Miranda Cosgrove opens up about her own disturbing ‘Baby Reindeer’ stalker incident

Miranda Cosgrove reflects on her traumatic experience with a rival Netflix’s hit limited series, Baby reindeer.

In a cover interview with hustle and bustleCosgrove recalls the 2016 incident in which a man chased her set himself on fire and fatally shot himself in the front yard of her home in Los Angeles. He had previously shot at a woman who looked like Cosgrove as she drove past the property.

Cosgrove, who was 23 at the time, was not home during either incident but still lives in the house to this day.

“That’s another reason why I go to my parents’ house so often,” she says hustle and bustle. “I just don’t feel particularly safe in this house. For two years after it happened, I didn’t really want to stay there. Then I got into a relationship and because that person was with me, I was less afraid. But I don’t really like being there alone.

She admits she’s looking for a place where she can “feel really safe to start a new chapter, so to speak,” but reveals she hasn’t found it yet.

Given the uncanny similarities between her experiences and Richard Gadd’s critically acclaimed Netflix hit, it’s no surprise that Cosgrove watched the series. Baby reindeer chronicles the Scottish comedian’s experience with a woman, “Martha Scott,” who becomes obsessed with him after meeting in the bar where he worked. In the show, “Martha” sends Donny (Gadd) 41,071 emails, 744 tweets and 350 hours of voicemails over a six-year period.

During his encounters with his stalker, Donny must confront the long-buried trauma of the past sexual abuse he suffered.

“I feel like if I were like that and had to go over the most horrific experiences and then try to live them out, it would be so hard,” Cosgrove said of Gadd.

According to Gadd, much of the show — including his painful memory of drug addiction and sexual abuse at the hands of a writing mentor — is taken directly from his own experience and is “100 percent emotionally true,” he said diversity. However, for obvious legal reasons, many details have been adjusted. Some people watching the show may be surprised that some details – particularly the extent of the stalking – have been toned down.

Forbes reports that in the play – which premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival before winning an Olivier on the West End – Gadd reveals that in addition to the personal harassment, Martha sent 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemails and 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters.

While the show ends with Martha being sentenced to nine months in prison, Gadd was extremely reserved about how his real-life stalker was dealt with, only that he had “mixed feelings” about resolving the situation, as he once said The Independent.

“I can’t emphasize enough how much of a victim she is in all of this,” he said. “Stalking and harassment are a form of mental illness. It would have been wrong to portray her as a monster because she is unwell and the system has failed her.”

He made similar comments at the time of the release of the sold-out play The guard He also discussed his own role in the situation and explained that he does not believe he is innocent.

“It would be unfair to say she was a terrible person and I was a victim. That didn’t feel true,” the author said in 2019. “I did a lot of things wrong and made the situation worse. I wasn’t.” “I was the perfect person back then, so there’s no point in saying I was.”

In Baby reindeerGadd makes a point of touching on Martha’s own traumatic experiences that shaped her into the person she became. In the weeks since the show’s release, he has asked his recent flood of new fans and followers not to fall down a rabbit hole of speculating about the identity of his rapist and stalker.

Despite these efforts, a woman named Fiona Harvey has now come forward and claimed that the character of Martha was based on her. In an interview with Piers MorganHarvey disputed many of the plot points Baby reindeer and said she planned to sue both Gadd and Netflix over the show’s portrayal of the character.

“I find it quite obscene. I think it’s horrible and misogynistic,” she said, claiming that “some of the death threats online have been really horrible. People call me. It was absolutely terrible. I wouldn’t give that credibility to something like that, and it’s not really my kind of drama.

When Harvey found out about the Netflix series, she felt “absolutely terrible” and remarked, “I couldn’t believe this had happened.”

“I’m not a stalker,” she said. “I wasn’t in prison… This is just complete nonsense.”

As for why she believes Gadd did the show, Harvey said that she believes he has “extreme psychiatric issues” and has financial motives.

“He had failed as a comedian, he had failed as an actor, so let’s make some money and sell this to Netflix,” she said. “…I would dare him to leave me alone…Get a life. Get a real job. I am appalled by what you have done.”

ET reached out to Gadd and Netflix for comment following Harvey’s interview.

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