“Baby Reindeer” creator Richard Gadd has inked a first-look deal with Netflix, despite his series prompting a $170 million defamation lawsuit.
Netflix boss Ted Sarandos made the announcement at the Royal Television Society conference in London on Tuesday morning in response to a question from journalist Kirsty Wark over the lawsuit, saying the streamer stands by Gadd.
“We are facilitating storytellers to tell their stories,” Sarandos said when Wark asked him whether Netflix had made a mistake in calling the series a “true story.” “This is Richard’s true story. We finished [signing] our first-look deal with Richard Gadd to do his next work at Netflix … We’re very proud of Richard and proud of the story he told and the way he told it.”
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“It’s not a documentary,” the streaming boss added. “We’re watching it performed by actors on television — we think it’s abundantly clear there’s dramatization involved. And I would also point out this is a uniquely British debate, this debate is not happening anywhere else in the world about ‘Baby Reindeer.’”
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“Baby Reindeer” picked up six Emmy awards on Sunday, including outstanding limited or anthology series, writing and lead actor for Gadd and supporting actress for Jessica Gunning.
Gunning portrayed Martha, the stalker of Gadd’s struggling comedian Donny Dunn who he came to have a complicated relationship with. The story was based on Gadd’s own experiences, with the writer-actor telling Variety in April that what’s depicted in the series is “all emotionally 100% true.”
“It’s all borrowed from instances that happened to me and real people that I met,” he said. “But of course, you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons.”
Those legal reasons came into play in June, when a Scottish woman named Fiona Harvey sued Netflix for $170 million, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and violations of her right of publicity.
Netflix has stood by Gadd since the suit’s filing, saying: “We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”
