Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” is a new miniseries with a twist.
Baby Reindeer, which will be released on April 11, is based on Scottish comedian, actor and author Richard Gadd’s own experiences with stalkers and sex offenders when he was in his 20s. Gad plays Donnie Dunn, who is being stalked by a woman named Martha, whom he met at the bar where he worked.
Netflix’s official synopsis reads, “When a struggling comedian shows a certain kindness to a vulnerable woman, it sparks a suffocating obsession that threatens to ruin both of their lives.”
Gadd said he had been stalked for four years by a woman who called him “Baby Reindeer.” Initially, Gad and his friends didn’t think much of it until things started getting bigger. He was harassed with 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, and a 106-page letter. She also sent gifts, including a reindeer toy, sleeping pills, a woolen hat, and boxer shorts.
“At first everyone in the pub thought it was strange that I had fans,” Gadd told Britain’s Times newspaper. “Then she started invading my life, following me, showing up to my shows, waiting outside my house, sending thousands of voicemails and emails.”
Ms Gadd told the Guardian that she had done some things wrong and could have handled the situation better.
“I wasn’t a perfect person. [back then]So it makes no sense to say that I was,” Gad admitted. “And when I play these sections, I know that people think I’m not a nice person. That’s what makes acting difficult.”
Rather than glorify the act, Gadd wanted to clearly depict what stalking was in “Baby Reindeer.”
“Television stalking tends to be very sexy. It’s mysterious. It’s someone in a dark alley. They’re really sexy, normal people, and then they start to go a little weird.” Gad told Netflix’s TuDum. “But stalking is a mental illness. We wanted to show a humanizing layer of stalking that we haven’t seen on TV before. It’s a stalking story turned on its head. It takes a metaphor and turns it on its head. Masu.”
“Baby Reindeer” stars Gad, Nava Mau and Jessica Gunning. The seven-episode miniseries will be directed by Weronika Tofilska and produced by Matthew Mulot.
