Richard Gadd wanted to ‘explore trauma more than anything’ with ‘Baby Reindeer’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
Netflix approached Richard Gadd about adapting his hit one-man stage show “Baby Reindeer” into a series, but the comedian had screen aspirations for his Olivier Award winner way before that. “I always thought that it had televisual potential,” Gadd tells Gold Derby (watch the exclusive video interview above). “Even when I was writing the play, I kept thinking it has quite a lot of interesting things that would work in the television realm. I think the characters are quite interesting and it’s a thriller. It hard a sort of fast-paced breathlessness to it that I think works in the thriller genre. Firstly, I wanted it to succeed as a theater show, but in the back of my mind, I thought I hope it does go on to have a life beyond the stage for sure.”
“Baby Reindeer’s” screen life has taken everyone, including Gadd, by surprise. Based on Gadd’s real experience with a stalker, the limited series has been a massive hit for Netflix after quietly dropping on April 11. Gadd plays struggling comedian and bartender Donny, who serves a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) a free cup of tea. She soon begins harassing and stalking Donny, but to call the show just a “stalker series” would be a disservice — and not Gadd’s intention. Donny frequently indulges in Martha’s behavior and is full of shame, self-loathing and self-destructive tendencies. The fourth episode, a flashback, reveals that Donny was groomed and sexually abused by one of his comedy idols, Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill), who had ostensibly taken him under his wing.
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“I always wanted to explore trauma more than I did anything else,” Gadd says. “I always thought the way the show would be packaged and sold is ‘It’s a stalker story.’ But you unwrap the bow of it and you look inside, and it’s a show about trauma. Everyone — not just Martha and Donny, but Donny’s dad, Nava [Mau, who plays Donny’s trans girlfriend Teri] — they all have their own battles, their own internal struggles that they go through. And I really wanted to show the complications of trauma. Trauma can feel so messy and create such odd behaviors in people, and I really just wanted to demonstrate that onscreen. It was very important to me that the show was layered and contradictory and kind of weird and uncomfortable because that’s kind of what trauma is.”
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It was also important for Gadd to avoid the stereotypical trope of a crazy stalker and innocent victim on “Baby Reindeer.” He knows he was, for the lack of a better term, part of the problem. Donny is not fully innocent or fully to blame and Martha isn’t one or the other either. They’re both wounded souls wanting to be seen. Publicly taking accountability for his actions wasn’t the easiest for Gadd — in early drafts of the stage show, he was “cutting the truth out and really making myself look really good” before realizing the potency of owning up.
“One of the most unnerving parts about it was admitting that I’d made mistakes in an age where morality is so at the forefront of society and culture and this industry and everything. It was very nerve-wracking, but I’d certainly rather put myself forward as someone who’s made mistakes than kind of sell out on the truth of the story. I always think you lose art the second you become dishonest in a way. I always think, like, if it’s truthful, you can’t really argue with it,” he explains. “I thought it was more interesting and radical even to sort of actually just admit that I’ve made mistakes. And I think anyone who watches ‘Baby Reindeer,’ I think, can relate to the fact that they haven’t always said the right thing in the right moment, that they’ve let people down in the wrong way, that they’ve made mistakes in love and in life and all kinds of things.”
The Scot believes his warts-and-all candidness is why “Baby Reindeer” has struck a chord with viewers. “A lot of art and TV of late — not everything — have made its moral points so clear and so pure, and the characters have to be so good, especially the main characters and central characters. And good and evil — it’s all so clear,” he notes. “But life doesn’t kind of work that way. And I think people were crying out to see these sort of inconsistencies of character and contradiction of character onscreen.”
Gadd, who’s currently writing the BBC One show “Lions,” has been through a whirlwind since “Baby Reindeer” exploded nearly two months ago. His anonymity is gone, his phone is blowing up — things he never imagined before the show went out into the world. “It felt like ‘Baby Reindeer’ was released on the 11th of April and I think I sat at home thinking, ‘OK, maybe a couple of people will watch this weekend. Maybe I’ll get a few texts messages this weekend,'” he recalls. “The second it went out at like 8 in the morning U.K. time, it just seemed to explode. I felt like my phone’s been ringing ever since. I suppose what that brings is a level of fandom I’ve never had. I’ve always had quite a loyal fan base through the other work I’ve done, but it’s just brought such an intense spotlight to me, which brings lots of conversations and stuff like that. But at the same time, it’s hugely gratifying that so many people have been positively impacted by the show and so many people have responded that they’ve had.”
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