Katie Lowes portrayed the ex-Vanity Fair staffer Rachel Williams in the Netflix show Inventing Anna. Williams had been friends with Anna Sorokin – who the show was based on – and now she is suing Netflix in a defamation lawsuit.
Now, real-life Williams has issued her disapproval of the series, claiming it to be a distortion of the truth. Williams has now formally filed a lawsuit against Netflix.
She said, “I think promoting this whole narrative and celebrating a sociopathic, narcissistic, proven criminal is wrong. Having had a front-row seat to [the Anna circus] for far too long, I’ve studied the way a con works more than anybody needs to. You watch the spectacle, but you’re not paying attention to what’s being marketed.”
According to Williams, her portrayal on Inventing Anna showed her to be someone all too happy to accept gifts from Anna Sorokin but equally as content to report her to the authorities, having discovered the truth about her friend.
The complaint reads, “This action will show that Netflix made a deliberate decision for dramatic purposes to show Williams doing or saying things in the Series which portray her as a greedy, snobbish, disloyal, dishonest, cowardly, manipulative and opportunistic person.”
The series also made the reportedly incorrect claims that Sorokin wholly supported Williams financially. Williams has said this makes her unfairly look like a “freeloader”.
The complaint continues, “Williams did not stop being friends with Sorokin because Sorokin was having problems in Morocco, but rather because she subsequently discovered on her return to New York that Sorokin was a liar and a con artist whose statements and promises had induced Williams to incur liabilities of around $62,000 on Sorokin’s behalf were false, and who only reimbursed her $5,000 despite numerous promises to reimburse her $70,000 to account for the full debt and any late fees incurred.”
