‘Baby Reindeer’ creator says he “never saw” stalker Martha as “a villain”

Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd has opened up further about his creative process behind the hit Netflix series, and how he viewed his real-life stalker.

Earlier this week he appeared alongside co-stars Jessica Gunning and Nava Mau at the Directors Guild of America to speak in a panel with the series’ director Weronika Tofilska and its editor Peter Oliver.

The semi-autobiographical series, which was adapted from a one-man play, follows a struggling comedian named Donny (a fictionalised version of Gadd, who created and starred in the show) who is relentlessly stalked by an older woman named Martha (Gunning). With the guidance of his girlfriend, Teri (Mau), Donny attempts to understand and resolve his situation, but is in the process affected by traumatic events of his past.

One of the show’s most talked about elements is the nuanced relationship between Donny and Martha, with the protagonist often feeling sorry for his stalker, and even developing some sort of attraction towards her.

Gadd has admitted previously that he felt sorry for his real-life stalker, and elaborated on this during the panel. “I think I struggle with a sort of toxic empathy problem, where I feel a lot for people,” he shared (via The Hollywood Reporter).

“I remember when I was going through it in real life and I was getting stalked and it felt like it was relentless and like it was everywhere and I felt like my life wasn’t really functioning, I still had these unbelievable pangs of feeling sorry for her.

“I remember even when it was at its worst, when she got my phone number and I got advice to listen to the voicemails … she would say something in one of these voicemails and I would just be like ‘Oh my god,’ like at the end of the day she’s somebody who’s just in a lot of pain.”

He continued speaking about the creative process behind Baby Reindeer, which has spent the last three weeks atop Netflix UK’s viewing charts: “I thought that was almost way more important to get across than ‘Oh woe is me, isn’t my life difficult, this person’s stalking me,’ because I never saw someone who was a villain.”

He explained: “I saw someone who was kind of lost by the system really. I saw someone who needed help and wasn’t getting it.”

Gadd also opened up about what he wants viewers to take away from the show: “I quite like the fact that its message is ambiguous. I sometimes have problems with work where it’s so clear what it’s trying to say to you. I’ve seen so many different articles on the ending of Baby Reindeer.”

“For example, that [final shot] where Donny looks up at the bar and people have said, well, it means he’s a stalker or it means that he’s realized he’s similar to Martha. I’ve seen about seven different interpretations of that, and I like that because I ultimately want my people to take what they want from my work.”

Gadd recently urged viewers to refrain from investigating the real-life people behind the characters in the show, saying: “That’s not the point of our show.”