“This is a true story.” so it begins “Baby reindeer” that disturbs those who saw it on Netflix, making it the most watched series on the streaming platform worldwide.
The fiction portrays the true ordeal that the creator and protagonist of the series went through with a stalker who harassed him for more than three years. And the sexual abuse he suffered.
The real story behind “Baby Reindeer”
The British miniseries available on Netflix shows in detail the harassment experienced by Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, who turned the event into a play that he now adapted and stars in for TV. The series goes from dark comedy, in its first episodes, to unimaginable drama at the end.
But what is the real story of Gadd who grew up in Wormit, Scotland. His father worked in a university laboratory; his mother, in schools. He dedicated himself to art.
The truly shocking thing is that everything that happens to the protagonist happened to that same person in real life.
Spoiler alert. Gadd, the real-life victim, is a small-time comedian and star of Reindeer Baby. In the series he calls himself Donny Dunn and narrates two defining moments in his life: the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of an older man and the fierce harassment he received from a woman years later. The story focuses on harassment, but is transversally crossed by the story of sexual abuse.
What Richard Gadd said about Baby Reindeer and his true story of harassment and abuse
Gadd chillingly recounts how a man of power in the world of British comedy repeatedly abused him with the promise of making him succeed. In real life he was never denounced.
For Gadd it was “really difficult” to relive what he suffered. In a note to Guardian account: “The series had triggering elements. But you hope it becomes a catharsis, which doesn’t really come from revisiting it, but from the positive response, the acceptance that people show you.”
“I could see that some members of the prop department were choked up, even the lighting crew, but we all knew we were moving towards something that was important.”
Furthermore, in conversation with The MorningGadd said that he experienced the writing process as a “catharsis” and that it was “the best therapy” to try to get out of the situation he suffered.
baby reindeer arose from a one-man show that Gadd himself starred in at the age of 27 in Edinburgh, in 2016. In a show called Monkey See Monkey Do, the actor recounted the episode of abuse that changed his life. The work was so successful that Netflix saw it and contacted him so that his story of improvement could become a miniseries.
It is clear that Gadd in the series had to rearrange the chronology of events to make it more attractive. But the story is disturbing in itself.
Martha, the stalker in the series, is not actually called that and for now the protagonist asks not to identify her in real life.
“It’s very true emotionally, obviously: I was severely harassed and severely abused. But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, in addition to protecting the people on whom it is based.Gadd said to Guardian.
“I don’t think I would have been able to survive if I had bottled it up and kept doing these one-liners and superficial routines. It was almost a survival choice. Because she was struggling a lot.” In addition to what he had already suffered because of his abuser, Gadd In 2015 he began to be fiercely harassed by a woman two decades older.
Bullying in numbers
During four and a half yearsthat woman sent Gadd 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voice messages, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters.
He also gave him the strangest gifts, such as a toy reindeer and even underwear. She stalked him outside his house, at work, and even at his comedy shows. Incredible but real.
The case escalated when the woman got involved with Gadd’s parents and partner. This made the comedian report her to the police. The attack on her romantic relationship, a trans woman she meets through a dating app, takes center stage in the plot.
Of the British police, Gadd told The Guardian: “It is an institution that needs to change. I was always aware of the complete lack of resources available to them, the stress on their eyes and their bodies; I could almost see it. Our public services are in complete disarray. “I don’t want to get too political, but I think it’s shocking that things have been allowed to get to this point.”
Gadd’s stalker will not be identified: her request
In real life, Gadd didn’t send his stalker to prison. “We’ve done everything we can to disguise her to the point where I don’t think she recognizes herself. What she borrowed is an emotional truth”said.
He still doesn’t know if the real-life Martha watched the series. The author did not even dare to predict how the miniseries would have been taken, since his reactions, in the end, “were completely unpredictable.”
Gadd told Times that “I didn’t want to send someone who had that level of mental distress to prison.” However, she did confirm that the situation is now “resolved.”
It is unknown for now what became of the life of Gadd’s stalker in real life.
The creator of Baby Reindeer has spoken out against those who have been trying to track down the real-life figures depicted on his show.
The Netflix original was based on real experiences from Richard’s life and has already been a hit with both critics and users of the service. streaming.
“People I love, have worked with and admire… are unfairly caught up in speculation,” Richard wrote on his Instagram Story on Monday night. “Please don’t speculate about who the real-life people might be.”
“That is not the goal of our program,” he added.
When discussing the project with The Independent In 2019, he insisted on his real-life stalker: “I can’t emphasize enough how much of a victim she is in all of this. When we think of stalkers, we always think of movies like Misery and Fatal Attraction, where the stalker is a monstrous figure at night in an alley.” “But usually it is a previous relationship, someone you know or a work colleague. Stalking and harassment is a form of mental illness. It would have been a mistake to paint her as a monster, because she is not well and the system has failed her.”.
