As fans continue to rave about the Netflix drama Baby Reindeer, one cast member in particular has captured viewers’ imaginations: Jessica Gunning, who plays Martha the stalker.
38-year-old Gunning first appears on screen when she walks timidly into the bar where Donny (Richard Gadd) works, and seems dejected as she tells him she can’t afford a cup of tea.
After Donny gives her a brew of the house as a gesture of kindness to a stranger, viewers are drawn into her complex and bizarre life as she creates fantasies about her background and eventually becomes obsessed with Donny.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Martha’s character is that she is based on a real person who pursued Gadd for four years.
Gadd has described the real Martha as a complex character who was ‘unwell and in need of help’, meaning the actress who ultimately played her had to walk some difficult lines – but in his words, Gunning did a ‘great job’.
Jessica Gunning, 38, from Yorkshire, is the standout star of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer and has wowed audiences around the world
Jessica Gunning was born in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. She has previously revealed that she fell in love with acting at a young age, when she snuck into rehearsals for school plays, which were led by her mother.
The Mirror reports that she was “impressed” by what she saw on stage, which prompted her to study acting.
After leaving school in Holmfirth, Gunning moved to Sidcup in Bexley, South East London, where she studied at the Rose Bruford drama school – an institution also attended by the likes of Stephen Graham and Gary Oldman.
When she left drama school, Gunning began her career on stage, winning a small role in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre.
Gunning plays Martha in Baby Reindeer, the fictional version of Richard Gadd’s real-life stalker
After appearing in small roles in several TV shows including Doctors, Doctor Who and Holby City, she was cast in the 2014 film Pride, a comedy/drama set in a Welsh mining town where LGBT activists from London working with miners in the village to protest against Margaret Thatcher’s government.
She has since become an accomplished comedic actress, taking on roles in the sitcom Trollied, as well as the critically acclaimed comedy The Outlaws, written by Stephen Merchant, about a group of people who meet while assigned to take part in a community payback period. scheme.
As Baby Reindeer continues to grow in popularity, fans eager to see more of Gunning’s work have expressed their shock at Gunning’s very different performance in Trollied.
Gunning’s previous credits have seen her carve out a successful career as a comedy actress – depicted in Trollied on Sky
Elsewhere, Gunning starred alongside Imelda Staunton in the 2014 film Pride, about the LGBT community joining forces with coal miners in Wales
Set in a fictional Valco supermarket, the show is about the employees, their nature and the relationships they shared.
In the show, Donna was a new security guard after former security man Ian resigned due to security fears.
Donna was committed to the safety of shoppers in the store and wanted to stop shoplifters.
She only starred in one series of the show, as the seventh was the last to air on the channel.
Muzz Khan, her Trollied co-star and friend from drama school, told the Mirror of Gunning: ‘I hope people don’t think Jessica is like Martha because she isn’t at all. She is a sweet, sweet actress, warm and funny and proud of her northern roots. I’m really happy for her and I really hope it will catapult her career even further.”
Elsewhere, it appears Gunning and Gadd share a passion for stand-up comedy, as the Mirror reports she has posted clips of her routines on YouTube.
Gunning’s performances caught Gadd’s attention and he has revealed that he had her in mind early on to play Baby Reindeer’s Martha.
Speaking to Lorraine Kelly earlier this month, he told her: ‘I always thought that in every role you played, you brought this amazing nuance to it. Always take everything you were involved in to a higher level, I always thought.’
And Gunning himself has also spoken about the importance of making Martha a multi-faceted character rather than just a simple villain.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, she said, “I never saw it as some kind of stalker-victim story. You can never play someone with bad intentions. I don’t think she meant to be scary, even if she was received that way.”
Gunning added that she also gave an “interpretation” of the kind of character Martha was, rather than an “impression” of her.
She explained that Gadd didn’t talk much about the real Martha when the show was in production, and also that she didn’t want to know too many details about her.
The actress has echoed this sentiment, doubling down on Richard Gadd’s pleas for viewers to stop rooting for the real Martha.
After the gripping show enjoyed global success, Richard, 34, was forced to plead with sleuths on social media to stop trying to discover the characters’ real identities.
Jessica has since doubled down on his plea, saying it’s a “really unfortunate” that fans are becoming fixated on who the real “Martha” is after Richard went to great lengths to protect their identities.
She told Glamour: ‘I would urge people not to do that […] I think it’s a shame because it shows that they didn’t watch the show properly, that’s not the point in any way.
‘Netflix and Richard [Gadd] went out of his way to ensure that the identities remained private for a reason.
“I think they should try to watch the show again, and really see what the point of it was – it certainly wasn’t, I consciously didn’t want to do an impersonation of anyone, I wanted to do an interpretation of this character.”