The shocking story of baby reindeer is so true

The British series Reindeerbaby has been conquering Netflix for a few days and is currently in Number 1 in the series charts in over 50 countries of the streamer – including in Germany. Lead actor and series creator Richard Gadd processes experiences from his own life and spins an incredible and stark story that has already captivated millions of viewers. We explain the background to baby reindeer.

From the theater stage to Netflix: Baby Reindeer started as a one-man show for Richard Gadd

In Baby Reindeer, Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) tries to get started as a comedian and author in London. When he meets Martha (Jessica Gunning) in a pub one day and receives unusually strong attention from her, he has no idea what will soon follow: messages, calls and voicemails on a continuous loop. Finally, Donny becomes afraid for his life. While he himself deals with his stalker, He also learns to confront his past trauma as a victim of sexual violence.

Richard Gadd first brought the story of Baby Reindeer to the theater stage, opening it as a one-man show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019. The festival paved the way for successful series such as Fleabag, which also began there as a one-woman show by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Because of his shocking and powerfully told story Gadd quickly found widespread acceptance with Reindeer Baby and was subsequently able to secure a series deal with Netflix.

“100% emotionally true”: Richard Gadd processes his trauma in Baby Reindeer

Speaking to Variety, Richard Gadd explained that he drew on his own lived experiences for the series:

Emotionally everything is 100% true, if that makes sense. It’s all based on experiences that happened to me and other real people I met. But of course you can’t represent the exact truth, for legal and creative reasons. […] It comes from an emotional truth and that’s what people can empathize with the most.

In a candid statement that Gadd wrote upon the release of Baby Reindeer on Netflix, he described the difficult process of coming to terms with what he experienced in the series:

It felt risky to portray all the unpleasantness of history, where I did too all the mistakes I made myself with Martha, tackle. The thoughtless flirting. The cowardly excuses why we can’t be together. And of course the internalized prejudices and sexual shame that underlie it. The graphic details of the drugging, grooming and sexual violence that I experienced myself just a few years earlier.

As The Independent reported at the premiere of Baby Reindeer at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Gadd has a total of over 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters as well as sleeping pills, a wool hat, a new pair of boxer shorts and a reindeer toy from his real stalker. The real “Martha” also came to his stage appearances and visited him in front of his house.

When Gadd went to the police with his experiences, he was initially ridiculed: “The laws that cover harassment and assault are so stupid. They look for black and white, good and bad, but that’s not how it works.”

While Martha is sentenced in the series to a prison sentence and a restraining order, the author and actor has not yet spoken publicly about it. how the case turned out in real life (via Time).

Baby Reindeer has been available as a streaming subscription on Netflix since April 11, 2024. The series consists of seven episodes.

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