'Baby Reindeer' star Richard Gadd said he struggles with 'toxic empathy' toward his stalker: 'I never saw someone who was a villain'
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images/Netflix
- "Baby Reindeer" actor and creator Richard Gadd said he didn't see his stalker as a "villain."
- Gadd said he felt sorry for her because she was failed by the system.
- Gadd also suggested that "Baby Reindeer" is so successful because the world is in "pain."
"Baby Reindeer" star and creator Richard Gadd said he didn't see his stalker as a villain because he struggles with "toxic empathy" and blames the system for failing to help her.
The Netflix show is a true story, based on Gadd's experiences. It follows Donny Dunn (Gadd) as he's stalked by an older woman, Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning) after he gives her a cup of tea in the pub where he works.
At a Q&A event in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Gadd was asked about the challenges of turning his real-life stalker into a character that audiences can engage with, per The Hollywood Reporter.
He said: "I think I struggle with a sort of toxic empathy problem where I feel a lot for people. I remember when I was getting stalked, it was relentless and felt like it was everywhere, and I felt like my life wasn't really functioning. I still had these unbelievable pangs of feeling sorry for her."
"I never saw someone who was a villain," Gadd later added. "I saw someone who was lost by the system, really. I saw someone who needed help and wasn't getting it. At the end of the day, she's just someone who's in a lot of pain."
In April, Gadd told The Independent that he was shocked that his stalker didn't receive any help from the authorities at the time, and blamed budget cuts to public services in the UK.
After its release on April 11, "Baby Reindeer" has become a surprise hit, spending three weeks at the top of Netflix's English TV list, with audiences becoming obsessed with the true story behind the drama.
Fans went so far as to out an unnamed woman as the alleged stalker. The woman later said that she was considering legal action against Gadd and Netflix for "bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune."
During the Q&A session, Gadd touched on why he thinks "Baby Reindeer" resonated with audiences.
"The world is maybe in a bit more pain than I think we realize, perhaps. If you just look at the state of the world right now, everything just feels slightly wrong," Gadd said. "I'm not sure there's been a TV show like 'Baby Reindeer' that's kind of captured the dark difficulties and idiosyncrasies of life."
Gadd argued that TV, in general, has attempted to paint a "broader" picture of the world in recent years but that his show went deeper.
He said: "But I think 'Baby Reindeer' has stood out so much because it goes back to something about the human condition, which is dark and difficult and challenging, and every human being is a mixture of good and bad."