\u201cI responded to Martha so clearly in my mind,\u201d says Gunning, who is in LA with her Baby Reindeer co-star and creator Richard Gadd. \u201cSuch an emotional reaction; I was incredibly moved by her. When I got the part, a friend of mine said, \u2018Go for it. Be brave, really try and be emotional and vulnerable.\u2019 I think it\u2019s quite easy, once you\u2019ve fought to get something, to feel like, \u2018Oh, God, now I\u2019ve got to do this!\u2019 and it can be quite overwhelming.\u201d It\u2019s fair to say she went for it.<\/p>\n
Gunning might seem suddenly everywhere, but she\u2019s been gathering acclaim for a long time \u2013 including a spell at the National Theatre in 2019 with Cate Blanchett in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other. \u201cThere have been times when I haven\u2019t worked for months or maybe even years,\u201d she says. \u201cIf 16-year-old me were to see this, I don\u2019t know if she would believe it, really.\u201d Along the way Gunning, who was \u201ca big fan\u201d of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey when she was younger, has become a brilliantly adept physical performer.<\/p>\n
Diane in The Outlaws is funny partly because she always manages to be pointing herself the wrong way when bad things are happening, while Martha in Baby Reindeer is a nightmarish jack in the box who might, and usually does, just pop up anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cMartha is always forceful,\u201d says Gunning. \u201cShe comes into the pub, puts the bag on the table and says, \u2018I\u2019ve got to go.\u2019 She\u2019s always got places to be. There\u2019s a similar energy to Diane\u2019s swagger in this series because she\u2019s got her prot\u00e9g\u00e9 alongside her [a pitch-perfect Harry Trevaldwyn as Stan] and she has more confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there was a physicality in those earlier seasons of The Outlaws, especially where I\u2019m doing Brazilian jujitsu and I\u2019ve got Stephen between my legs trying to demonstrate some of the moves. When you think of those jokes, you don\u2019t actually think of the practicalities of going, \u2018OK, kneel down, Stephen, I\u2019m going to have to straddle you.\u2019 It\u2019s slightly strange on a Monday morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Diane](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-outlaws-2-7f9cccb.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Diane")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>All the stranger when she realised Merchant had based the character on his own mother? \u201cI\u2019m not sure if Stephen, or his mum, would agree that their characters are similar,\u201d she laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s more that that\u2019s the job his mum used to have, so over time he heard a lot of stories about the kinds of people she would encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a period of crossover between the productions. As they were filming Baby Reindeer, Gunning was in the writers\u2019 room of The Outlaws<\/a>, something she\u2019s keen to do more of. How did she keep Diane and Martha separate? \u201cSometimes it\u2019s really important to compartmentalise things,\u201d she says. \u201cBaby Reindeer was an emotional part and an emotional experience, so there\u2019s a sense of responsibility \u2013 as it\u2019s based on Richard\u2019s true story<\/a> \u2013 to do that justice and to make sure he\u2019s happy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat felt very weighty, in a good way, and an exciting experience. Then The Outlaws felt hugely familiar because we\u2019d done two series already, we were established as an ensemble and I was in the writers\u2019 room. It was a really nice thing to go back to after the intense atmosphere of Baby Reindeer.\u201d<\/p>\n Intense hardly seems to do justice to a part that is so profoundly troubled and asks an actor to do such strange things, not least an excruciatingly embarrassing sexual act. \u201cI\u2019ve been working now for about 17 years and it\u2019s probably the first time where it did take a while to shift the feeling of the role and the feeling of the experience afterwards,\u201d she says. \u201cEspecially on those high-intensity scenes, like at the bus stop, or when Donny [Richard Gadd] takes Martha back to her house, those were emotionally heavy days. And your body doesn\u2019t really know sometimes that you\u2019re pretending. There was an adrenaline for all of us that felt like we had been in that experience. You were left in that charged place.\u201d<\/p>\n Gunning hasn\u2019t engaged with the the real-world fallout from Baby Reindeer<\/a>, which has seen armchair detectives seek to identify the real-life figures which inspired Gadd\u2019s series. \u201cBecause,\u201d she explains, \u201cMe and Richard have this close connection and I\u2019m very concerned about anything that might upset him. He\u2019s a survivor of sexual assault, and he was stalked, and I think that any search for real people almost undermines that slightly.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said in the past that he didn\u2019t want any internet sleuths to go out and try and find the identities of these real people. He deliberately changed identities for a reason. But of course, in this day and age, it\u2019s inevitable, especially with a show this big, that people are intrigued by who the real people are.\u201d<\/p>\n Did she ever find it problematic that Gadd based Martha on a real person? \u201cI wouldn\u2019t use the word problematic, I would say, maybe, sensitive. I absolutely saw Martha as a character, I wasn\u2019t doing an impersonation of a real person. She was very clear to me in the script, but I genuinely didn\u2019t know anything about the real person. But Richard is playing a character as well. When I was acting with him, I felt like he was a character. I didn\u2019t feel like we were re-enacting scenes for some documentary, it felt like we were doing interpretations of these characters in this emotionally true world.\u201d<\/p>\n Does she worry about Gadd and the way he\u2019s now being criticised? \u201cI think he was incredibly brave to bare all. He really did put everything in that show, warts and all, errors, mistakes that were made. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen anything quite like it. I\u2019m always fiercely protective of him and I want to make sure that none of this is upsetting for him, really, so I try and keep out of any of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Until recently, Gunning was a highly respected and much-admired character actor. Now, thanks to Netflix, she\u2019s known around the world. \u201cThe reach of Netflix is the thing that surprised all of us. It\u2019s just too hard to get your head around, really, when there\u2019s like 260 million Netflix subscribers. But it\u2019s how people react [that matters]. I got quite emotional the other day. Somebody asked Richard why people have responded so much to the show and he said, \u2018Because I think that we\u2019re hurting a little bit more than we realise.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that was profound, but I also think it can be true of The Outlaws as well as Baby Reindeer. The world of The Outlaws is also true.\u201d<\/p> The Outlaws returns on Thursday 30th May at 9pm on BBC One.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Comedy<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Reprising her role on The Outlaws was a welcome relief for Gunning after the intensity of playing a stalker. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":51803,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-on-the-outlaws-and-life-after-baby-reindeers-martha.jpg",768,512,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-on-the-outlaws-and-life-after-baby-reindeers-martha-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-on-the-outlaws-and-life-after-baby-reindeers-martha-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-on-the-outlaws-and-life-after-baby-reindeers-martha.jpg",768,512,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-on-the-outlaws-and-life-after-baby-reindeers-martha.jpg",768,512,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-on-the-outlaws-and-life-after-baby-reindeers-martha.jpg",768,512,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/jessica-gunning-on-the-outlaws-and-life-after-baby-reindeers-martha.jpg",768,512,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Reprising her role on The Outlaws was a welcome relief for Gunning after the intensity of playing a stalker.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/51802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Martha](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/04\/martha-baby-reindeer-5ccc501.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Baby")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
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