The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-13

trial in which a hired stylist put together her courtroom looks

(Yves Saint Laurent, Michael Kors, Victoria Beckham and her

now-trademark Celine glasses).

For research Garner visited Sorokin in prison in upstate

New York in January 2020. “Understandably Anna has her

guard up, that’s just who she is as a person. I knew I wasn’t

going to get a whole lot of information from her past, but I

wanted to capture her spirit and energy,” she says, speaking

over Zoom from her Hollywood home. “She was surprisingly

bubbly and very funny. I think that’s the thing that captured

so much attention with these people and they bought it.”

Last February, fresh from prison after more than two years

behind bars, Sorokin granted me her first sit-down interview,

so I know first-hand how charming — and slippery — she can

be. How do you approach playing someone who is herself

constantly acting a different character? “How do I act like I’m

acting, but not act like I’m acting? It is so meta,” Garner says,

laughing. “It was really hard actually.”

Sorokin’s unusual accent — she moved from Russia to

Germany aged 16 and grew up watching American teen

movies — was the first thing to grasp. Wigs, false teeth,

head-turning designer outfits and listening to rap also

helped Garner morph into character. “I heard that [Anna’s]

favourite song is Lose Yourself by Eminem, which makes a lot

of sense with the lyrics — ‘If you had one shot or one oppor-

tunity’,” she says, adding that she loves “dirtier rap — it’s

great hype music”.

The ten-episode series, created by Shonda Rhimes of

Grey’s Anatomy fame and based on a 2018 article by Jessica

Pressler in New York magazine’s The Cut that went viral, will

quench the thirst of those still hankering for Gossip Girl. The

action flits between grey prison and Sorokin’s multicoloured

high life, jetting to Ibiza and enjoying a luxury holiday in

Morocco (which she infamously promised a pal, Rachel

DeLoache Williams, would be an all-expenses-paid trip, then

stiffed her with a $62,000 bill). Garner, 28, believes that

Sorokin — who was detained by immigration officials and

reimprisoned last March due to her public lack of contrition

and fears that she’d con again — is a scared woman deter-

mined to hide all her vulnerabilities. “The whole thing is an

act,” she says. “Anna is constantly on, constantly acting. The

only time that she’s not acting is when she’s by herself.”

As an interviewee the star is the opposite of Sorokin:

thoughtful in her answers and uncomfy with the attention.

Since being cast as trailer-park toughie Ruth in Ozark, which

hit screens in 2017 — cue best supporting actress Emmys in

2019 and 2020 — Garner has become a quirky darling of

Hollywood, but she seems perplexed by the accompanying

press interest. “It’s a big switch in my life. I never thought

I had anything interesting to say. It’s weird that people are

asking you all these questions,” she says, shrugging goofily.

Fame horrifies her: “I think it’s gross, to be honest. To have it

be an unhealthy higher power, I think that’s dangerous ... so

much so that look what happened with Anna.”

Strikingly beautiful with wild blonde curls and alabaster

skin, Garner describes herself as a “homebody” who enjoys

“making art” with her husband (she knowingly rolls her eyes).

The couple met at a film festival years ago but didn’t keep in

touch and later reconnected through Instagram. “I was like,

‘Who’s this guy liking all my photos?’ And I forgot about him

for a second,” she says, laughing. They got married in late

December 2019, shortly before the pandemic shut down

filming for Inventing Anna. It was the type of New York

glamour Sorokin undoubtedly dreams of — a wedding cere-

mony at City Hall with the bride wearing a Danielle Frankel

trouser suit (“When a pantsuit is good, I think there’s nothing

more feminine and powerful”). The next day they had dinner

at Locanda Verde, the Italian bistro owned by Robert De

Niro, and then went dancing at the Public hotel with friends

like the fashion designer Zac Posen. More than two years

later, Garner treasures married life: “Art is such an unstable

lifestyle, so it’s nice to have some sort of stability.”

Foster, 37, is the lead singer in the indie group Foster the

People; is she musical too? “He thinks I am. I get shy singing

in front of people. But I can sing,” she says, hesitant to sound

boastful. (Garner is modest to a fault, at one point admitting:

“I wish I had a bigger ego sometimes, to be honest.”)

There are rumours that she is in the final running against

Florence Pugh, the English star of the horror film Midsommar

and Marvel’s Black Widow, to play Madonna in an upcoming

biopic. “I can’t even tell you how many times people are like,

‘What’s going on with Madonna?’ And I’m like, ‘No clue,

would love to know!’ ” Garner looks distinctly similar to

1980s-era Madge — have they ever met? “Maybe, maybe

not,” she giggles. “I can’t, I’m terrible. I’m the worst liar.”

Garner grew up in a quiet corner of Manhattan with

her Israeli mother, Tamar, a comedian turned therapist, her

father, Thomas, an art teacher, and an older sister, Anna. She

Below left The ‘fake heiress’ Anna Sorokin, who claimed to be a German socialite called Anna Delvey, leaves court after being

sentenced, May 2019. Below middle and right Garner playing Sorokin in the TV show Inventing Anna

12 • The Sunday Times Style