A look at Richard Gadd’s intense transformation in order to appear ‘neurotic’ on Baby Reindeer

He drastically changed his appearance for the series

7 months ago

Unsurprisingly, everyone is still reeling on the aftershocks of Baby Reindeer. I mean, it’s not hard to see why after learning the whole series is based on a true story and that Richard Gadd actually retold his own harrowing experience through Donny. But on top of reliving his episode of being stalked, Richard Gadd went through a big transformation before Baby Reindeer. Here’s a look at what he did to become fit for the part.

After Richard reported being harassed by his real life Martha to the police for six whole years, they finally intervened and took action when she became threatening. Following the release of the series, Richard explained that the experience left him suffering from trust issues even until now. The comedian revealed that he’s still working through the trauma of what happened to him and his family in therapy, and spoke of how he feels about it all now.

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Speaking to The Times, Richard said that all of those years of being stalked gave him something “like PTSD”, resulting in dramatic weight loss due to stress. In order to reflect this in the series, Richard actually dropped a significant amount of body fat in order to match the weight he was in this troubling period of his life.

via Instagram and Netflix

If you remember Donny’s worried state across the series, he looked constantly paranoid and almost ill as the negative thoughts piled onto him. So weighing in at 10 and a half stone (66.6kg) during the series, the Baby Reindeer star said he stripped the weight in order to resemble himself as the “neurotic” person he felt he was at the peak of his stalking episode.

This isn’t the first time Richard has drastically changed his appearance for a show. He previously weighed 15 stone before filming Baby Reindeer after he put on the pounds for a role in the Hulu show, Wedding Season.

via Instagram and Netflix

Following the show’s release, he added that he is in fact single at the moment and revealed that he is “more cautious” of forming relationships with people following his experience with his real life Martha. Explaining how he navigates relationships with people now, he said: “It takes me a long time to trust them. Before, I entered situations with such abandonment and I got burnt.”

Baby Reindeer is available on Netflix now. For more like this look at Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer transformation and all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.