Jessica Gunning has spoken about how ‘tough’ it was playing Martha in Baby Reindeer

If you’ve seen Baby Reindeer, you’ll know that the series touches on a lot of heavy content. Written and produced by Richard Gadd, the episodes follow Martha as she grows obsessed with Donny, the character Richard plays as himself in the show. But after becoming the number one recommended watch on Netflix, Jessica Gunning, playing Martha in Baby Reindeer, has spoken about what it was really like playing Richard’s stalker.

At first glance it may be easy for viewers to dislike or even hate Martha for her behaviours towards Donny in the series. But after learning more about her and her life, there’s a notable shift when it’s learnt that the ex-lawyer has previous convictions and is fighting a mental illness herself.

Talking to the BBC, Jessica said that she “really cared about Martha” after reading about the character for the first time, adding that rather than feeling aversion towards her, she was instead intrigued by her different personas.

Explaining that she never met or researched Richard’s real life stalker, Jessica chose not to “muddy” the character and explained the importance of “interpretation” rather than “impersonation” when playing Martha, who was of course based on a person in real life.

via Netflix

The actress also said it was important not to see Martha as a “villain”, instead explaining that she actually felt a sense of commiseration towards her. She said: “I really cared about Martha, you know. As soon as I read episode one I was drawn in by her.

“I never saw her as a villain. I don’t think you can do if you’re playing that kind of part. I always saw her as multifaceted and complicated.”

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Instead, she actually felt a lot of sympathy was felt towards Martha, stemming from how the 42-year-old was seemingly pretending to live the life she should have had before being struck off from practicing her law degree.

Jessica explained Martha’s choices as being an attempt to live “the life she should have had” while instead existing in a lonely, solitary world in real life. It was therefore important for her not to play her as “mad” or “crazy” in order to establish and maintain the nuanced relationship between the two characters.