Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd reveals when stalking was “at its worst”
NetflixBaby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd has opened up further about the real-life events that inspired his hit Netflix series, revealing when the stalking was “at its worst.”
Although his new insights were shared prior to Piers Morgan’s interview with Fiona Harvey, the alleged “real Martha” from the show, Gadd has made it clear he never wanted fans to speculate about the characters’ true identities to begin with.
As well as reiterating these points in his chat with The Hollywood Reporter, the Baby Reindeer creator and star was asked at which point he decided to write about his experience being stalked.
“The stalking was at its worst when she managed to get my number. I stubbornly refused to change my number, because I believed it was their responsibility to stop calling me,” Gadd replied.
Much like the show, he listened to the voicemails in the hope of finding something threatening to expedite the case.
“It was weird, I would go to meetings around town and listen to them on the way. The meeting would end and I would put my headphones back in. I would go to bed at night and still hear the echoes of the voicemails,” he added.
“It was almost maddening, hearing the voicemails bouncing around my eyelids. That’s when I thought: if I was ever going to do a show about how awful this experience has been, the first thing I would do would be to take the voicemails and fire them around the stage like an oscillating light display where you would see the words bouncing around.
“That’s the seed of what later became Baby Reindeer.”
While these moments were difficult to relive, the hardest scenes to shoot involved his sexual assault and the perpetrator, depicted as Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill) in the Netflix show.
“The Darrien stuff” was the hardest day on set, said Gadd. “It was really difficult going back there.
“I remember going to set for the diary days, the sexual assault days, and we sandwiched them together so it wasn’t so spread out. I think it was the right thing to do, so that it would only be two or three days where we had to stay in that zone.
“On the way to set those days, I would be hoping for a major traffic jam or something so I could just have another beat to prepare and wrap my head around it to think.”
NetflixGadd pointed out that Goodman-Hill was a “legend” for him on set. “I felt really safe with him, really comfortable,” he explained.
“It’s weird to shoot a scene that you know you have to shoot but don’t really want to. He was such a pro, such a good actor that he made it so much easier.”
For more on the Netflix series, here’s the Baby Reindeer ending explained, as well as TV shows and movies to watch next and the best series of 2024 so far.