“Baby Reindeer” actress explains why she’s not interested in real-life Martha

Jessica Gunning the actress who played Martha in “Baby Reindeer” said that he has not paid much attention to the statements of the woman who claims to have inspired his character or to the fans' hunt to discover who the real-life people who inspired the series were.

“Because me and Richard [Gadd] We have a close bond and I'm very worried about anything that might upset him. He's a survivor of sexual assault and he was stalked, and I think any search for real people almost downplays that a little bit,” Gunning said in an interview with Radio Times.

The series “Baby Rena”, created, written and starring Richard Gadd , is based on a story that happened to the author. He plays the character Donny Dunn, a fictionalized version of himself, who is pursued by an older woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning), after they meet in a pub in London.

With the success of the series, a woman named Fiona Harvey started appearing in the media claiming to be the person who pursued Gadd and inspired Martha, and threatening to sue Netflix over the series.

For Gunning, it is “inevitable” that people try to find out who the real characters portrayed in the story are, but he knows that Gadd would not like that. “He has said in the past that he didn't want any Internet detectives to go out and try to find the identities of these real people. He deliberately changed his identity for a reason,” said the actress.

When asked if she considers the fact that the series was based on real people to be “problematic”, she replied: “I wouldn’t use the word problematic, I would say, perhaps, sensitive. I absolutely saw Martha as a character, I wasn't doing an imitation of a real person. She was very clear to me in the script, but I didn't really know anything about the real person. And Richard is also playing a character. When I was acting with him, it felt like he was in character, it didn't feel like we were recreating scenes for some documentary, it felt like we were playing these characters in an emotionally truthful world.”

Gunning also came to the defense of Richard Gadd, who began to receive criticism after the controversy generated by his series: “I think he was incredibly brave in exposing everything. He really put everything into that show, warts and all, mistakes were made. I don't think I've seen anything like this. I'm always fiercely protective of him and I want to make sure none of this is upsetting to him, really, so I try to stay away from any of that stuff.”

Woman who claims to be Martha from “Baby Reindeer” comments on the series