What does a teen drama star do when she wants to prove she can play grown-up? If she is Lili Reinhart, she joins a movie about strippers, credit card fraud, and a friendship that curdles into a criminal enterprise. Hustlers, released in September 2019, gave Reinhart her biggest post-Riverdale platform and a very deliberate change of image. The part was small but strategic, and it tells you a lot about how a young actor tries to reshape a career while still tethered to a hit show.

This article looks at what Reinhart actually did in the film, how her character fits into the story, why the role mattered for her career, and what audiences and critics made of the whole package. It also separates the real-world reporting behind the movie from the fictionalized version on screen, because the two are not the same thing.

What is Hustlers and who does Lili Reinhart play?

Hustlers is a 2019 crime drama written and directed by Lorene Scafaria. It follows a group of New York City strippers who, after the 2008 financial crash gutted their income, start drugging wealthy clients and running up their credit cards. The film is based on a 2015 New York magazine article by Jessica Pressler titled “The Hustlers at Scores.”

Reinhart plays Annabelle, a young dancer who joins the crew led by Ramona, played by Jennifer Lopez, and Destiny, played by Constance Wu. Annabelle is a composite character, meaning she is not a one-to-one portrait of a specific real person. She functions as the naive newcomer, the one who is a little too eager, a little too fragile, and a little too easy to manipulate. In story terms, she is the audience’s reminder of how quickly a side hustle can turn into something much darker.

The main cast around her is stacked: Keke Palmer as Mercedes, Cardi B as Diamond, Lizzo as Liz, and Julia Stiles as a journalist clearly modeled on Pressler. Reinhart is the youngest principal in that lineup, and that positioning was not accidental.

How Annabelle fits into the story

Annabelle arrives as the group’s operation is expanding. She is not the mastermind and she is not the moral center. She is the proof that the scheme has a recruitment pipeline, and that the pipeline is pulling in people who are not thinking clearly about consequences.

Three things make her role work:

• She raises the stakes. A con that involves a tight, experienced crew feels controlled. A con that involves a nervous newcomer feels like it could blow up at any moment.

• She shows the emotional cost. The film is careful to show that the women are not villains in a vacuum. Annabelle’s neediness and bad judgment read as symptoms of a system that left her with few good options.

• She gives Reinhart a scene to play against Lopez. The dynamic between Annabelle and Ramona is where the film’s power imbalance becomes visible. Ramona is magnetic and generous right up until she is not.

For a viewer who only knows Reinhart as the sweet, put-together girl next door, Annabelle is a jolt. She is messier, needier, and more obviously out of her depth.

Why the role mattered for Reinhart’s career

Reinhart spent seven seasons as Betty Cooper on The CW’s Riverdale, which ran from 2017 to 2023. That role made her famous, and it also boxed her in. Teen drama leads get typecast, and the smart ones start collecting credits that point in a different direction before the show ends.

Hustlers was that credit. A few reasons it was a smart move:

• It was a prestige-adjacent ensemble. Scafaria’s film had awards buzz and a serious director at the helm. Being in that room matters even if your part is modest.

• It was a hard R-rated adult drama. No high school, no love triangle, no Archie Comics. Just a very different register.

• It put her opposite A-list talent. Sharing scenes with Lopez and Wu is a different kind of education than carrying a CW hour.

• It was commercially visible. The film performed well at the box office and stayed in the cultural conversation for months.

There is a practical lesson here for anyone watching how young actors build careers. The first post-franchise move rarely needs to be a lead role. It needs to be a credible role in a project people respect. Reinhart took the smaller part in the bigger movie, and that is usually the right trade.

The real story versus the movie

Pressler’s original reporting followed the actual women involved in the scheme at Scores, a Manhattan strip club. The film takes that reporting and compresses, combines, and invents. Annabelle, in particular, is a storytelling device rather than a documentary figure.

Element	The reporting	The film
Central figures	Real women who spoke to Pressler	Fictionalized versions with changed names
Annabelle	No single real counterpart	Composite character played by Reinhart
Journalist	Jessica Pressler	Julia Stiles as a Pressler-like writer
Tone	Investigative magazine feature	Crime drama with comedy and empathy
Timeline	Spans years of real events	Condensed for a two-hour runtime

This matters for how you watch the movie. Hustlers is not a documentary, and it is not pretending to be one. It is an adaptation that uses real events as scaffolding for a story about friendship, money, and betrayal. Knowing that makes Annabelle easier to understand: she exists to dramatize a pattern, not to represent a person.

What audiences and critics made of the film

Hustlers opened on September 13, 2019, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier that month. It drew strong reviews, with much of the praise landing on Scafaria’s direction and on Lopez’s performance, which became the film’s awards-season centerpiece and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

Reinhart’s notices were more mixed but respectful. Critics generally read Annabelle as a functional part rather than a showcase, which is fair. The role does not ask for a big third-act monologue. It asks for a specific kind of anxious energy, and Reinhart delivers that.

Audience response was warmer than the critical consensus on her specifically. For a lot of viewers, the appeal was seeing a familiar TV face in an unfamiliar setting, and that recognition factor is exactly what a transition role is supposed to generate.

Common mistakes people make when talking about this role

A few misunderstandings come up again and again in conversations about Reinhart and Hustlers. Clearing them up saves a lot of confusion.

• Assuming Annabelle is a real person. She is not. She is a composite, and treating her as a documentary subject leads to bad conclusions about the real women involved.

• Treating the film as a glamorization. Scafaria’s movie is deliberately ambivalent. It shows the thrill and the damage in the same frame.

• Calling it a breakout role. It was not a breakout. Reinhart was already famous. It was a repositioning role, which is a different thing.

• Confusing the film’s timeline with reality. The movie compresses years of events and invents connective tissue. The reporting is the better source for what actually happened.

• Overlooking how small the part is. Annabelle is a supporting role. Judging Reinhart’s range on this one performance alone undersells what she was asked to do.

How to watch it with the right expectations

If you are coming to Hustlers because of Reinhart, it helps to know what you are getting. This is an ensemble film with a clear lead in Constance Wu and a scene-stealing anchor in Lopez. Reinhart is part of the supporting fabric. (The row)

A practical way to approach it:

• Watch it as an ensemble crime drama, not a star vehicle.

• Pay attention to how Annabelle’s presence changes the group’s risk level.

• Notice the film’s careful use of money as a character in its own right.

• Read Pressler’s original article afterward to see what was invented.

• Then revisit Reinhart’s other work to see the range she was building toward.

That last step is worth doing. Reinhart’s filmography before and after Riverdale shows an actor testing different genres rather than settling into one lane. If you want a completely different register, her work in other projects sits far from both Betty Cooper and Annabelle.

Where the film sits in the broader 2019 conversation

2019 was a strong year for movies about women behaving badly and paying for it, and Hustlers arrived with unusual cultural timing. It landed as conversations about gig work, financial precarity, and the aftermath of 2008 were still very much alive. The film’s central question, which is essentially “what do you do when the legitimate economy stops calling you back,” resonated.

That context is part of why the movie stuck. It was a caper, and it was also a story about a specific economic moment, told through a group of women who were supposed to be invisible. Reinhart’s Annabelle, young and improvident, is the character who makes that economic argument personal rather than abstract.

For viewers interested in how style and craft shape a story, the film is also a useful study in costume and production design. The fashion choices do a lot of narrative work, and if you enjoy that kind of detail, it is worth reading about how a single flower can carry symbolic weight in visual storytelling, much like the way Lilium orientalis stargazer growing iconic fragrant lily shows how one plant can become a cultural shorthand. The same attention to visual language applies to hair and beauty styling on screen, which is why discussions of 4c hair in film and television often reveal more about character than dialogue does.

What Reinhart’s choice says about career strategy

There is a broader lesson in how Reinhart handled the transition out of a long-running series. Actors who wait until their show ends to diversify often find the market has moved on. Actors who start early, even in small parts, build a track record that casting directors can point to.

Hustlers gave Reinhart three things: a respected director credit, an adult dramatic role, and a story she could tell in every interview for the next five years. That is a lot of value from a supporting part.

The comparison to her co-stars is instructive too. Lopez used the film to remind everyone she could act. Wu used it to show range beyond Fresh Off the Boat. Palmer and Lizzo brought comic energy. Reinhart brought youth and vulnerability. Each actor was solving a different career problem with the same movie, which is how ensemble films usually work.

If you are studying how performers manage public perception, the pattern is consistent across the industry. A single well-chosen supporting role in a well-regarded film can do more for a career than three forgettable leads. The trick is choosing the film, not the size of the part.

Conclusion

Lili Reinhart’s turn in Hustlers is easy to underestimate because it is small. Annabelle is not the hero, the villain, or the emotional climax. She is the newcomer who shows you how the scheme spreads and how quickly it goes wrong. That is a specific job, and Reinhart does it well.

The role matters less for what it proves about her acting than for what it signals about her ambitions. Coming off a hit teen drama, she chose an R-rated crime film from a serious director, took a supporting part, and let the movie’s prestige do some of the work. It was a smart, patient move in a business that rarely rewards patience.

If you have not seen the film, watch it for Lopez and Wu first, then watch Reinhart’s scenes again with the knowledge that Annabelle is a composite. You will see a young actor doing the unglamorous thing that actually builds careers: showing up in a good movie and holding her own.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who did Lili Reinhart play in Hustlers?

She played Annabelle, a young dancer who joins the crew’s credit card scheme. Annabelle is a composite character rather than a portrait of a specific real person.

Is Annabelle based on a real person?

No. The film is based on Jessica Pressler’s 2015 New York magazine article, but the characters are fictionalized and combined. Annabelle exists to dramatize how new recruits got pulled into the operation.

Was Hustlers Lili Reinhart’s first major movie role?

It was one of her most visible film roles at the time, coming during her run as Betty Cooper on Riverdale. She had appeared in other films before, but Hustlers gave her a much larger platform.

When did Hustlers come out?

It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019 and was released in U.S. theaters on September 13, 2019. Lorene Scafaria wrote and directed it.

Who else is in the Hustlers cast?

The ensemble includes Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Cardi B, and Lizzo. Lopez’s performance drew the most awards attention.

Did the film win any major awards?

It earned significant awards buzz, particularly for Jennifer Lopez, who received a Golden Globe nomination. The film itself was a commercial success and stayed in the cultural conversation well past its release.