Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning has always been single — for good reason.
“I’ve never been in a relationship before with anyone,” Gunning, 40, told The Times of London in a profile published Sunday, March 22, noting her single status initially kept her from realizing that she identified as queer. “Everyone around me was gay. I just didn’t think I could be.”
Gunning, who publicly came out as gay in 2022, cited her questions about her sexuality as the main reason for her decision to avoid romantic relationships.
“Well, not to get too deep, but it was probably that I didn’t want to go out with guys and so I was finding a way to avoid it,” the actress explained to The Times. “I never knew how to flirt, I didn’t get it. I was always friends with guys and would set them up with other friends. In a way it was, like, ‘Great, because I’m not interested.’ ”
Gunning also connected her lack of relationship experience with her weight.
“It might be connected to size, maybe because I was bigger,” she acknowledged to the newspaper. “It’s hard to word this because I don’t want it to seem like I’m saying it in a negative way, because it definitely isn’t. I didn’t feel like an alien in a negative way, but it was, like, an otherness.”
Gunning continued, “The otherness, I suppose, looking back, protects me from having to go, ‘I don’t fancy men.’ I was just, like, ‘Oh, it’s not the time for me,’ or whatever. And then, before I knew it I was in my 30s.”
Without romance in her life, a celibate Gunning started focusing on her acting career.
“My job was my passion and my love,” she said. “The characters I got to play, I felt like I maybe lived vicariously through a lot of them. I felt very sexual and I felt very connected to myself, so I was so happy in so many ways. It didn’t feel like I was lonely. I lived with my best mate. I felt fulfilled. I didn’t feel like I was lacking anything.”
Gunning got her big break in 2024’s Baby Reindeer, which was adapted from comedian Richard Gadd’s one-man show about his experience with an alleged stalker.
“I felt very protective of Richard,” she told The Times of her experience working on Baby Reindeer. “I love filming, I love getting to know the crew. We get so close, I always grieve it when it’s over.”
