Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning urges fans not to search for real Martha: ‘It’s a real, real shame’
“That’s not the point of it in any way"
Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning has responded to fan speculation over the real identities of the characters in her hit show.
The Netflix thriller, written and starring Richard Gadd, dropped on the platform earlier this month to instant critical acclaim and impressive viewing figures.
The miniseries follows a young man, Donny, who is stalked by an older woman, Martha. In the story, Donny also falls victim to a male rapist: a TV writer and director called Darrien.
“It shows they haven’t watched the show properly” – Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning
Speaking in a recent interview with Glamour about online sleuths trying to unearth the real Martha and Darrien, Jessica said: “I would urge people not to be doing that.
“I think if that is happening, I think it’s a real, real shame, because it shows that they haven’t watched the show properly.”
She went on: “That’s not the point of it in any way. Netflix and Richard [Gadd] went to extreme lengths to try and make sure that the identities were kept private for a reason.”
“I think they should try and watch the show again, and really see what the point of it was – it definitely wasn’t that,” Jessica furthermore added. “I deliberately didn’t want to do an impersonation of somebody, I wanted to do an interpretation of this character.”
Richard, meanwhile, issued a similar plea on Instagram earlier this week.
“Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be,” he said. “That’s not the point of our show.”
Speaking to Attitude in a recent interview, Gadd said of Baby Reindeer: “It is, as it says on the tin, a true story. A lot of this stuff happened to me. We’ve obviously had to go to great lengths to protect people’s identities.
“But it’s probably even more close to the truth than I’d care to admit in a lot of ways. I went through all these things. My twenties were a severe period of time, so Donny and me are very close. But it is a performance. I’m not like that guy anymore at all. So, I really had to get back into that character in a way.”
Baby Reindeer is available to stream now.