Jessica Gunning, star of ‘Baby Reindeer,’ appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to discuss her rising fame following the success of the miniseries and shared an amusing memory.
“I’ve been acting over in the UK now for like 17 odd years. So, I think occasionally, before ‘Baby Reindeer’ came out, people might notice me on the street here and there,” the actress started. “I’ve been in a few things. But I’ve also got kind of one of those faces that looks a little bit like ‘Jeannette from Account.’ [Laughs] So, often, people will come up and be like, ‘Hi!’ and I’m like, ‘Hi…’ ‘How’s your family?’ ‘Good…’ But then after ‘Baby Reindeer,’ people did start to kind of come up.”
“Actually, I was in the supermarket in London one day, a few weeks after ‘Baby Reindeer’ came out, and this lady came up to me and said, ‘How do I know you?'” she then recalled. “I’d usually go, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ but for some reason, I went, ‘Well, I am an actor.’ She’s like, ‘Oh, what have you been in?’ I said, ‘I’m in this show at the moment, ‘Baby Reindeer.’ It’s on Netflix. Have you seen it?’ And she’s like, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘Oh!’ Then I said, ‘Have you seen the thing called ‘The Outline?” I literally started to go through – I may as well have brought my CV. ‘Do you recognize this?’ Eventually she said, ‘Did you go to Holmfirth High School?’ I was like, ‘Yes,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you were in my son’s year.’ [Laughs] I’m so embarrased.”
She jokingly added, “Now, if anyone comes and goes, ‘How do I know you?’ I just say, ‘Holmfirth High School.'”
Gunning won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her breakout role in the miniseries ‘Baby Reindeer’ and was also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award.
‘Baby Reindeer’ is a TV series created by and starring Richard Gadd. An adaptation of Gadd’s autobiographical one-man show of the same name, the series is based on Gadd’s real-life experience of being stalked and sexually assaulted in his twenties. Jessica Gunning plays Martha Scott, a former lawyer with a criminal past.
