This article, “who is Vivian” contains spoilers regarding Netflix’s Inventing Anna season 1.
Who is Vivian in Inventing Anna season 1?
A features writer at Manhatten Magazine, Vivian is based on the real-life journalist Jessica Pressler, and it is Pressler’s article “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People” that forms the basis of Inventing Anna. And as such, it is also the article that brought Anna’s case to the general public. Unhappy with her career, Vivian develops a borderline obsession with Anna as she attempts to uncover who exactly Anna Delvey is.
What does Vivian do?
After Vivian visits Anna as she awaits trial, Vivian researches Anna and her past. She reaches out to and interviews many individuals, such as Chase, Val, and Neff. With determination to finish the article (and with the added pressures of deadlines and fact-checks), Vivian works until her waters break. Her efforts pay off as the article into Anna becomes the best piece for the fictional publication in five years.
Even so, Vivian feels that the real story isn’t being seen, much to her dismay. And so, she informs her superiors that she knows exactly what her next piece will be about. With the focus of the article still on Anna, Vivian travels to Germany to meet up with Anna’s parents. Before long, she tracks down Anna’s parents. But after she interviews them, she decides to scrap the article, as she feels that its contents/statements will hurt Anna’s feelings.
Once Vivian returns from Germany, she finds a letter from Anna’s father. Inside are Anna’s hospital records, and Vivian realizes that Anna made herself pass out, and then went on to claim that her father was an abusive alcoholic. The reason? In an attempt to get herself into rehab. This would therefore pause her visa, which was about to expire.
When the trial finishes and Anna receives her sentence, Vivian gets her own work office. In the final episode, Vivian visits Anna in Rikers Island one last time. In the credits of Inventing Anna, viewers learn that Vivian is based on Jessica Pressler, and is one of the few characters in Inventing Anna that isn’t based entirely on a real individual. As for Pressler, she has written for GQ, Elle, and Esquire. Additional articles that Pressler wrote include “The Hustlers at Scores”, which got adapted into Hustlers (2019), and an article in which Pressler and “New York” publications were duped into believing that a High School senior has made $72 million by trading stocks.
