Karlov moved to Hollywood as a 19-year-old but left without a movie contract, her only film work having been appearing as an extra in one production and performing "a perilous high-dive" in another. Then she was in an auto accident and lay in a hospital bed, disabled physically for six weeks. During this time she concocted a bold hoax which she intended to carry out. She also changed her hair color from brunette to blond. She returned to Hollywood using the name of Sonia Karlov, Norwegian actress. Supposedly she was the daughter of a Russian father and a Norwegian mother. Karlov hired a press agent after convincing him that she was "a great foreign actress." Another version of how Jeanne became Sonia is that she began dating a press agent who came up with the entire deception. Later he got drunk and revealed everything.