“I look nothing like her,” Garner, 28, admits.
Of course, Rhimes was right.
As EW looks on during the filming of a pivotal courtroom scene, the Emmy-winning star is unrecognizable.
Julia Garner in ‘Inventing Anna’.Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
“Everything’s fake,” Garner confirms.
“I have the wig, butt padding, like, four cutlets two on each boob.”
After studying photos of Sorokin, now 31, Garner also asked if she could add fake teeth.
Laverne Cox, Julia Garner, and Katie Lowes in ‘Inventing Anna’.Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
“[Anna] has much more of a baby doll face.”
“You don’t know where she’s from, you don’t know who she is.
She’s a mystery.”
For Garner, unlocking that mystery meant meeting Sorokin in person…in prison.
(Rhimes chose not to meet her subject to prevent any interactions from influencing her writing.)
“She’s very gentle in a way, like a delicate flower.
It’s very strange…and it makes it a little scarier,” says the actress.
“[But] she said hilarious things no wonder people wanted to hang out with her.”
Sorokin had her own priorities during their meeting, looking for insights into how her visitor was portraying her.
“Anna is relentless,” says Garner.
“That’s her power but that’s also her weakness.”
Additional reporting by Leah Greenblatt.
A version of this story appears inEntertainment Weekly’sFebruaryissue, on newsstands now and available to orderhere.
