Two months on from the release of Baby Reindeer, the hit Netflix show is continuing to spark new conversations.
Based on creator and star Richard Gadd’s real-life experiences as a struggling comedian who gets stalked by a woman he meets by chance (played by Jessica Gunning), the word-of-mouth hit spent nearly one month in the top spot of the UK streamer’s TV rankings and dominated headlines.
Despite the runaway success of the show, much of the attention has revolved around whether enough was done to protect the real identities of people portrayed in the series.
Richard has long maintained that Baby Reindeer is an “emotional” truth rather than a direct recreation, and now he’s explained that even his co-star Jessica was totally in the dark about the woman behind the character of “Martha”.
“I didn’t share any real life voicemails or emails with Jessica,” Richard revealed in a video interview with Variety. “And she was also very good at being like, ‘I just need the script and that’s fine’.”
The writer added that he wanted Martha to “take on a life of its own”, so it didn’t look like “an actor trying to inhabit a person”, adding: “I wanted it to be its own character”.
Jessica herself agreed that both Donny and Martha were “clear” characters, and she didn’t want to “muddy it by confusing it with any information about the real person” who inspired her on-screen character.
Just last month, Jessica opened up about the “inevitable” fascination surrounding the real life characters, after Richard spoke out against internet “sleuths” attempting to identify those people.
He also insisted to Radio Times that it “didn’t feel like we were re-enacting scenes for some documentary”, and were instead interpreting characters “in this emotionally true world”.
Jessica supported her co-star by describing the behaviour of some viewers as “a real, real shame”.
In her own recent interview with the Radio Times, Jessica opened up about whether she felt there was anything “problematic” about Richard basing the show on a real person.
“I wouldn’t use the word problematic, I would say, maybe, sensitive,” she explained.
The show has continued to have a far-reaching impact, as a leading stalking charity recently revealed a 26% increase in calls to the National Stalking Helpline between March and April.