a tip from court photographer Steven Hirsch. “Do you know of any other female con artists?” I’m thinking of creating a book on the subject. When she appeared on Vox’s Recode Media with Peter Kafka programme in 2018, she asked Hirsch, “Have you seen anything fresh, intriguing, or amusing recently?”
When it comes to the genuine Sorokin, Pressler is unsure of where she stands. In an interview with the Shondaland website, Shonda Rhimes said she hasn’t decided if she’s clever, devious, or just happens to be in the right place at the right time.
View this post on Instagram
Pressler’s other stories have focused on Hollywood celebrities (Alec Baldwin, Channing Tatum, and Cynthia Nixon), Silicon Valley CEOs, and significant personalities, such as fashion designer Tory Burch or her 2011 piece with New York City socialite Lynn Tilton.
Shonda Rhimes “Scolded” Her With a Legendary Response.
People are enamoured with the Shonda Rhimes-produced Netflix series because of its enticing tale, but in actual life, not everything transpired in the same way as it does in the show. To begin, while it is true that Pressler was eight months pregnant at the time that she wrote the piece, she did not really go into labour right after she completed the investigation.
She recently told Vulture that she had been pondering the following: “It’s so much more dramatic because it’s a TV show, but the arc of the feelings that I had reporting the story, the feelings I had about journalism being complicated, and whether this is an exploitative job – that is stuff I was thinking about.”
Pressler didn’t check her email after giving birth to her baby, and it turned out that Rhimes had emailed her asking her to develop the tale. It turns out that Pressler didn’t check her email after giving birth.
“I was running on a treadmill when I read the article in New York Magazine about Anna Delvey, and I remember literally jumping off of the treadmill and calling my office,” said Rhimes in an interview, but she didn’t get a reply until about a month or so later.
“I was running on a treadmill when I read the article in New York Magazine about Anna Delvey,” said Rhimes. After Pressler realised his mistake and apologised to the Hollywood producer, the latter gave him a “scolding” that left Pressler feeling completely enamoured with the man.
“Don’t ever apologise for the work of being a woman and a mother. If you were a man, people would be putting you on the cover of Time magazine for taking care of kids and doing any work at all at the same time,” A framed copy of Pressley’s famous email response was on display in her office.
A con artist who was still in high school took advantage of her once.
Inventing Anna depicted how real-life journalist Vivian Kent ran a hoax article about a young man named Donovan Lamb who claimed to have made millions of dollars, before the young man admitted that he had lied about his earnings. However, there were a few alterations made to the show.
Pressler did, in fact, report on a high school student, a senior at Stuyvesant High School named Mohammed Islam, who claimed to have gained $72 million investing in stocks on his lunch break, which turned out to be a fake. Pressler’s article was based on this student’s claims.
After that, he came clean about the deception in an interview with The Observer, where he revealed that he had lied to Pressler in order to win her favour. As a consequence of the error, Bloomberg News withdrew their job offer to Pressler, and The New York Post was required to publish an apology to its audience (although Pressler’s editors remained by her and took full responsibility for the error).
Read More: Simone Biles Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is the American Gymnast?