British actress Jessica Gunning said she typically has a “what will be, will be” attitude toward auditions. However, that was not the case when she attempted to play Martha in the surprise hit Netflix series “Baby Reindeer.”
“I really fought for it,” he said in a video interview this week. “I really thought, if this gets into the wrong hands and is ever played by an actress who finds her scary, or plays some kind of crazy version of a stalker, I think you would completely ruin what is so thoughtful and nuanced. , delicate narration.”
That narrative was born from creator and star Richard Gadd's real-life experience with bullying, which began as a one-man show and was woven into a dark comic miniseries about isolation and the aftermath of abuse. In the show, Gadd plays Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian working as a bartender who one day offers a cup of tea to Martha (Gunning), a crying woman. What starts with some mutual flattery eventually turns somber when Martha's affection turns into relentless harassment and threats.
But Gunning's performance never descends into horror-movie mockery or villainy. The Martha she creates may be terrifying in her fury, yes, but she is also rooted in deep sadness. Speaking from London, Gunning, whose credits include Prime Video and the BBC's “The Outlaws” and the film “Pride,” explained how he approached Martha and why he didn't ask Gadd for details about her counterpart in life. real. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In “Baby Reindeer,” Jessica Gunning plays Martha Scott, a woman who becomes increasingly fond of bartender and aspiring comedian Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd).
(Netflix)
How did you start thinking about how you wanted to play Martha?
I think the way I always try to approach any kind of role I play is [to perform it] as sincerely as possible. She would try to imagine, I guess, her home life and how she would take whatever little thing Donny had said to her and hold it so tight.. There's an amazing sequence at the end of the series where he listens to all these voicemails from her. There's a moment where he says, “You were wearing a white shirt and I thought in my head that you would look great in red, and the next day you were wearing red.”
I think she felt like she was a little magical with him. It's an unconventional and unrequited love story from Martha's point of view, so that's how I approached it. I never saw it as a kind of bully-victim story. You can never play someone with bad intentions. I don't think she ever intended to be scary, even if she was received that way.
Did you think about mental health when playing her?
This entire story is told from Donny's point of view, so we are never with Martha's story in that regard. But as an actor approaching a role like that, one of the themes of the show that runs through it, through many of the characters, is trauma. Obviously, what happens to Donny in episode 4? [which documents his sexual assault by an older man who was a mentor] It's a big part of how he responds to Martha and why he feels so connected to her when he first meets her, because she sees something in him that not many people have seen before. That's what brings them together very quickly. I think he would always try to connect any aspect of her to some sort of shared past trauma. I just think about how she would have felt about this guy too. I mean, he even tells himself in the voiceovers, he flirts with her, he compliments her, especially in those early episodes. She probably felt very flattered and like they were in a proper relationship.
What was it like recording your voice messages? By the end of the series, Donny starts listening to them almost like he would a podcast or an album.
I prerecorded just for us the voicemails so we would have them if we ever did. [the production team] I wanted to perform them in the scene for Richard, just to add a little texture instead of him imagining them. But then, obviously, months later, after everything is finished and cut, you go back and do it in ADR. [dialogue recorded in the studio after filming]. It was really an emotional moment because the show was already over. He hadn't seen Richard for probably another six months because he had been part of the cut with the directors and was very, very immersed in it. I think by then he had already filmed another show. I came back and then we did all the ADR of the voicemails, but the last one we had together was the final voicemail, and it never, ever stopped moving me. Even when I think about it, I feel very, very excited because, in a way, it's the crux of the whole story. We were both crying. It was a really nice way to say goodbye and goodbye to the show.
“I think she felt like she was a little bit magical with him,” Jessica Gunning says of Martha and her relationship with Donny (Richard Gadd).
(Ed Miller/Netflix)
What was the experience of filming the moment when Martha attacks Teri, Donny's girlfriend, played by Nava Mau?
They were very intense days and I was obviously very concerned that Nava always felt safe and protected. We had really amazing rehearsals beforehand with the fight coordinator just to make sure everything was in place, so it was almost a dance and nothing was a surprise. That was really good in that sense because we had the opportunity to practice a lot together before we started filming.
Someone said the other day, “Your body doesn't know what's fake and what's not, and it's very hard to get to that place.” He used to always think that when actors said that, he would have a blank stare moment like, “Ugh, actors.” But actually, it's very true. You really feel like you've been through something pretty traumatic because your body doesn't know otherwise. Also, all those days when we were filming Martha at the bus stop and Donny taking her back to her house, those are very emotional days and you can't help but be affected by them. But hopefully we were all there for each other and had a chance to check it out afterwards and take a breather, because in addition to it being based on a true story, it's obviously all of us acting. It was a good balance.
Did Richard ever talk to you about the person Martha is based on?
He really didn't, no, and it was an active decision on both sides. I'm not impersonating her when we do this show. I'm doing my interpretation of this incredible character that she's written, and I felt like it would muddy it up too much because that's not what it is. Everything is told from Donny's point of view and is based on a true story. I didn't really find it useful to know much about her person just because Martha is a character, so I'm doing my interpretation of her.
You mentioned the idea that your body doesn't know what's fake, so I was wondering what you did to get rid of Martha once you went home for the night.
All the way through while I was filming, I was obsessed with the story, so I didn't get rid of Donny and Martha until we finished filming. I was very lucky: my final scene was my final scene. It was the courtroom scene, so I thought it was a really lovely way to sum it all up because Richard had written this incredible stage direction right for the moment when he realizes that Donny is watching the court case. He says that in the script they look into each other's eyes. This is neither a scare moment nor a success story. It's just two lost people looking at each other, and that's the kind of thing I take away from the whole thing. In the end there is no winner. They're just two lonely, lonely souls who had a crazy time together and from there came this incredible story, but you're not left feeling like everything is tied up.
“All those days when we were filming Martha at the bus stop and Donny was driving her back home, those are very emotional days and you can't help but be affected by them,” says actress Jessica Gunning.
(Ed Miller/Netflix)
In that scene, did you think about Martha's future and what that might hold for her?
I didn't really think too consciously about it. In that scene, I guess it was more of her apology to him by admitting that she is guilty. It's his way of asking for forgiveness from him. I think that's why I focused more on it, which made me more excited. The fact that she doesn't say “not guilty.” It is very important that she agree that she caused some harm by her actions, and that would have been very difficult for her to admit.
What have you thought about the reactions to Martha when people watch the show?
I haven't seen much because I'm not on social media, but I've been in London and a few people came up and were great and very complimentary about the show in general. Often, if they ask you for a selfie, they'll make the joke, “I won't ask for your number,” and I'll say, “Oh, great.” I get a lot of lovely messages from friends saying “sent from my iPhone”, misspelled, which is really nice. I'm so glad that it captured so many people and that people are so moved, and people just binge-watch it in one sitting, which I can't believe. I had to separate it when I first saw it.
