ANNA CHLUMSKY

Can you tell us about your character, a journalist named Vivian Kent? The original story was published in the Cut, of New York magazine back in 2018. The story was investigated by Jessica Pressler. Have you spoken with Jessica about your character?

Vivian is one of the characters that is the least like her inspiration right in that I didn’t have to match her. In fact, we had the goal to not match her. We fictionalized a lot of Jessica’s character because we really wanted the freedom to explore some of the funnier dynamics and some of the maybe riskier dynamics that we thought were already presenting themselves in the Anna/Vivian relationship. Shonda Rhimes felt that fictionalizing the reporter would really just do everybody a great service. I was lucky to build a lot. Vivian reminds me a lot of myself in how much she cares about the craft of her profession.
I’m really nerdy about acting. I love it. I could talk about it all day about how you do it and why it matters. She’s the same way about journalism. She really believes in it. That was my way in, was just how much she cares about doing the best job she can, especially given all the obstacles she’s been provided. In preparing, even though we fictionalized her, I still was very blessed to have all of the written word by Jessica.
I had all of her notes. I got to watch their interviews. I also just really was fascinated by her voice in all of her other articles and all of her other pieces. That really was personally my way in because I feel like Vivian is so cerebral and so dedicated to the written word, and so dedicated to story. I felt like getting into the way her mind ticks via the material we already had in real life, which inspired this entire program. [laughs].
That was the juice that I kept going back to over and over. It was really fun to dive in and just see all the different crevices that I could, just from the written word.

Have you met Jessica as well in person?

Yes. We met at several table reads, she produces too. We feel like we as a program have her blessing. I personally definitely felt really fortunate and grateful too. It felt like she was giving me her blessing to take this piece and run with it.
Manhattan Magazine is a fictionalized magazine, even in the font looks like the New York Magazine so that’s quite good.
Sure, yes. That’s what’s fun about our show, I think. We’re playing with a lot of what I think everybody, it’s a little meta, isn’t it? In that what’s real, what’s fake, what can you believe? All of this story you’re about to see is true, except for all the things we made up.
We say it right up front. I think that that was always the conceit. It was always what we set out to honor that idea. As far as matching goes, Julia and that cover, that piece, I don’t know if you’ve seen the opening review?

I’ve seen the Netflix cover and the image from the original story, identical.

Hats off to our hair and makeup, and wardrobes. Makeup, just got it exact, it’s gorgeous.

The show Inventing Anna is brilliantly assembled together by Shonda Rhimes. Can you tell us about your experience working with her?

I sometimes sound like I’m gushing even too much, but it’s really and truly one of my favorite jobs that I’ve worked on. Even aside from the fact that we filmed it in my city, so I got to be home [chuckles] a lot, which was mind-blowing to me, I love that. Working for Shonda is everything and more than we were told, than we’d hoped for. I’ve always heard what a joy and how supported you feel on a set of hers.
Even when it happened, I was blown away because really, honestly, I hadn’t experienced something like that before. I hadn’t experienced so much female leadership, I hadn’t experienced. One of our first calls was like, “We want to respect your schedule. If there’s a concert for your kid or something, let us know way ahead of time.” [laughs] It shouldn’t be new, but that is so new in our industry. Still, we worked so well, the crew just really. It was an incredibly supportive crew. Also, we all went through the pandemic together.

When did you shoot it exactly?

We shot half of it before and half of it after. Yes. We started in, I want to say fall of 2019 and then we went home March 2020. Then we started up again September 2020, and we wrapped March 2021. You just learn so much. Anybody who’s been through this, it’s a fascinating time to be alive, right?
The stewardship is profound. You really learn about teamwork and the human spirit, and dedication when you all go through something like that.

How did you hear about this production?

This is an example of agent job well done. Honestly, I had been talking about how much I actually really wanted to play a journalist someday, and I had been reading all these hotspot journalism books just on my own, and he heard that. Then I was doing, I think I was in LA for maybe one day to do press for the end of Veep, and he said, “Before you go, I want you to have a general meeting with Shonda. Also, there’s a script.” Then I’m like, “Oh, okay.” I didn’t even know if I was up for the script or if I was just meeting her just for fun. [laughs]

Did you enjoy portraying an investigative journalist? How much preparation did you do for the role?

The personality of somebody who is completely unabashed with questions is to me so alluring because I always feel like I’m invading people when I’m asking– I’m very nervous asking people things and following my own curiosity when it comes to another human being. [laughs] I was always like, “What is it to be like Frank Rich who just asks all the questions, and just no apologies, just goes for it?” Yes, it was alluring to me, so I did. I chomped it a bit at the chance.

The show and cast are brilliant. Can you tell us about working with your cast-mates and especially Julia Garner?

I truly enjoyed and looked forward to coming to work every day because I knew that we were going to get people who really– Like I said how nutty I was, and I am, they’re equally– Everybody, Kate Burton and Jeff Perry, Anna Deavere Smith, Terry Kinney. It’s Julia, Alexis, Arian, Laverne. Everybody is so good. James, everybody is so good and they’re so thoughtful.
It’s the type of acting that I love doing, which is very collaborative and it’s very– Again, this comes from top-down. There are productions throughout the history of film and TV where people do think that they’re just hiring people to stand where they say and do the thing. [laughs] That’s not how I’m trained. I’m trained in New York, and a lot of us were. We really believe in the art of communicating a text. Shonda is the type of writer who is extremely considerate with exactly which word she wants. She’s word perfect. She hears it, she wants it said that way. She changes it, but she does require that. That’s a very theatrical experience. She knows that she can trust us, and we know we can trust her.
Somebody like Julia, I say this, it’s one of the highest compliments I can give somebody, she is a deep, deep well. I think we all know that, anybody who’s watched her work on screen. That’s why, as you said, it feels so special to witness, because she’s so generous with her depth. I think she doesn’t even know what she’s accessing until it’s there. It’s a joy to watch her surprise herself and to be a witness to that too. It’s beautiful.

There is a bit of Hannibal Lecter in Julia’s portrayal of Anna. Do you think it was intentional?
Julia Garner met with real Anna Delvey. Have you spoken or met her too?

The script was very much based a lot on Jessica’s experience with Anna. It was the article itself, it was the writing of the article, and then it definitely was the extensive impression that Shonda picked up on from the notes, the interviews, and all of– Yes, Just everything that went into making the article. I’ve been lucky enough to see some of those interviews, and so is Julia. Then as you said, Julia even met Anna. I can attest that just Julia is really tapping into all of the different facets that Anna’s shown all of us. It’s a fascinating character study. It really is, and she’s so young. I’m sure we have plenty more to see. [laughs]

What’s your take on the whole Anna Delvey or other fake personas out there? Fake it until you make it?

It’s such a hard one, isn’t it? Especially with people who are young and behaving this way. The reason I say that is because I really think that the Startup Culture that began really in the beginning of this century, really, really shaped so many people, so many young people. Because I think that there’s– I come from a generation, way pre-internet, where things weren’t at your fingertips. You had to show that you had enough money for a down payment or something, right? Like, “Keep that.” That’s normal. Then the Startup Culture really changed so much of that. People got so excited, and people got really carried away. My favorite thing, and this is actually something that Shonda and Betsy and I talked about when we were talking about the role in the beginning when we first met. I remember in the Startup Culture hearing the words like, “We’re pre-revenue.” What do you do for a living? “I run a start up.” “Great. Have you raised any money? Can I see anything?” “We’re pre-revenue right now.” Then they say, “You mean you’re broke.” That’s what that means. It’s like you mean you have no money. That’s fine. That’s all of these ways, all these creative ways to say that you ain’t got nothing.

Or they call it seed capital. They’re looking for seed capital.

Yes, seed capital, all of that. You’re like, ” Yes, of course.” That was the culture for– Wow, where are we in 20–? It’s like 30 years now. 20 years, 30 years. Somebody who’s only 25 has known nothing about that. 28, I’m also thinking of dealings with homes example. It’s like they know nothing other than that. They were born and then told, “This is how you do this. I can’t blame them completely for not having the same moral compass that a lot of the world is already really privy to. At the same time, you can learn that real quick.
There are plenty of people their age who aren’t doing it that way, and who are learning how to do things, “the correct or ethical way”. Did the culture provide seed capital for this type of personality? Absolutely. Does it need to be checked? Absolutely. Do we need to examine why we’re so quick to put young women on the stake for it, but we’re still so willing to elect men for doing the same crimes and worse?
None of us will know. None of us will know if we would even know about her right now, or if we’d be talking about her in this way, if she had gotten her funding, we don’t know. We don’t know. At the same time, don’t lie.

Do you think there would be a different outcome for Anna Delvey if it was let’s say 80s or 90s? There were plenty of con artists but no social media temptation?

I think a personality like hers could. I think one of the immense gifts is her ability to read the room, and it’s like you can do that at any time. That’s something that I think is… You’ll watch her just kind of be a fish out of water. Then within five minutes, she’ll just be like, “I see how this place works.” I think you could plop her anywhere. You could plop her on Mars and she would understand what the power dynamics are, and how to get to the top of Mars within minutes. [laughs]

Talking about the characters like Jordan Belfort and others from the 80s and 90s, pushing the pyramids and different Ponzi schemes. That’s why it was interesting to see, because Anna is a new type in a digital age where it’s all fed by Instagram and social media. Back then it was hard to trace and check back then but now, its a different story.

Exactly. Because when you are documenting your entire life like that you can be hoisted by your own petard.

Can you tell us about your acting background?

I trained at the Atlantic Theater School here in New York. I’m not the type that people like to hype about where you live on your daily– I’m very into the Sir Laurence Olivier story of you know it’s called acting. I’m very much into it’s a profession and it’s a craft, and I have a life outside too. That said, I really do love the techniques that I learned in acting school. You do, of course. It’s an emotional art. You have to pull– What art isn’t emotional. This one is major. You have to be able to pull from your own experiences and your own imagination and to be able to embody it. Yes, I definitely adhere to my techniques. I have my notebooks full of notes and I have all my ways. It’s all designed to empower you to tell the truth eight shows a week. That’s the idea. It’s like, “I’ve got to play. God willing, I get to play it for six months.” Eight shows a week, right? Or at least five weeks, God. It’s different every time and I believe in that. I believe in the truth at the moment. I think De Niro said, “If I can find one truthful moment in a scene, I’ve done my job.” I like that benchmark, it takes a little pressure off. [laughs] He, of course, finds many, so you can always get extra credit.

Did you enjoy working with Mike Ruiz on the photoshoot?

Yes. He is great because he’s so fast. He’s very much like, ”Yes. Okay. I think we got it. Let’s move on.” That’s a great feeling.

Are you supporting any causes?

I’m not an ambassador to anything. I think it’s very good to remind people always that Black Lives Matter. It’s sad that you have to remind anybody that. In this country we’ve got some stuff going on. I feel like I would just inundate you with a list of things, I don’t have any really one type place, but I’m very in my personal life so conscious of whom I can help and how. I think that honestly, somebody last year, when we were having such an activated summer, or two years ago, somebody once said, “There’s such a thing as micro-activism,” which I really loved.
I think that if anything, we ever had any kind of a message to give somebody, it’s like when you know your own heart and what matters to you, and you live by that every day and take your actions by that every day, that can actually make just as big of an impact as when you’re flooding the socials, do you know, or something. I think everybody has a way to live by their values, and if you pay attention and check your sources. Maybe that’s my favorite cost at this point, check your sources. Then we’re making a little progress hopefully. I don’t know. That’s where I stand. I’ll lend my obnoxious, loquacious self to anybody who needs it and who asks that I concur with.

If you could give your younger self an advice what would it be?

It’s a good one. It’s one that I always want to take so much more thought about, and then when I do, and I answer it well, then I forget next time I’m asked it. Also, it’s really funny, I was literally trying that exercise on myself because I was having, yes, it’s the beginning of the year and you’re a little like, “Is this going to be an okay year?” That kind of thing. I was pretending that I was me at 60 telling me now at 40, “Hey, chill the fuck out, chill out, you’re going to be fine.” [laughs] Yes, the haircut’s fine, don’t be worried. Chill out.
Yes. That said, I do try to say, when I imagine that, you go to the younger self, it’s a funny thing because basically they’re words of encouragement as opposed to words of like, “I don’t regret many choices from the past.” One good piece of advice would have been teaching my younger self what a mortgage is about, because I rented for far too long. [laughs]
On a practical level. I wish I had somebody to explain to me, “No. You don’t need to pay for cash. You do it anyway.” Yes. The words of encouragement are just… Basically you’re not crazy. You’re not crazy. When you feel like you’re supposed to do this for a living, when you feel discouraged, when you feel like, “Is it possible to, I don’t know, stay in New York and still get jobs in the rest of the parts of the world?”
Is it possible to have your kids, and is it possible to have good relationships and friendships and still really dedicate yourself to this job? Yes. You’re not crazy. If you feel like that’s– 20-something Anna definitely had the calling to try it, and many, many, many, many screw tapes on the shoulders saying, “No, that’s not possible. That’s not possible. You’re crazy. That doesn’t exist.” Yes it’s basically no gaslighting your younger self. You are not crazy. You’re onto something.