‘Baby Reindeer’ Star Jessica Gunning Says She Never Saw Martha as a Villain: ‘I Just Connected With Her’

Fresh off her Emmy win for her performance in Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer,” star Jessica Gunning revealed she never saw her character Martha as a villain.

“I never saw her as a villain — I just saw her as a complicated, lonely character,” Gunning told press just moments after receiving her Emmy on Sunday. “It was really all there in the script for me — I just connected with her.”

To prepare for the role, Gunning took inspiration from 1990’s “Misery,” which the actress mentioned reached a different level for her when she accepted her Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series from “Misery” star Kathy Bates.

“I looked a little bit into a thing called ‘limerence,’ which is like obsession — obsession with being obsessed with people,” Gunning explained.

Gunning was drawn into the script for Richard Gadd’s miniseries from the get-go, recalling she read all seven episodes in one sitting. “I just fell in love with the story and the writing and the characters,” she said, adding that she went in to audition for the role of Martha four to five times.

She also couldn’t have imagined “Baby Reindeer” would have grabbed mainstream audiences as it has — Gadd also won for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, and he and Nava Mau were further nominated in their respective acting categories. After debuting in April, “Baby Reindeer” entered into Netflix’s Top 10 most popular list of English TV shows ever with 84.5 million in under two months from its release.

“When we made it, I think we just all thought it was going to be this sort of indie slow burn hit,” Gunning said.

Gunning further applauded Gadd for being a “brave, brilliant writer and actor,” and pointed to the fourth episode of “Baby Reindeer” as one of the best pieces of television she’s ever seen.

She beat out co-star Nava Mau, Dakota Fanning, Lily Gladstone, Aja Naomi King, Diane Lane and Kali Reis for the award. You can check out the full list of Emmy winners, here.

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