Fans are excited about the new Netflix show Baby Reindeer, but many question Martha Scott’s true identity.
Comedian Richard Gadd, from Fife, plays Donny in the hit series which is based on a real experience he had with a relentless stalker.
Baby Reindeer takes its title from the nickname given to Donny by his stalker, whom he refers to simply as “Martha.”
Gadd, 34, has not revealed Martha’s real name or identity, meaning it’s incredibly difficult to know where she is now, but she opened up about her ordeal in 2019.
Martha sent him more than 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters.
Gadd, 34, has not revealed Martha’s real name or identity, meaning it’s incredibly difficult to know where she is now. Above: Martha played by Jessica Gunning
Comedian Richard Gadd, from Fife, plays Donny in the hit series which is based on a real experience he had with a relentless stalker.
He also gave him items such as sleeping pills, a woolly hat, a new pair of boxers and a stuffed reindeer.
Gadd first met his stalker after offering “a crying stranger a cup of tea” when she walked into the bar where he worked.
But Martha’s obsession grew. She began to invade her life by following him, showing up at her concerts, and even waiting outside her house.
But even though Martha affected his life for years, he said he feels sorry for her, adding that she is a victim of a “failed system.”
He told the Independent at the time: ‘I can’t emphasize enough how much of a victim she is in all of this.
‘Bullying and bullying are 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.
She told The Guardian that because she wasn’t getting the help she needed, “her instability just came to me on the phone every day.”
Netflix said that each email shown in the series was a real message sent by the woman to Gadd, giving fans a real insight into Martha’s character.
He said the woman, whose true identity is still unknown, drove a “freight train” thanks to her ability to have a normal life and relationships.
Martha (above played by Jessica Gunning) sent him more than 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters.
Gadd first met his stalker after offering “a crying stranger a cup of tea” when she walked into the bar where he worked. Above: Jessica Gunning as Martha
Gadd’s real stalker gave him a stuffed reindeer and nicknamed him ‘Baby Reindeer.’
In the Netflix series, Martha, played by Jessica Gunning in the show, receives a prison sentence for her crimes, but Gadd has not divulged the fate of his own stalker, except to say that the problem was resolved and that he never wanted do it. “Throwing someone who had that level of mental illness into prison.”
When asked if the release of the show could increase his obsessive behaviors, Gadd told the outlet, “I have to admit, it doesn’t.” Maybe seeing this in the press has made you think twice about his behavior.’
He also told GQ: “We’ve done everything we can to disguise her to the point where I don’t think she recognizes herself.”
The comedian added that the story is based on an “emotional truth” rather than a “fact-by-fact profile of someone.”
Gadd said she couldn’t predict how her stalker would react to things and called her an “idiosyncratic person.”
He says it took “years” before the police finally took his complaints seriously – and six years before they finally intervened – something that prolonged the agony of everyone involved, including his relatives.
Police told her at the time that unless her harasser became physically violent, there was little they could do to resolve the problem.
He has said that he still finds it difficult to trust people and has followed “all the therapies.”
He added that years of being bullied have left him with something “like post-traumatic stress disorder.” For the Netflix role, he lost weight to match his “neurotic” 25-pound self at the height of his own bullying nightmare.
The comedian added that the story is based on an “emotional truth” rather than a “fact-by-fact profile of someone.”
He has said that he still finds it difficult to trust people and has followed “all the therapies.” Above: in the program
Gadd says he is currently single and “more cautious” around people because of the campaign of terror Martha inflicted, saying, “It takes me a long time to trust them.” Before I would enter situations with so much abandon and it would burn me out.’
However, acting out a version of what happened to her has allowed her to have “ownership” of the trauma. Gadd won a Fringe Award for his show, also called Baby Reindeer, in 2019.
Talking with him Telegraph In 2019, of the one-woman show she wrote after the ordeal, currently playing at London’s Bush Theatre, she said: “It was debilitating beyond belief.
‘I listened to his voicemails and felt my eyes fill with tears. They were tears of frustration. Proper stress for the brain.