Baby Reindeer’s Nava Mau Opens Up About Deleted Scene That Sheds More Light On 1 Key Aspect Of The Show

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Baby Reindeer.

Baby Reindeer star Nava Mau has reflected on a deleted scene that would have revealed more information about one of the show’s central relationships.

Nava plays the lead character Donny’s girlfriend, Teri, in the hit Netflix miniseries, which has sparked plenty of conversation since it began streaming earlier this month.

During a recent interview with GQ magazine, the actor was asked about how things end between Donny and Teri, and whether she felt the former couple managed to get closure after their break-up.

There actually was one more piece of Teri and Donny’s relationship in the script, and I performed it,” Nava explained.

“Teri leaves Donny a voicemail five months later. So I think, for me, I got closure because Teri did too.”

She continued: “That’s what gave me so much comfort, knowing that they found peace with regards to their relationship. Teri got her happy ending, you know? Teri found a new man, she didn’t lose her friends, she didn’t lose her job, she didn’t lose her smile. She’s good.

“And I think that is remarkable, because so often we’ve seen stories of trans people that end with them broken.”

Nava Mau as Teri in Baby Reindeer
Nava Mau as Teri in Baby Reindeer

Elsewhere in the interview, Nava was asked about fans of the show who have been trying to work out the identities of real figures who inspired events in the show, which is based on Richard Gadd’s own experiences of being stalked.

“Richard has come out and asked people to stop trying to track down the real people who inspired the characters on the show, and I think for a very good reason,” she said.

“I think it is good to remind people that Richard really went through all of this – experiencing stalking and abuse from multiple people.

“It is very sensitive and there’s a reason why Richard had to seek protection from his stalker, so let’s not forget the stakes.”

Nava Mau pictured in 2022
Nava Mau pictured in 2022

David Livingston via Getty Images

Nava added: “I think for his safety, and also just out of respect for everyone, it makes sense to ask people to [stop].”

As well as Richard’s own calls for people to stop speculating about certain characters’ real-life counterparts, co-star Jessica Gunning has also spoken out.

Jessica said: “I would urge people not to be doing that. I think if that is happening, I think it’s a real, real shame, because it shows that they haven’t watched the show properly. That’s not the point of it in any way.”

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Why Do Millennials Feel Compelled To Write ‘Lol’ After Everything?

When did “lol” become the equivalent of a punctuation mark for millennials?

Nick Russell, a millennial from Memphis, Tennessee, tacks “lol” onto texts to sidestep potentially awkward or loaded conversation.

“It’s the difference between texting ‘I think I love you’ to a crush versus ‘I think I love you, lol,‘” Russell said. “In the latter case, I could always rely on the old ‘just kidding!’”

“It helps lighten the internal tension I could be feeling about whatever I’m sending,” he added.

Rebecca Reynoso, a millennial from Chicago, deploys a breezy “lol” at the end of her work texts and chats to take the edge off any message. It’s a way to quickly establish tone; a “lol” tells her co-workers she’s “approachable” and “non-threatening.”

“It’s like a tension-breaking mechanism,” she told HuffPost.

It defuses the potential for hostility in personal relationships, too. “Could you wash the dishes, lol” to your spouse or roommate sounds a lot better than a coarse, curtly communicated, “Could you wash the dishes.” (If you hadn’t noticed, millennials and younger generations have killed off the question mark.)

“’Lol’ has been around for so long that its meaning evolved, like a Pokémon. And yet, it clearly belongs to the digital realm that some people still find confusing.”

– Daria Bahtina, a linguistics lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles

Alex Liggett, a millennial from Pittsburgh, likens millennials’ “lol” overuse to “a scream at the state of the world.”

“My default mode is to feel that what I have to say isn’t important, so it’s also sort of a great eraser,” he said. “But I’ve transitioned to ‘haha’ instead of ‘lol’ because I read that ‘lol’ is millennial-coded.”

Let Gen Z and Gen Alpha scoff at “lol” all they want. Most millennials say if you want to take their “lol,” you’ll have to pry it from their cold, dead hands.

“Tone is just so hard to convey through text otherwise,” said Kashif Pasta, a director and writer who’s a millennial.

Too many emojis in texts can make you look unhinged. But you also don’t want to look like an ice queen. Even a simple, straightforward period at the end of a sentence feels too stern, Pasta said.

“In real-life conversations, we’d smile, subtly chuckle or laugh in moments that aren’t technically funny at all,” he said. “With ‘lol,’ we’re just going, ‘Hey … you’re safe.’”

The way Pasta sees it, millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, are like the pilot generation for text and online messaging, having gone from an internet-free existence to an internet-centric one — and “lol” has been with them for most of that shift.

“We’re the exact right age to think of email as a proxy for physical mail and texting as a proxy for phone calls or in-person conversations,” he said. “We learned to text on T9 phones with texts that cost money and had character limits, so space was at a premium and we had to convey context as efficiently as possible.”

Here’s why linguists think millennials can’t stop ‘lol’-ing

Daria Bahtina, a linguistics lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, thinks “lol” is a true linguistic chameleon ― and used a truly millennial comparison to make her point.

“It’s been around for so long that its meaning evolved, like a Pokémon,” Bahtina told HuffPost. “And yet ‘lol’ clearly belongs to the digital realm that some people still find confusing.”

It started out as “laugh out loud,” but it’s long since transmogrified into a mark of humility and self-deprecation: “Don’t take this — or me — too seriously. I sure don’t.”

“For millennials, it’s a way to either make a neutral message warmer and more casual or a way to make a more negative message polite,” Bahtina said. “It’s like hedging or minimising a request with ‘no biggie if you disagree.’”

Interestingly, every once in a while, "lol" is explicitly passive-aggressive.

Images By Tang Ming Tung via Getty Images

Interestingly, every once in a while, “lol” is explicitly passive-aggressive.

In more academic terms, “lol” is what linguists like to call a discourse marker, said Anna-Marie Sprenger, a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics at the University of Chicago.

“A discourse marker is a little word or phrase that helps organise a thought or a chunk of conversation in a way that indicates the sort of ‘flavour’ of how the speaker or writer wants that bit of language interpreted by their interlocutor,” Sprenger told HuffPost.

In the English language, these can be cute interjections: “oh,” “well,” “so,” “you know” and “I mean.”

Interestingly, every once in a while, “lol” is explicitly passive-aggressive.

“For one project at UCLA, students observed that there’s been a mild increase of ‘lol’ as passive aggression,” Bahtina said. “They noticed more passive-aggressive tweets carrying ‘lol’ at the end rather than at the beginning or end of a sentence.”

Here’s why therapists think millennials cling so hard to ‘lol’

Now that we’ve gotten the linguistic breakdown, let’s delve deeper into the millennial psyche: What does it mean for a generation to feel so obligated to be self-deprecating and good-humoured all the time? Are they OK?

“I think using ‘lol’ after a sentence is a way to laugh things off when you fear burdening others, which is such a prominent worry of our generation,” said Lindsey Gallop, a therapist at CZ Therapy Group in Denver.

Jordan Kurtz, also at CZ Therapy Group, looks at “lol” as a way to get some distance between yourself and any knotty emotional content. Vulnerability is scary, especially over text.

“It’s the difference between ‘I’m having a hard day today’ and ‘I’m having a hard day today, lol,’” Kurtz said. “With the former, personal struggle is allowed to have gravity.”

Maya Nehru, a millennial marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles, said she’s noticed two common, generational themes that might be driving “lol” overuse: the fear of loss and the anxiety around being judged and culturally cast off.

“We millennials have lived through a period of enormous change and disruption on many levels. It’s what defines us, and with change comes loss to some degree,” Nehru said. “Perhaps adding ‘lol’ to texts is the millennial’s way of protecting themselves from potential loss ― maybe we’re trying to save face.”

Plus, millennials have grown up alongside social media, where criticism and judgment are rampant and the potential to be dragged is ever present.

“I think the ‘lol’ is a behaviour that subconsciously eases our anxiety around being liked, belonging and maintaining our sense of self,” Nehru said.

"I think the 'lol' is a behaviour that subconsciously eases our anxiety around being liked, belonging and maintaining our sense of self," Maya Nehru said. She is a marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles who primarily works with millennials.

Luis Alvarez via Getty Images

“I think the ‘lol’ is a behaviour that subconsciously eases our anxiety around being liked, belonging and maintaining our sense of self,” Maya Nehru said. She is a marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles who primarily works with millennials.

Women are probably more likely to use it, too, said Kelly McKenna, a therapist in New York City.

“Many millennials, especially women, are constantly worrying about other people’s feelings and trying to manage other people’s reactions to anything they say or do,” she said. “By adding ‘lol,’ it helps lighten the mood and hopefully reduces the risk you might upset someone by communicating assertively.”

Whatever the reasons for the “lol” reflex, linguists say it’s impressive how much heavy lifting those three little letters do.

Earlier generations might have considered digital communication as a “lean media” — insufficient for conveying the depth of our thoughts and feelings and lacking the warmth of face-to-face communications ― but Bahtina said that millennials “have long defied this notion.”

“Younger generations are so adept at using a dynamic mix of punctuation, capitalization, creative respellings, special symbols, abbreviations and emojis,” she said. “Millennials found a way to transport the richness of human expression into the realm of texts and tweets, crafting a language that is just as expressive and nuanced as face-to-face conversation.”

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The Funniest Tweets From Parents This Week (April 20-26)

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Not Checking This WiFi Setting Is Like ‘Leaving Your Front Door Open’ To Hackers

We love the internet. Whether we’re placing insomnia-fuelled eBay bids on action figures from our childhoods, emailing the latest Taylor Swift conspiracy theory to our best friend, or just paying our electric bill, being online makes our lives more fun, more connected and a whole lot easier.

Unfortunately, there are countless creeps who love that we love the internet — and who would love to swipe our personal information. Last year saw a record-breaking number of data breaches, which increased 20% between 2022 and 2023, so, if we’re going to live digitally (and how can we not?), we need to be vigilant about protecting our privacy.

We can start locking down our information by looking at how secure the internet in our own homes is.

“You will probably not be shocked to hear that we’re the problem on this one,” Alysa Hutnik, a privacy lawyer with Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP in Washington, D.C., told us — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast. “It’s usually human error in how you set it up and how you manage your Wi-Fi.”

Listen to the full episode by pressing play, and discover tons of tips and tricks for keeping your online privacy protected:

The first thing Hutnik advised we immediately do is check our router settings.

“You get it out of the box — don’t leave yourself with the default factory settings because guess what? Those are public, right?” she warned. “It’s really easy for hackers to get into. You’re able to change those factory settings, including your password, and so setting up a really strong password and not having the default is super important.”

Next, we want to ensure we’re using encrypted settings.

“Usually somewhere in [your settings], there’s [an option to choose] “WPA,” or Wireless Protected Access,” she said. “You can just enable that, and that’s essentially like, you’re not leaving your front door open, right? You wouldn’t do that in real life.”

Hutnik recommended that checking our settings doesn’t stop at our routers.

“Anytime you’re buying technology, go to settings,” she said. “Usually there’s a privacy option and a security option … spend 60 seconds just exploring what those options are. Companies are getting so much better — we’ve got a whole lot of new [privacy] laws — so they are offering new options. [These protective settings] may not be default, but you can certainly turn them on.”

Hutnik had loads of other potent privacy tips, including this one that takes only a second.

“[I am] paranoid as a privacy lawyer,” Hutnik told us. “I like to keep [my webcam] covered if I’m not intentionally using it. There is potential of malware where your device can be taken over [and hackers could use your camera to see into your home].”

She covers her cam with a Post-it note or a sticker when it’s not in use, and if she’s done working on her laptop, she always closes it.

“These are just things to think about — again, you’re mitigating risk. It doesn’t mean that you are going to get hacked, but I would rather somebody not see into my room if I can avoid it.”

We also discussed how to make your passwords the strongest they can be, which setting on her phone she almost always turns off, and much more. So listen to the full episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Need some help with something you’ve been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.

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‘You’re Going To Get A Drubbing’: Trevor Phillips Tells Sunak Tories Are Heading For Defeat

Rishi Sunak has been told by Trevor Phillips that the Tories are “going to get a drubbing” at Thursday’s local elections.

The Sky News presenter delivered the stark warning as he challenged the prime minister to either quit or call a general election for July.

The pair clashed as rebel Conservative MPs ponder whether to try to oust the PM before the country goes to the polls.

Experts predict that the Tories will lose up to 500 council seats on Thursday, while the futures of high-profile mayors Ben Houchen and Andy Street hang in the balance.

Phillips told Sunak: “You are going to get a drubbing at the local elections.

“How many seats do you have to lose before you accept that the people have lost confidence in you? And it’s time either for you to stand down or to call a general election.”

In response, the PM repeatedly refused to rule out a July general election.

“When it comes to a general election, I’ve been very clear about that multiple times,” he said.

In January, Sunak said his “working assumption” was that it would take place in the second half of the year.

Phillips said: “Second half of this year could be July.”

The PM replied: “I’m not going to say anything more than I’ve already said, I’ve been very clear about that.”

The presenter told him: “I just need to know when to book my holidays. July is possible?”

But Sunak said: “Actually, Trevor, it’s more important than your holiday or anyone’s holiday. I’ve got a job to do which is delivering for the country.”

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Millie Bobby Brown’s Fiancé Gave Her ‘The Ick’ By Doing 1 Thing She’s Famous For

Frankly, we’re surprised Millie Bobby Brown didn’t just dump his ass.

In a recent BBC Radio 1 interview that went viral this week, the British star shared that she just discovered a brand new “ick” — or a turnoff — thanks to her fiancé, model Jake Bongiovi.

“This morning I was on a flight with my fiancé, and he got a nosebleed,” she said. “And I got the ick.”

While explaining why she found this so unappealing, she cleverly referred to her famous Stranger Things character, Eleven, who gets nosebleeds when she uses her telekinetic and telepathic abilities.

Millie Bobby Brown appears as Eleven in "Stranger Things."
Millie Bobby Brown appears as Eleven in “Stranger Things.”

Courtesy of Netflix

“Do you know why? One, because he just got a nosebleed at the most inconvenient time,” she said. “We just landed. The seat belt sign was still on. ’He’s doing an Eleven’. I’m like, ‘Calm down.’

“Two, he’s acting as if it’s painful, and I’m like, ‘It’s not painful’.”

Brown and Jake Bongiovi are seen on March 1, 2024, in New York City.
Brown and Jake Bongiovi are seen on March 1, 2024, in New York City.

NDZ/Star Max via Getty Images

This is not the first time that Millie has discussed her personal icks — and there seem to be quite a few things that she finds unsavoury.

Earlier in the BBC Radio 1 interview, she said that men holding umbrellas give her the ick.

“There’s something about it that just feels really pathetic,” she explained. “I tried to get on board with it. I did try.”

Millie also told Glamour last year that she finds the act of taking photos of food “cringe.”

“I do not take pictures of my meals. That is where I draw the line,” she told the magazine at the time.

“My camera does not eat first. I think it’s just ridiculous. Put your phone down, eat your meal. … Never have I ever taken a picture of my food or drink. Cringe!”

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18 Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About The Making Of Baby Reindeer

Baby Reindeer has quickly become the biggest word-of-mouth TV hit of the year so far, and it’s not hard to see why.

The Netflix miniseries depicts the complicated true story of creator Richard Gadd’s years-long ordeal with a female stalker.

He wrote and stars in the series as Donny alongside Jessica Gunning, who has won huge acclaim for her nuanced performance as stalker Martha.

Fans of the show have been shocked to discover just how much of the series is steeped in truth, but there are plenty more behind-the-scenes facts that make Baby Reindeer an even more incredible watch…

First of all, yes, Baby Reindeer is all based on a true story

Richard Gadd as Donny in Baby Reindeer
Richard Gadd as Donny in Baby Reindeer

Ed Miller/Netflix

Undoubtedly one of the most shocking things about Baby Reindeer is that it’s all based on a real life stalking ordeal creator Richard Gadd endured for around four-and-a-half years of his life.

Everything from Donny and Martha’s first meeting in the pub, her relentless texts and emails, and the darker chapters – including his sexual assault – are based on truth.

And those texts and email? They’re all real, too

Among the most disturbing details about the show is that all the emails Donny receives in the show are verbatim copies of the real correspondence.

Richard received a total of 40,000 emails, 740 social media posts and 350 hours’ worth of voicemails from his real stalker, and each email in the show is chillingly depicted word for word.

However, it’s important to note that not everything depicted in Baby Reindeer is a ‘carbon copy’ of real life

Richard and Jessica on the set of one of Donny and Martha's earlier meetings
Richard and Jessica on the set of one of Donny and Martha’s earlier meetings

Ed Miller/Netflix

While many details of the show are true to Richard Gadd’s own experiences, the writer has insisted that the show is not an exact recreation of people and events exactly as they happened.

“A lot of it is very true, and all of it is emotionally true,” he told Gay Times. “Obviously, we can’t carbon copy people and identities, for various artistic and legal reasons. But, it is certainly based in emotional truth and lots of the action you see in it happened for real.”

In particular, Richard Gadd wanted to ensure the identity of his real stalker was protected

Jessica Gunning in Netflix's Baby Reindeer
Jessica Gunning in Netflix’s Baby Reindeer

Ed Miller/Netflix

The subject of Richard’s real life stalker has inevitably intrigued fans after watching the show – to the point where he’s even pleaded with viewers not to speculate online.

He previously insisted that measures were taken to ensure her identity remained unknown.

“I honestly couldn’t speak as to whether she would watch it,” he told GQ. “Her reactions to things varied so much that I almost couldn’t predict how she’d react to anything. She was quite an idiosyncratic person.

“We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognise herself. What’s been borrowed is an emotional truth, not a fact-by-fact profile of someone.”

Baby Reindeer started life as a one-man stage play

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Before viewers were binge-watching Baby Reindeer on Netflix, Richard was performing a stage version of his story in a one-man Edinburgh Festival Fringe show in 2019.

In that version, Martha was represented by an empty bar stool.

“It was me and a stool — Martha was a stool and I carried the stool around stage and I’d move her into different positions,” Richard told Variety.

“So to bring it from a 70-minute monologue into seven episodes, multiple characters, different strands and plot lines, it was a massive undertaking and a load of pressure.”

It later transferred to the West End and even won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement In Affiliate Theatre.

Richard’s early stand-up comedy really was as bad as his on-screen counter-part’s

Donny on stage in Baby Reindeer
Donny on stage in Baby Reindeer

Ed Miller/Netflix

Donny’s comedy routines in Baby Reindeer are… interesting, to say the least. Decked out in elaborate costumes and a suitcase of wacky props, the actor’s struggling comedy career forms the backdrop of the show.

It turns out that his old stand-up performances really did resemble what we see in the screen. In an interview with the Guardian, he recalled the strange “juxtaposition” of his “tormenting” personal life, with his more mad-cap stage performances.

He added that, while audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe “love weird stuff”, those routines wouldn’t go down so well on the regular comedy circuit.

I’d perform on the comedy circuit 11 months out of the year, to silence, because people expect more stuff that they see on TV,” he explained.

“Especially if they pay a high ticket price, they want to see dependable, seasoned, veteran comedians, and there’s this guy who’s taping ears to his nose, and they’re thinking: ‘This isn’t what I paid for.’”

Speaking in a video feature for Netflix, he elaborated that “the stand-up in the earlier years was terrible”, adding that he was trying to do “a weird brand” of “anti-comedy”.

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