Trans star Nava Mau reflects on her 'Baby Reindeer' role and her historic Emmy nomination
For Nava Mau, landing a role in a Netflix series and becoming the first transgender woman to get an Emmy nomination for it made her feel like she's part of something larger than herself.
The actress got a nod in the Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series category at the 2024 Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Teri in the Netflix series Baby Reindeer. According to her, it's a huge step toward embracing trans actors in the entertainment industry.
"In the span of years, there can be one opportunity for someone like me to get to grow as an actor and to be part of a project as meaningful as Baby Reindeer, let alone be invited into a deeper space within the industry," she said in an interview with NBC News. "I think that is true for so many trans actors—really, all of us. We just don’t get that many opportunities, so when they come, we have to make the most of them."
Teri (Mau) is the love interest of Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) in Baby Reindeer. She's an American therapist and a trans woman that Donny met on a dating app.
When asked how she felt about portraying the character, Mau, who has experience serving as a peer counselor for immigrant and LGBTQ+ survivors of violence, said that "it was unlike anything I'd ever read before."
"I felt so connected to Teri and also to Richard’s voice as a survivor, as somebody who very clearly wanted to create a work that would connect people through vulnerability. I think that is so powerful," she continued.
The romantic relationship between Donny and Teri was based on Gadd's "own ill-fated romance with a trans woman." Mau shared that she experienced "beautiful molding" on set as it was "written by someone who had actually known and loved a trans woman."
“Richard really cared about this story depicting a trans woman, because he understood that the stakes are really high for us when it comes to media representation,” she said. “He wanted to depict a trans woman who was powerful, lovable, intelligent, accomplished and very reasonable, so there were lots of moments where I think he really genuinely wanted to know what I thought about the script and the character.”
Mau explained how the Netflix offering gave her a way to help boost the inclusion of trans women in mainstream media.
"We have had to advocate for ourselves and fight for our rights, and explain to people that we deserve to be alive and that we belong in the world just as much as anybody else,” she went on.
"We have so much life, we have so much spirit, and I would love to see more representations of trans people that lets that spirit shine bright in humor, in action, in adventure, in outer space, in romance," she added.
The 2024 Emmy nominees were announced in July. The awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on Sept. 15.