Supposed real-life Baby Reindeer inspiration challenges events, considers lawsuit
Richard Gadd's alleged actual stalker now claims to be the victim of his Netflix series Baby Reindeer
Aux News Baby Reindeer
Richard Gadd’s real stalker, who was the inspiration for the comedian’s hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer, is considering legal action against him, according to The Daily Mail. The unnamed woman claimed to the outlet that Gadd didn’t do enough to obscure her true identity in the show, leading to online “death threats and abuse from Richard Gadd supporters.” She accused him of “bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune,” and said, “He’s using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now. I’m the victim. He’s written a bloody show about me.”
Baby Reindeer is a fictionalized account of a real-life experience Gadd had, in which lending an older woman sympathetic kindness led to a complete disruption of his life. Gadd’s stalker reportedly sent him 41,071 emails, 46 Facebook messages, 744 tweets, and 106 pages of letters. The anonymous woman who spoke to The Daily Mail denied being a stalker, but observed many similarities between herself and the fictionalized version, a character named Martha. According to the outlet, “both women are Scottish, both studied law at university, both are around 20 years older than Gadd and both use highly sexualised language in their speech and writing.” The headline about Martha’s previous stalking conviction was similar to one about this anonymous woman, and she said that she had a similar exchange with him about moisturizer. The actor who played Martha “sort of looks like me after I put on four stone during lockdown but I’m not actually unattractive,” the woman added.
(One difference she noted is that “I’ve never owned a toy baby reindeer and I wouldn’t have had any conversation with Richard Gadd about a childhood toy either.”)
Despite Gadd’s attempt to make his characters less identifiable, fans have still done their own investigating. That includes attempting to hunt down another abuser of Gadd’s depicted in the show; some believed that the man who groomed and raped Gadd (a character called Darien O’Connor in the series) could have been theater director Sean Foley. However, Gadd posted on his Instagram story (via The Hollywood Reporter), “People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation. Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”
Gadd told Variety that his show was “emotionally 100% true” but that “you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons.” He explained that “obviously, we were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don’t want to make their lives more difficult. So you have to change things to protect yourself and protect other people.”
Baby Reindeer is empathetic to all its characters, including Martha, the stalker. Jessica Gunning’s performance “leaves you gasping with fear yet invokes a disconcerting sensitivity to Martha’s plight,” The A.V. Club’s Saloni Gajjar writes in her recommendation of the series. “It makes us question why she didn’t get the help she needed, and who she could’ve turned to and asked for it. So against all odds, why are we feeling bad for Martha, who is completely in the wrong here?”
“I felt like there was a vulnerable person who genuinely couldn’t stop, who for whatever reason had believed the reality that was inside her head and no matter what couldn’t change from that,” Gadd previously said of writing a character who, in real life, caused him harm. “I mean, it is a mental illness and I wanted to portray that. I did see someone who I felt sorry for.”
The writer told Variety that “due to where things ended in real life, it’s not a concern for me” that his actual stalker might get back in contact. However, that obviously doesn’t include her speaking to the press independently. No matter how empathetically she may have been portrayed, she nevertheless accused Gadd of having “main character syndrome.” She said, “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? If he wanted me to be properly anonymous, he could have done so. Gadd should leave me alone.”
61 Comments
“I’m not writing shows about him or promoting them in the media, am I?”Yep. That’s how it works. You just decide you want to write a show, then it happens.
Yes. It is. Nobody -literally NOBODY- is stopping her from writing anything she wants.
you repeated the paragraph about “emotionally 100% true”. can you guys please hire a copyeditor
But Gadd said his show was “emotionally 100% true” but that “you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons.” He explained that “obviously, we were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don’t want to make their lives more difficult. So you have to change things to protect yourself and protect other people.”?
Was that when he told Variety that his show was “emotionally 100% true” but that “you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons.” He explained that “obviously, we were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don’t want to make their lives more difficult. So you have to change things to protect yourself and protect other people.”
I wonder whether or not the show depicted the exact truth of what happened?
I don’t know, but if I remember one thing from the article it’s that Gadd said his show was “emotionally 100% true” but that “you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons.” He explained that “obviously, we were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don’t want to make their lives more difficult. So you have to change things to protect yourself and protect other people.”?
Why do you keep typing out the same quote? are you a bot or something?
I know for certain that parts of the story were changed as Gadd was already a pretty successful comedian in 2014 when I saw his show Cheese And Crackwhores at the Soho Theatre (https://www.comedy.co.uk/fringe/2013/richard_gadd/), so the idea that he was a struggling unknown wasn’t true. Which initially didn’t bother me when I was watching the show as I thought he’d changed a lot of it to protect whoever it was who stalked him, but given that’s apparently not the case, an that it’s an important theme in the series, it now seems odd that that part was definitely fictional.
I read that the emails on the show were actual emails he received.
can you guys please hire a copyeditor- the A.V. Club
She’s got “telling on herself” syndrome. In this case, she’s telling us that her threatened lawsuit is another attempt to harass this man. The actor portraying her doesn’t look like she did when she stalked him. The script portrays things that aren’t accurate to how she stalked him. People were able to find her online because of a story he created based upon her actual behaviors. Some of those people threatened her. She’s not in the media threatening to sue them, though…
“It makes us question why she didn’t get the help she needed, and who she could’ve turned to and asked for it.”
Here’s the answer for you. People don’t GAF about a vulnerable woman who needs help and most women know that after having repeatedly tried to get help.
And you answered your own very stupid question: “Who could she have turned to?”
This is a very bad take.
“This is a very bad take.”So is justifying a stalkers behavior.
Oh please. Lots of women are disappointed/unhappy/unfulfilled/rejected/WHATEVER and they don’t turn into violent stalkers.
You sound insane. By asking those questions it’s bringing up the very issues you’re talking about and forcing people to consider those kinds of issues.
Yeah, because there’s no such thing as therapy, right?Do you ever have a reasonable take on anything or are you just the dumbest fuck around?
I think you misunderstood what was being said, the reviewer isn’t criticising Martha for not getting help, they’re asking why she wasn’t given any.
That is my point. If you’re having problems reading just try sounding out the words.
BreadnMaters isn’t one of the sharpest commenters here.
“Gadd should leave me alone.” – his stalker.on another note people should get better at titling their shows. First there was “The Bear” and now this.
Considering how well The Bear and this are doing, I don’t think they have any reason to question the titles they chose.
Not sure about the other show but this is on Netflix so no one has any idea how popular this show is other than taking the company’s word. Of course we all know no one would astroturf positive criticism and publicity and that outlets like this would never participate if they were to try.
Fair point, Netflix is a bit of a black box when it comes to viewership data. The Bear (FX) however was universally acclaimed and had a ton of reward nominations to back that up so that doesn’t appear to be due to an secret astroturf campaign. I assume Baby Reindeer is doing well because I have only heard good things, including from people who I know personally that aren’t part of a positive astroturf situation.
It certainly doesn’t seem to be unknown due to its title, in any case.
I was surprised to find out it wasn’t a “Reindeer Games” prequel. Figured Affleck wanted some redemption. I’m sure this show is fine, it just sucks how streaming removes all meaningful data besides “buzz”, that notoriously easy to manufacture and easier to lose elusive quality that could mean something is the best, worst or most mediocre.In that paragraph I originally missed a space between ‘sucks’ and ‘how’ and Google corrected it to ‘buckshot’. I won’t stand for some Puritanical keyboard trying to keep me from typing about a suckshow so I saved the word. Now I just have to be careful my shotgun discussions don’t take an unexpected turn. “Anyone trespassing on my land will get a face full of suckshow” and so on.
the point is they deserve better names. just garbage names
It wasn’t a serious complaint. I just like the idea that someone is tuning in expecting to see these animals.
Weird examples. I haven’t seen this show, but the title definitely made me interested, especially after discovering the premise – it seems like the kind of thing that has the potential to be some kind of poignant metaphor. Same thing with The Bear – it has multiple meanings, some explained within the show and some that are more thematic.
I’m watching The Patriot on Prime and if it had less of a generic spy-show name I think it would’ve been more popular (it is anything but generic, even though it is a spy show).
If she’s his stalker… SHE CAN FUCK OFF!!!!!!! Thank you’re higher power you’re not in prison you goddamn psycho.
I wonder if he still masturbates over her sometimes.
All four stone of her? (whatever that means)
A show set in the U.K., written by someone from the U.K., using the language of the U.K., and the English is being criticised for being unintelligible by… an American? And by an arachnid no less! It’s spiders what can’t talk proper lingo, damnit.
“SOME COMMENT”
I think that was what we Americans call a joke.
Google is your friend.
…Google is my friend…
lmao wtf
This should be under “Great Job Stupid Fucking Internet For Being Creepier than stalkers by finding the real people. Fuck off and get a life.”
The problem is that she’s the one to come forward to identify herself. She actually could have been left alone and enjoyed her privacy.
“The actor who played Martha “sort of looks like me after I put on four stone during lockdown but I’m not actually unattractive,” the woman added.”That just sounds like this woman slamming the actress, to be honest.
It sounds just like something the fictional Martha would say, which doesn’t help me believe Gadd misrepresented her.
Yep she still sounds like an asshole!
Regular people don’t know what a stone is. Speak English!
Irony overload… irony overload…
I’m fun.
I gotta admit, if you told me there were MANY narrative liberties taken with this show, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. I’m not questioning the veracity of any of the absolutely awful parts of this narrative, or accusing Gadd of any Hassan Minhaj “Truth is merely an artist’s clay” stuff, but there’s a lot there that feels pre-packaged for a studio pitch, right down to the “this is a true story” title card.
Those actors appear roughly the same age rather than the 20 year gap described.
The trailer made me so uncomfortable I cannot watch – that and what I saw on gogglebox. Ew ew ew ew. Nope. I HAD a stalker – this character (the dude) lacks any trace of a spine. At no time does he seem to tell the loon off (from what I saw). And stalkers in MY experience don’t tend to be this brazen because they are somewhat aware that they’re in the wrong.
Everything you just said is addressed (repeatedly) in the show.
You should check out “I am a Stalker” on Netflix.
I mean that’s a whole part of the story. Him being like why didn’t I do anything about this before it got out of hand?
Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t expect someone who HAD a stalker to want to watch a show like this. Remember how into it all Jeffrey Dahmer’s survivors and victims’ families were about participating in that show?
Thanks for getting it. I don’t watch stuff that upsets me anymore. The real world has that covered.
Looking forward to your other reviews making broad generalizations based on not even watching the show and comparing what you didn’t see to your own personal experience only. So insightful.
Go fuck yourself. Bet you’ve stalked some exes in your life – SO full of empathy you are.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before this moment.
according to The Daily MailNope. Stop. When will US publications stop taking this seriously/linking to it.
They do it with the Sun as well. There’s no telling them. It’s just like how they continue to publish articles about the bloody royal family.
That scans
This happened to Sarah McLachlan, too. She wrote “Possession” about the stalker who wrote her dozens and dozens of letters, using some of his words, then when the song became a hit, filed a lawsuit against her. The suit didn’t go very far, though, because he committed suicide before it could. I suppose self-awareness isn’t big in the stalker circle.