'Baby Reindeer's Jessica Gunning Has Some Thoughts About A Second Season
‘I thought it would be a slow burner,’ Jessica Gunning, one of the stars of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer tells ELLE UK over Zoom. ‘The sort of show that you hear about from somebody, and you ask whether it’s a Christmas thing because you’ve never heard of it.’
Of course, what became of the Netflix adaptation of Richard Gadd’s Olivier Award-winning Edinburgh Fringe one-man play, is about as far from a slow burner as you could get. In the three days after its release on April 11, the seven-episode series had been watched by more than 2.6 million viewers and has since been the streaming service’s consistent number one TV show in both the US and the UK. The response, Gunning, who also stars alongside Stephen Merchant in BBC drama The Outlaws, says, has been ‘incredible.’
FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE
Gunning plays Martha, a woman who starts stalking a comedian, played by Gadd, by the name of Donny Dun; but, if such a thing existed, this is not a traditional stalking story, although it is based on real events. Rather it is one of the most powerful portrayals of victimhood, sexual assault and the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive. It affords both Martha and Donny humanity and paints them as entirely and wholly human; flawed, multi-faceted, nuanced. Neither is a victim or a villain, and therein lies the series' power. It also perfectly depicts the tightrope of the nuances of stalking in the age of technology, where we so unwittingly share locations and details about ourselves.
‘It’s not a black and white story at all,’ Gunning adds. 'It's different because they meet before the stalking begins, there's this random act of kindness that I think Donny knows will mean a lot to Martha. But he was a comedian at the time and he obviously posted things online, which meant that she got a lot more chance to have an insight into his life than she would do if he wasn't online. She'd find out where his gigs were and and go to see them. It's a testament to online presence, for sure.'
After seeing Gadd’s 2017 Edinburgh Fringe play Monkey See, Monkey Do, which was based on episode four of the Netflix series, Gunning tried – but failed – to see Baby Reindeer two years later, but it was the runaway hit of the festival that year and was totally sold out. Instead, Gunning bought the script of Baby Reindeer – a move she jokes is ‘very Martha’ of her – and three years later, the call came asking her to audition. ‘Martha is such an endearing character,’ she says. ‘That initial script that I read made me feel like I knew her.’
The audition process for the role took four months, and filming for the series took a further six. There were stringent measures put in place to ensure that the true identities of the characters involved were protected, but earlier this week, Gadd shared a message to his Instagram account. ‘People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation,’ it read. ‘Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.’ In the seven days following the show’s release, Google reported that searches for people the internet believed it had deduced to be the real-life Baby Reindeer characters spiked by 5,000%.
‘I get the impulse, I think nobody expected Baby Reindeer to have this much attention in just two weeks,’ she says. ‘But finding out the real identities of people isn’t the point of the show. Identities were changed for a reason, and of course people are fascinated but the show is about these two lost, lonely characters that find each other, and Richard did that in such a sensitive way that I hope people can just understand that this isn’t about the real people it’s based on.’
It’s the complicated relationship between Donny and Martha and the subtleties of their companionship that makes Baby Reindeer such an intoxicating watch. To prepare for the role, Gunning read the material of stalking charities and watched the films King of Comedy and Misery. She also worked with an accent coach on perfecting Martha's Scottish accent – Gunning is originally from Yorkshire – but found that the character's core was in Gadd's original script. 'He wrote Martha's character with such care. I really, really connected to her, especially with that final voicemail, which I think in many ways was really the key to her,’ she adds.
As for a sophomoric season, Gunning remains shtum. ‘I don’t know if there would be a season two of Baby Reindeer, and I don’t know what it would look like,’ she says. ‘I think it was a one-off thing, but who knows.’ Next up for Gunning will be the May release of the third season of The Outlaws, and a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe in August to watch her friends' sketch comedy and, what could well turn out to be, the next Baby Reindeer.
ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.
You Might Also Like
