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Mau herself views Teri as a pillar amidst the maelstrom Martha unleashes with her endless emails and not-so-empty threats.
The shows become a huge word-of-mouth hit since it premiered in April.
How has the experience been on your end?It has been overwhelming.
Theyd never shared that with anybody before.
Its given people permission to break the silence about their own experiences.
The show definitely encourages discussion and a raw kind of openness.
He is so searingly honest in what he says about himself and what hes experienced with other people.
It was a little uncanny.
Richard and I talked at length over many months about the person who inspired Teri and their relationship.
His eyes would light up.
It was like he was remembering a warmth that had left him.
It was clear their connection was electric and genuine.
I always have a go at find the physicality of a character early, sometimes even before accent.
How does this character stand, walk, sit, lay, speak, dance?
Where I landed, almost subconsciously, was that Teri is like a pillar.
That was not exactly what we all thought the character was going to be.
Theres so much going on around her.
There is pure chaos in Donnys life.
That chaos comes at Teri, too, but it makes her kind of unshakable.
I allowed myself to emotionally lose myself in the moment.
I genuinely felt that kind of hate coming at me.
I was surprised it affected me so much.
I guess I have this idea that Im, like, above it all, you know?
Racism cant touch me.
Transphobia cant touch me.
But at that moment, you realize it doesnt matter how strong you are.
That violence is hurtful.
It was the hardest thing I had to do for this role.
I deeply value the stories of survivors.
I deeply value queer people coming together in creative collaboration.
Thats what this was for me.
I related to Richard.
I didnt see Richard as some stranger peering into my world trying to figure it out.
It felt like we belong to the same world.
That is not typical.
I could tell Richard understood that deeply.
That speaks to the notion ofBaby Reindeerbeing about empathy in all its messiness.
Because feeling for another can sometimes make you quite vulnerable.Its also a show about belonging.
Donny so desperately wants to belong.
Teri wants to belong.
Shame prevents you from being truly seen.
to belong, you have to be truly seen.
Its a cautionary tale about what gets in the way of belonging.
But at the heart of it I see a need we all share and Martha shares as well.
Have you seen the show all the way through?
Recently I finally watched all the way through the last couple episodes.
It was painful to have to see Richard relive these really harrowing and violent experiences.
The part I actually sobbed at was the comedy-show breakdown.
I could feel all the years of emotion coming out at that moment.
Doing the Spanish dub must have been quite an odd experience.
Its like bringing a character to life in a whole new, different way.Yes, because language is culture.
We have different personalities in different cultures.
It was a challenge to dive back into the story from this new perspective a year later, too!
I was in a booth in a studio on Zoom with everybody.
It was sort of like painting something from memory.
I also feel like it gave me this sense of closure.
When we finally got to the end, I really felt like,Now I can let her go.
Now the story does not belong to me anymore.
