The Real Neff Davis Shared How She Really Feels About Inventing Anna
She opened up about what actually happened.
Anna Delvey made a lot of enemies when she allegedly scammed her way through New York City’s high society, but there’s one person who’s always remained her most loyal friend: Neff Davis. In Inventing Anna, Neff was at Anna’s side during her glamorous highs and crushing lows, ferociously defending her bestie even after the truth came out about her various cons. And that characterization wasn’t far from the truth: The real Neff Davis revealed how she feels about Inventing Anna in a recent interview, and it sounds like there wasn’t much inventing when it came to creating the show’s version of Neff.
As depicted in the series, Neff first met Delvey while she was working as a concierge at the 11 Howard hotel (called the 12 George on the show), where Delvey was staying as a guest. The pair quickly hit it off, and remained tight throughout Delvey’s downfall. But just how real was the friendship viewers saw in Inventing Anna? Davis opened up about her relationship with Delvey in a Feb. 14 interview with Bustle, revealing that the close bond shown in the Netflix series is not a far stretch from reality.
“Anna is my friend and always will be,” Davis said. “Of course, I had to set boundaries with Anna, but I truly stood by her side because she was there for me when I needed her. Loyalty is loyalty.”
Davis went on to detail what the show didn’t reveal about Delvey. “I think I know her heart,” Davis told Bustle. “I’ll never know her mind, but her tenderness and comedic ways are something the world may never see. Her vulnerable side and comedic side make her so much fun to be around, because she has truly mastered sarcasm. The b*tch is hilarious.”
Inventing Anna also showed off the various celebrities Davis would be surprised to run into at glamorous dinner parties with Delvey, including Macaulay Culkin and infamous pharma-bro Martin Shkreli. As you might guess, Davis doesn’t exactly have the best memories of Shkreli: “I met so many weirdos, I wish I remembered this interaction. But that must say it all. It wasn’t very memorable for me.”
While Neff never wavered in her loyalty to Anna on the show, she did turn on her other friend, Rachel Williams, after Rachel turned her back on Anna. While Davis seemed to hint this isn’t exactly how things played out IRL, she did admit she loved the show’s choice to have Neff confront Rachel. “I’m not sure why Shondaland did it. But I loved it,” Davis said. “White people get enough sympathy. Plus, Rachel got paid very well from her book and AMEX forgave her charges. What is there to sympathize with?”
Anna Delvey’s story may be hard to pin down, but it sounds like Inventing Anna at least did a great job in depicting Neff. The full series is streaming on Netflix.
