Baby Reindeer: Nava Mau explains how Netflix show allowed her to “own” anger and emotions as a trans woman

Baby Reindeer star Nava Mau has opened up on how the series allowed her to “own” her emotions as a trans woman.

Many viewers have found themselves relating to Netflix’s smash hit Baby Reindeer — and it seems that influence stems from the cast themselves, as Mau opened up about how much the series helped her in her personal life.

The actress, who plays Donny Dunn’s (Richard Gadd) girlfriend Teri, spoke candidly about how the project helped her deal with her inner struggles during the show’s first-ever panel discussion.

“I stayed up all night and I started journaling about it,” Mau said, recalling her reaction to first receiving Gadd’s script. “It really kind of found a place in my mind and in my heart and never left.”

“I had no idea that I internalized so much anger and that I shut it down,” she continued. “As a trans woman, as a Latina woman, I have had to do that in order to survive, in order to make my way into the world as far as I have, it’s kind of been my responsibility to take care of other people’s emotions.

“It was so difficult and challenging, honestly, to play a character who felt so entitled to her own emotions and was not too concerned about taking care of other people’s emotions. That was very empowering for me to get in tune with my body again.”

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This isn’t the first time that Mau has discussed how playing Teri has changed her life, telling GQ, “I had to work real hard to embody that self-assurance. I think that a lot of trans people, and a lot of women period, have just been taught over and over and over to swallow our emotions, to tamp down on our needs and consider the needs of others first.

“I think that that’s been for safety, but it’s also been to uphold patriarchal structures of power. And so Teri said, ‘I’m not doing that’. Teri said ‘Why would I uphold the same structures that seek to break me apart?’.

“[Teri changed me] 1000%. I really had to figure out what it is that keeps me from being so self-assured, and why do swallow my anger? And where does it go? She inspired me.”

Though Baby Reindeer mostly focuses on Donny’s interactions with his stalker Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), his relationship with Teri was also explored in great detail.

Gadd has referred to the real Teri as “the voice of reason in my life at that point” and continues to be open about his internalized shame and slightly transphobic attitude he held while dating her.

“[Being transgender] is in the public consciousness now, but it wasn’t back then, when I was dating,” Gadd told the Independent, “It felt so new that it added a certain pressure, to me, that I really regret now. But that’s what it explores in the show.”

For more on Baby Reindeer, here are TV shows and movies to watch next, as well as the best series of 2024 so far. You can also find all the new shows heading to streaming this month.