Richard Gadd, who created the series and plays the lead role, has explained that “Baby Reindeer” is based on his own experiences of being stalked and abused.
But the success meant that many began digging into history to try to find out the true identity of the perpetrators. Now the comedian wants them to stop doing it.
– Please, stop speculating about who these people really are. That's not the point of our series, Richard Gadd wrote on Instagram.
Gad, an ambassador for an organization that helps male victims of sexual assault, explains that people in his circle have been affected by all the speculation.
“Baby Reindeer” is about a comedian, Donnie, who one day meets a woman, Martha. She soon becomes completely obsessed with him and will not leave him alone.
The series is inspired by Gad's one-man show on stage and beyond the site It describes how one act of kindness leads to hundreds of messages and 40,000 emails.
The series was released on April 11 on Netflix, and has been a hit with audiences on the streaming service. Swedish director Josephine Nornbosch is behind the seven episodes.
– Stalking on TV tends to be very sexual in nature. But stalking is a mental disorder. “I really wanted to show the many layers of the chase and do so with a humanity that I've never seen on TV before,” Richard Gadd told Tudum – an event that deals with the streaming giant's original series and films.
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