‘Baby Reindeer’ Star Jessica Gunning’s Thrilling Breakout Performance Is Dominating This Year’s Emmy Conversation

This story contains spoilers from Netflix’s Baby Reindeer.

There haven’t been many breakout moments this year quite like Jessica Gunning for her astounding, raw, and emotional performance in Netflix’s Baby Reindeer.

Having steadily worked in film, theater, and television since the late 2000s, Gunning received co-star Richard Gadd’s screenplays, based on events from his personal life, and knew there was something there. While filming the limited series, she felt, if things landed just right, then it could be a very interesting output.

But she had no idea how big the series would really become.

“When I received all seven episodes to watch, I watched them all in one go one night and thought it was a pretty special thing. So, I thought that the people who would watch it would enjoy or like it, feel challenged by it, or moved by it,” Gunning explained. “I never expected it to do what it has, which is just amazing. We can’t really believe it.”

Baby Reindeer stars Gadd as Donny Dunn, a wannabe stand-up comic and part-time bartender who befriends Gunning’s Martha Scott as she comes into his bar deeply despondent. Donny discovers, however, that Martha is actually a deeply troubled pathological liar with a history for stalking. But, thanks to his own deeply troubled persona, he can’t fully quit her. The series excels because it doesn’t stop at just their relationship. Instead, it examines why Donny can’t leave her behind and fully explores his own battered psyche.

Having seen some of Gadd’s original stand-up material that explored events covered in the series, Gunning felt comfortable with Gadd’s ability to tell this story. She loved his storytelling ability and, most importantly, how brave he was by channelling such personal revelations into his work. Taking on the role of Martha, Gunning also knew she had a responsibility to portray the character as a well rounded, troubled human being.

“There’s a sense of responsibility to do it all justice, I think, especially from from my part because when I read the character of Martha, I thought she was so complicated and nuanced,” Gunning said. “One minute she’s cute, and the next… you just think what is going on. So it was a real challenge to try and relay all of those sides to her and do his writing justice.”

All of the clues Gunning needed to understand the character were written directly into Gadd’s script. She especially drew immense compassion for the final voicemail Martha leaves Donny shortly before the end of the series. Gunning loved how that moment brought out how Donny felt like her lifeline to which she clings.

But what Gunning found most fascinating about the role were the wildly different takes on Martha’s actions and character.

“That scene outside the comedy club when she says, ‘Do you ever want to zip people open and climb inside them?’ I always thought that was a little love letter to him almost. It was funny because when I was reading the lines with my friend, she was like, ‘This is terrifying.’ I’ve never ever seen it as that. I’ve only seen it as a romantic scene. So it’s quite funny.”

Gunning and Gadd’s best work in the series comes at its end in a nearly wordless scene. Martha leaves Donny a voicemail in which, among other things, she threatens to stab his parents. That finally leads to her arrest and conviction for which she will serve prison time. Donny attends the sentencing hearing, taking one last opportunity to see her before saying goodbye. They share a look across the room, both flooding with emotion.

Filmed on Gunning’s last day of shooting, it’s a poignant but bizarre ending to this off-kilter love story.

“In the courtroom scene, Richard wrote that they lock eyes, and she realizes he’s there watching. It’s a kind of jump-scare moment, but it’s just two lost people who were looking each other. I think that captures, the two of them really, these lost characters who are maybe a bit overlooked. I think it’s the saddest scene just because this character has trained as a lawyer. So, the admission of guilty, I think, is written as her way of saying sorry to him. In that moment of saying it, I thought it takes her a lot as a character to say this because instinctively you think she would say not guilty. It was really moving on the day to realize that that was her way of saying sorry to Donny.”

Baby Reindeer streams exclusively on Netflix.