'The Interview': ‘Baby Reindeer’ Exploded Richard Gadd's Life. It Also Set Him Free.

From The New York Times, this is The Interview. I'm David Marchese. In 2024, the relatively unknown writer and actor Richard Gadd had the strange experience of seeing the lowest moments of his life become viral entertainment. His unsettling Netflix show, Baby Reindeer, which was based on his experiences as a victim of both sexual assault and stalking, unexpectedly became one of that year's biggest critical hits and one of the streamers most popular shows ever. It catapulted Gad, who's 36, into a heightened and uncomfortable level of personal and professional attention. His response to that discomfort has been to go deeper. His new show, Half Man, which will air on HBO, is about the decades long mutually destructive friendship between two Scottish men, the slight and thoughtful Niall, played by Jamie Bell, and the brutish and violent Reuben, played by Gad. Unlike Baby Reindeer, the show is not based in fact. But what Half Man shares with its predecessor is a brutally unflinching exploration of sexual confusion, tortured masculinity, emotional abuse, and the impact of trauma. All of which Gadd himself is still trying to understand both in his art and in his life. Here's my conversation with Richard Gadd. Richard, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. Thanks very much for for having me. I'm I'm excited to be here. I wanna start with a question that maybe doesn't have any simple or straightforward answer. Mhmm. You know, you were someone who, for years, were working as a as a performer. You you know, you did stand up comedy. But the work itself was often intentionally alienating. You know, you did a lot of, anti comedy. It's not like you've been trying for years to make some mainstream thing, and then finally, baby reindeer was the thing. You you were kind of doing your your own weird thing. And so as a result of that, I imagine that the possibility of enormous mainstream success was probably not even really on your radar as something that was gonna happen in your career. But what did achieving success show you about the reality of what success can do for you or can't do for you emotionally? The best thing about success is that it leads to opportunity for me, because all I really ever care about is writing the next thing or working on the next thing or trying to, you know, explore more things that I wanna do as an artist. Fame, on the other hand, is is an interesting thing that I think I still come to terms with. You know, I think at the best times, I'm a self conscious person. And and I think, like, it's so funny. I always look back on those, as you say, those kinds of early comedy days where I was performing this alienating sort of comedy style to to to comedy clubs up and down the country, I I used to think, why is no one …