‘Baby Reindeer’ Emmy-Nominated Director Weronika Tofilska Expertly Navigates Emotionally Challenging Material

Netflix’s Baby Reindeer emerged as the must-see limited series of the spring. Dropping with little fanfare, the Richard Gadd-penned series became a near overnight worth-of-mouth sensation and a formidable force in this year’s Emmy race. Emmy nominations dropped for the actors and creative team behind this hypnotic series that explores not only obsession but also the lingering effects of trauma on one’s life choices.

Based on Gadd’s one-man stage show that stemmed from his personal experiences, Baby Reindeer stars Emmy nominee Gadd as Donny Dunn, a struggling comic / bartender who becomes the object of obsession of Martha (Emmy nominee Jessica Gunning). As Martha becomes increasingly unstable, Donny fails to turn away from her. Rather, he seems to invite her in just as he should look the other way. The full series explores not only their toxic dynamic but also potential justifications behind Donny’s bad choices.

Director Weronika Tofilska tackles the first four episodes of the series and received an Emmy nomination for her direction of the hugely impactful fourth episode. There, the audience receives their deepest look at a traumatic event in Donny’s past that shaped his future in unexpected ways. Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Tofilska reveals how she worked with Gadd to bring the episode to life, how the camera helps influence the relationship between Gadd’s Donny and Tom Goodman-Hill’s Darrien, and what cinematic influences lended themselves to the episode’s visual palette.

Awards Daily: When you started talking to Richard about coming on board and directing some of this project, what were the visual references that you pulled from in your film watching career that inferred how you would tell the story?

Weronika Tofilska: Funny enough, the first conversation we had was during the interview. I received the script, and I interviewed for the job several times. It was very classic in that way, and I think, reading the script, it really jumped to me that it really requires quite a sort of striking visual storytelling. Although it was compared to other shows that are deeply personal, it felt to me that it required a more stylized approach. In the interview, they asked me if I had any references?

I always hesitate to say something because you can really steer something one way for someone. In this case, it was quite helpful to give Trainspotting as a reference. Baby Reindeer is different, but there are some similarities in terms of the Scottish connection. That wasn’t the main reason, though. The main reason was that it’s a stream of consciousness film. You really feel like you’re inside Ewan McGregor’s character’s head. It’s also extremely disturbing at times. It touches some really dark subjects, but it does it always with a sort of a lens. There’s humor even in the darkest moments, and I think that’s what I felt when I read the script.

Awards Daily: That makes a lot of sense, and I love that connection. What I’d like to do with the rest of my questions is deep-dive into moments of episode four, which is the episode for which you’re Emmy nominated. The episode begins with a revisit of the moment Donny goes to the police station. That’s repeated multiple times throughout this episode and the series. Why offer that repetition?

Weronika Tofilska: One of the main questions that the show asks is, “Why does Donny behave the way he behaves?” When I was reading the script, I wondered why he was behaving like this? When I got to episode four, I realized that this is the answer to that question. It made full sense that the question starts off the whole show and that we’re reminded of that question at the beginning of episode four. Then, we get that frame at the end of episode four when, after we’ve seen all of it, the camera tracks back from Donny’s face, and he just says, “I don’t know.” But we know that the answer to that question is the whole episode. That’s why this repetition was important.

Awards Daily: As we move on from that, we go into the flashback sequences, and we see the early scenes of Donny becoming a stand up comic. What did Richard infer about that world? What research did you do into that comedy world to be able to reproduce that so accurately?

Weronika Tofilska: We did a little bit of research. We went to Edinburgh before Edinburgh Fringe started. We looked at places and gigs and at the scene in general. In that sense, we explored it. Then, we talked to Richard about his old stand up, but at the same time, as with everything in the show, there’s so much in the script already. The description of the pub when he walks in was very specific. So really 90 percent of it was already on the page.

Awards Daily: So I want to move into talking about the relationship between two key actors in this episode: Tom Goodman-Hill playing Darrien and, of course, Richard Gadd playing Donny. What kind of instruction did you give Tom knowing where his character goes in terms of modulating his performance?

Weronika Tofilska: Yeah, it was very interesting. Tom is such a good actor, and again, with such material like Richard’s script, there’s just so much already on the page. We didn’t have to invent the character for him, but when we were actually talking about it, the tone, as you mentioned, was quite important. This is not a cliched villain story. It feels real.

One of the notes that I gave most often was to normalize things. Whenever Darrien mentions to Donny something that, for audiences would seem outrageous thing, it was about normalizing it, making Donny feel like this is something that people do. I think Tom understood that perfectly. That’s why this performance is so powerful because he didn’t lean into the darkness.

Awards Daily: Right. When Donny first comes to Darrien’s apartment, they sit at the kitchen table. The scene begins with a wide shot of the room, orienting the characters within the space. When you move to one-shots of the characters, it seems like they’re miles away from each other. Tell me about setting that up.

Weronika Tofilska: It’s really funny because there are so many stressful things about this episode to watch, but I also find that extremely stressful to watch. In episode four, we use very wide lenses to give that sense of alienation between characters. It’s supposed to make us feel uncomfortable. It goes back to this point of view thing. We’re really in his head.

Awards Daily: When they move to the sofa, does that dynamic change? Does your lensing of the scene change?

Weronika Tofilska: I think slightly. There was a whole concept around lighting in that space, which we collaborated with Krzysztof Trojnar, the DP, and his gaffer. The concept was very much that, during the day, this flat feels almost cozy. The design is a bit quirky, but there’s a coziness, a lot of softness, warm colors. When it changes to night, it has this quiet, very warm, orangey feel that trends towards red. It has this slightly nightmarish feel. Obviously, it goes into quite extreme places later with the changes of the lighting, and it becomes a proper red-lit nightmare. Also, at this point, Donny is supposed to be on coke, so the camera went from on dolly to handheld. The angles were very close to his face. It was supposed to make us feel that he’s a little bit jittery and over-energized.

Awards Daily: I’m so glad that you talked about the color patterns because, as you mentioned, Trainspotting is an inspiration, and I can definitely pick up on similar patterns of red used in that film.

Weronika Tofilska: 100 percent. We were obviously fans of cinema, and I know Richard also was a fan of that film. It was a common ground in terms of talking about the show. It’s such a classic film that we felt we could afford some nods in the show. One of them was the carpet in Darrien’s flat. It’s not identical, but I think fans of the film will see the similarity between the carpet in Darrien’s flat and the famous carpet that Ewan McGregor descends into in Trainspotting. There are definitely nods like that. Plus, there’s the color red, that kind of burgundy red which is the color of blood. It felt right for this.

Awards Daily: As you look back across this episode, what do you consider the best example of your work in that episode?

Weronika Tofilska:  In terms of how difficult the tonal balance was, I think that whole sequence of Darrien giving Donny LSD and everything that happens afterwards, including the scene when he runs into the corridor. We extended the corridor so it’s the same corridor, but it’s actually twice as long. We did quite inventive things with the production designer, Debbie Burton, and Krzysztof Trojnar in order to make it into this surreal nightmare to reflect the panic attack and the psychology that Donny has at that point. In terms of how much creativity we leveraged from all the departments that went into that sequence, that was the most work, and I am proud of what we achieved there.

Baby Reindeer streams exclusively on Netflix.