The alleged real-life Martha of ‘Baby Reindeer’ has spoken out | 79LGD08 | 2024-05-02 14:08:01
The alleged real-life Martha of 'Baby Reindeer' has spoken out | 79LGD08 | 2024-05-02 14:08:01
Is Baby Reindeer on Netflix a true story?
The horrifying and hilarious series is based on the experiences of its writer and star Richard Gadd.
By Dani Maher
Is Baby Reindeer actually a true story?
The short answer? Yes and no. Baby Reindeer is a work of fiction, but it's based largely upon the experiences of Richard Gadd, who wrote the series and plays lead character Donny.
The series is adapted from a play of the same name, which Gadd debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. It also draws upon Gadd's 2016 Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show Monkey See Monkey Do, in which he revealed the awful sexual abuse he experienced as a young comedian.
In the Baby Reindeer series, Donny (Gadd) first meets Martha (Jessica Gunning) at the bar where he works, and offers her a cup of tea on the house to cheer her up. She takes the moment of kindness fully to heart, forming a deep obsession with Donny which devolves into harassment and stalking. Martha visits Donny at the bar every day, comments on his Facebook posts, sends him countless emails, and after finding his phone number, leaves him incessant voicemails. She heckles him at his comedy shows, and harasses his ex-girlfriend as well as his current girlfriend, Teri (Nava Mau), a therapist and transgender woman.
When he goes to the police to report Martha, Donny is reminded of a series of earlier traumatic experiences. When he was a young comic at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he meets older TV writer Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill), who appears to be a promising mentor. Instead, Darrien continuously takes Donny on drug and alcohol-fuelled benders, and violently sexually assaults him during his blackouts.
While the series is based on Gadd's own experiences, he says he changed certain details to protect the identities of those involved. But the basis of Baby Reindeer is rooted in truth — particularly its emotional arc. "It's pretty truthful," he told GQ. "Any time it veered too much into embellishment I would always want to pull it back. It's extremely emotionally truthful."
Emotional journey aside, the stalking Gadd experienced in real life was very similar to that which Donny experiences in the show. Gadd's stalker sent him "41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters, sleeping pills, a woolly hat, a pair of brand new boxer shorts and a cuddly reindeer toy," he told The Independent. Sadly, the story of sexual abuse is drawn from Gadd's own experiences too.
Related: The harrowing true story behind Netflix's 'What Jennifer Did'
What happened at the end of Baby Reindeer?
At the end of the penultimate episode of Baby Reindeer, Donny has a breakdown onstage during a comedy set, telling the crowd about his sexual assault. Someone films it, and it goes viral, with people online offering sympathy for what he went through, leading to more gigs and media opportunities. Martha threatens to tell Donny's parents, so he opens up to them, telling them he's bisexual or gay (he's not sure yet), and spurred on by their support, sharing that he was sexually assaulted. He tells them he didn't open up about it earlier for fear that they would see him as "less of a man", to which his father replies, "Would you see me as less of a man?", noting that he grew up in the Catholic Church, intimating that he too has experienced sexual abuse.
Donny goes to the police again about Martha, and they tell him that they can only do something about it if there's a real threat of violence. As a result, he starts listening to all of her thousands of voicemails, categorising them in the hopes of finding a real threat, with a fervour that turns into obsession, and discovering a certain sympathy for Martha. In one of them, he finds the threat he was looking for. He reports it to the police, and she pleads guilty to three counts of harassment and three counts of stalking in court, where she's sentenced to nine months in jail. That's the last time he sees her, Donny's narration reveals.
Despite Martha being out of his life finally, Donny isn't able to shake the experience, and continues to listen to and categorise the voicemails. He goes to Darrien's apartment, possibly to confront him, but Darrien says he saw the viral video and calls him "brave", offering him a new writing job which Donny accepts. He leaves, shaken, and decides to boost his own confidence by listening to one of Martha's voicemails he categorised as "complimentary".
He goes to a bar, still listening to Martha's voicemails, and cries at one in which she opens up about her difficult childhood. He buys a drink, but he's forgotten his wallet, so the bartender offers it for free when he sees his tears. A closeup of Donny's face at this moment reveals the full-circle revelation the character experiences, perhaps feeling empathy for Martha as he finds himself in a similarly lonely, vulnerable position.
It brings to fruition the point Gadd wanted to communicate throughout the show, which revolves around the complexity of human emotions. "All I ever wanted to do was capture something complicated about the human condition," he said in a Netflix release. "That we all make mistakes. That no person is ever good or bad. That we are all lost souls looking for love in our own weird way."
In an interview with GQ, he clarified that he wanted to differentiate between the effects of Darrien's and Martha's actions towards Donny. "I wanted to show what Darrien did was perniciously evil whereas Martha's behaviour came from a place of deep vulnerability," he shared.
Who is the real Martha in Baby Reindeer?
After the show's creators advised viewers to stop digging up her identity, the alleged real-life Martha Scott has now critically spoken out about the series. According to the Daily Mail, the woman who claims to be real-life stalker has shared with the outlet that she's considering taking legal action against Richard Gadd after sleuths online began contacting her.
"Richard Gadd has got 'main character syndrome'," the woman, who has yet to be publicly identified, shared.
"He always thinks he's at the centre of things. I'm not writing shows about him or promoting them in the media, am I?"
She explained there were several similarities between herself and the Baby Reindeer character, including their age, former job and nationality. She also admitted that some of the sexual innuendo, including the "curtain" reference are in fact based on real life.
"He's using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now. I'm the victim. He's written a bloody show about me," she alleged of Gadd.
She concluded with, "If he wanted me to be properly anonymous, he could have done so."
Previously, Gadd had shared he wanted the portrayal of Martha to engender empathy, showing her as a deeply vulnerable person in need of support. "It would have been wrong to paint her as a monster, because she's unwell, and the system's failed her," he told The Independent.
Jessica Gunning, who plays Martha, also told the BBC that she doesn't encourage fans "playing detective" about her character's identity, especially since the creators went to "great lengths" to conceal them for the real people's own wellbeing and safety.
"I think it is quite sad and I would urge them to watch the show again and see that that was not the point of the show at all," Gunning said of the fans trying to identify the real Martha.
Gadd has also told fans not to try to find the real Darrien, too, adding that their failed attempts to do so have been harmful for his loved ones. In an Instagram Story, the comedian wrote: "People I love, have worked with, and admire… are unfairly getting caught up in speculation … Please don't speculate on who any of the real life people could be."
Why is it called Baby Reindeer?
In the final episode of Baby Reindeer, the series' title finally receives a full explanation. In one of her voicemails, Martha explains that she's given Donny the nickname "baby reindeer" in homage to a toy she had as a child, which offered her solace amid her tumultuous upbringing. She tells him that she sees him as that same baby reindeer: A bright spot in a dark time.
"This reindeer was this cuddly, fluffy thing. It had big lips, huge eyes, and the cutest wee bum. I still have it to this day," she says. "It was the only good thing about my childhood. I'd hug it when [my parents] fought. And they fought a lot, you know? Well, you are the spit of that reindeer. The same nose. Same eyes. Same cute wee bum. It means so much to me. You… You mean so much to me."
</div> </div> The post The alleged real-life Martha of 'Baby Reindeer' has spoken out appeared first on Harper's Bazaar Australia.
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