The Netflix series Inventing Anna drops today, returning Anna Sorokin, who went by Anna Delvey, back to our collective consciousness.
Sorokin was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2019 after US prosecutors accused her of stealing some $US275,000 from Manhattan banks and friends in elite New York circles while posing as a German heiress.
She was released on parole in February 2021, but was arrested a few weeks later for overstaying her visa and, according to her essay published by Insider last week, she's still in detention waiting to hear if she'll be deported to Germany.
While her story's all very interesting, the thing a lot of people are thinking after watching the show is: "What's with that accent?"
Is it terrible or perfect?
Sorokin is played by Ozark star Julia Garner.
You hear the variance in Garner's accent in the Inventing Anna trailer:
Variety Magazine TV critic Caroline Framke tweeted that she couldn't work out whether the accent was "terrible or perfect", calling it "inscrutable" in her review of the show.
"Her exaggerated pan-European accent is indeed ridiculous, but is nonetheless a fitting choice for a character that’s constantly performing for unwitting audiences," she wrote.
What does the real Anna Sorokin's accent sound like?
You can hear the mixture of influences in Sorokin's accent in this interview with Deborah Roberts for US broadcaster ABC:
From all reports, Sorokin's accent was always on the inscrutable side.
In Jessica Pressler's article for The Cut, which Inventing Anna is based on, it was described as a German accent, but also "an accent that sounded European".
And in an article for the BBC, Elle Dee, who met Sorokin in 2014, said she had "an unusual European accent".
Rachel DeLoache Williams, who was stuck with the bill for a $US62,000 trip to Morocco she says Sorokin promised to pay for, told Stylist Sorokin's "pan-European" accent was "hard to place".
Garner's accent is supposed to sound ridiculous
Garner explained the process of creating the accent to Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show, saying it was a layering of German, Russian and American.
Because Sorokin was Russian and grew up in Germany, Garner said she first mixed those two accents together, then added a few hints of American.
It intentionally sounded out of place.
"I really wanted to make sure it was kind of one of those things where, if she goes back to Europe, all of her European friends say, 'You sound so American,'" she said.
"And all of her friends here [in the US] say, 'Oh my god, you sound so European.'"
And it's supposed to be a bit fluid
In a promo video for the show, Garner explained that her accent was inconsistent on purpose.
Garner said when her character was around Europeans, she made herself sound more European.
"But if she's around her American girlfriends, she'll try to make it sound more like an American girl," she said.
She said she was really committed to getting the accent right, telling Access Hollywood that she even started talking like Sorokin in her sleep.
Garner said her husband heard her talking about handbags and saying things like "I didn't take it" in the Sorokin accent.
The real Anna Sorokin approved of it
Garner visited Sorokin in prison, telling Access Hollywood about what it was like to perform the accent for her.
"She said, 'How are you playing me?'... and I didn't know what to say so I just started mirroring her," Garner said.
"And she was like, 'That's so funny, that's good!'"
However, Sorokin is unlikely to be watching the Netflix series, given she's in jail.
"It doesn't look like I'll be watching Inventing Anna anytime soon," she wrote for Insider.
"Even if I were to pull some strings and make it happen, nothing about seeing a fictionalised version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum setting sounds appealing to me."
