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Cleveland native Alexis Floyd has taken streaming by storm with her portrayal of Neff Davis in Inventing Anna.
Change of Fortunes: After a table reading in Los Angeles, Rhimes rented out a restaurant for the cast one night. Floyd was shocked when the Uber pulled up in front of Osteria Mamma, the very restaurant she used to work at. “It was an extraordinary moment,” Floyd says.
RISING STAR
Anna, Invented We go one-on-one with Cleveland native Alexis Floyd, the breakout star of the hit Netflix series Inventing Anna.
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n the Netflix series Inventing Anna, created by hit producer Shonda Rhimes, a con artist who goes by the name Anna Delvey masquerades as a German heiress and bilks New York elites out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of the most intriguing characters on the show, which is based on true-life events, is Neff Davis, a hotel concierge played by Cleveland native Alexis Floyd. Davis becomes friends with Anna and sticks with her through her arrest and trial — even as others fled. We checked in with Floyd to see how she prepared for the breakout role, her take on Anna and Neff’s relationship and what’s next for the 2012 Hawken School graduate who first appeared on the small screen in Freeform’s The Bold Type in 2019.
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Making It: After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in theater, Floyd worked as everything from an office administrator to a hostess at an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. “I know what it’s like to be as pleasant and present as you can with the guests while underneath the desk you are texting your landlord because you need just five more days to get rent together,” she says.
On Friendship: One of the questions in the show is whether Neff and Anna could have a real friendship. “I think it’s complicated,” Floyd says. “Both Neff and Anna had this sort of quiet confidence that speaks for itself, and that’s part of why they became friends.” But Neff was also hurt deeply by Anna’s betrayal and how she treated others of a different class and race. Floyd wanted to portray “the difficulty of wanting to be close to a person, admiring her power, but also putting up boundaries for safety and health.” Accuracy: Playing Neff, Floyd says she wasn’t “trying to necessarily do an imitation. I was trying to celebrate the things about her that I find so special.” Nevertheless, Floyd was nervous what the real-life Neff would think of the portrayal. She needn’t have worried. After the show premiered, Davis posted a photo of herself with Floyd on her Instagram page and wrote, “I just wanted to give flowers to 'NEFF.' She is phenomenal in Inventing Anna, and I had the pleasure to get to know her beautiful spirit." BY REBECCA MEISER
COURTESY NETFLIX
Talking the Talk: One of the real-life Neff’s most distinctive traits is her rhythmic, colorful voice. To nail the accent, Floyd, who got to know Neff well during the shooting of the production, recorded their conversations, then spent hours walking around New York City, listening to — and trying out — Neff’s voice. “I probably looked really interesting talking to myself like that,” she laughs.
Cleveland Love: Floyd wasn’t the only one with Cleveland connections on set. Julia Garner, who plays Anna on the show, also has Cleveland roots. Garner’s dad grew up in Shaker Heights, and her husband, Mark Foster, lead singer of the band Foster the People (the two met at the Sundance Film Festival), graduated from Nordonia High School. “There was something sweet that we got to share that Cleveland energy,” Floyd says. She thinks their Northeast Ohio connection is one of the reasons why the two bonded so well, on and off screen. “There’s a closeness there that we didn’t have to fabricate, and that came easy to us.”
