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‘Baby Reindeer’ star Richard Gadd won’t talk real Martha at Emmys

Baby Reindeer creator and star Richard Gadd won’t be focusing on the “negatives” surrounding the real-life woman who inspired his Netflix hit following his big win at the 2024 Emmys.

Richard Gadd at the 2024 Emmys.

Leon Bennett/WireImage

After taking the win for best actor in a limited series, the Scottish actor was asked about the backlash from Fiona Harvey, the woman claiming to be the inspiration behind Martha, and the defamation lawsuit she filed against Netflix as a result.

“This is a night of celebration,” Gadd said in the Emmys press room. “I really don’t want to talk about any of that stuff. It’s easy in this day and age to focus on the negatives. This has touched the lives of so many people.”

He cited the organizations that have been positively impacted by the miniseries, noting, “Nobody seems to be talking about that enough.”

One such charity is the U.K.-based We Are Survivors, which offers support for men, including trans and non-binary individuals, who’ve survived sexual abuse and rape. The organization revealed that they’ve experienced an 80 percent increase in first-time callers since the release of the series earlier this year, with 53 percent of callers specifically citing the show as their reason for seeking support.

We Are Survivors CEO and founder Duncan Craig told The Independent he had never seen anything quite like this. “Before, some people might’ve read newspaper interviews and maybe a month later picked up the phone,” he said. “But with Baby Reindeer, it’s been absolutely instantaneous. I’ve never in 15 years I’ve been in this field seen a response like it.”

“We’ve had people who have watch the show and gotten caught up in the media circus around it on social media and it’s enabled them to kind of think, ‘Well if everyone’s talking about it then so can I,'” Craig added, noting that a majority of new website visits came through a link provided by Netflix.

An adaptation of Gadd’s autobiographical one-man show, Baby Reindeer centers on bartender and aspiring comedian Donny, who in dealing with an intense female stalker, Martha (Jessica Gunning), is forced to confront long-buried trauma of being sexually assaulted by an older mentor. The series won four statuettes at the ceremony on Sunday, including a supporting actress win for Gunning.

“I honestly feel like I’m going to wake up any minute now. This whole thing has been a dream,” Gunning said in her acceptance speech. “I’ve tried so many times to put into words what working on Baby Reindeer meant to me and I fail every time.” Her “biggest thanks” went to Gadd. “Thank you for trusting me to be your Martha. I will never, ever forget her or you or this. It really means a lot.”

Gadd, who declared himself Jon Hamm’s “biggest fan” while on stage, thanked his parents in his speech. “They’ve been there for me, a constant source of love and support,” he said. “The thing I’m most grateful for is they’ve never, ever told me what I needed to do with my life, and they never, ever told me who I needed to be. And I think that’s the greatest gift a parent can give a child.”

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