Baby Reindeer has officially become one of the most-watched shows on Netflix. The drama-thriller miniseries, created by and starring Richard Gadd, is based on his own personal experience with stalking.
It's equal parts horrifying and thrilling, and now with Gadd sharing his own story, many others have felt inspired to share their own encounter with stalking and abuse — including icarly and School of Rock actor Miranda Cosgrove, who experienced first-hand this dark side of fame eight years ago.
Watch: "The moment I was caught stalking on social media." Post continues after video.
In a new interview, Cosgrove recalled the time a man who had been stalking her made his way onto her property, lit himself on fire and then fatally shot himself in the yard of her home.
The actor happened to be out that night — she had been on a bad date and had decided to stay at her parents' house. Around 3am, the actor got the call to tell her what had unfolded.
For three days, Cosgrove's stalker had been burying items in her backyard including knives, a rope and chocolate. On the night of his death, he had spent hours pacing back and forth outside her house, and even shot at a woman driving nearby who resembled Cosgrove.
The actor shared that she ran into the woman years later, at an event for Kitten Rescue LA. "The girl came up to me and she was like, 'I didn't know if I should tell you this here or how to say this, but I'm actually the girl that was at your house that got shot at," she told Bustle.
"... She said she'd just gone through a breakup the night before and was going to her friend's house because she was so distraught."
Cosgrove also shared that she still lives in the same house, and while the incident is further away from her mind than it once was, the impact still lingers.
"That's another reason why I go back and forth to my parents' house so much," she said. "I just don't feel super safe in that house.
"For two years after it happened, I wouldn't really stay there. Then I got into a relationship and because that person was there with me, I was less scared. But I don't really like being there on my own that much."
Watching Baby Reindeer did bring up bad memories for the actor, but she confessed she enjoyed the show and "didn't think about [my incident] very much".
"I feel like if that were me, having to go back through your most terrible experiences and then try to act them [out], that'd be so hard," she noted.
Unlike Gadd, Cosgrove said the information surrounding her own experience with stalking is scarce. Police cannot explain the man's obsession with the actor, or whether the situation was premeditated or "totally random".
"It might have just been totally random, like he saw me somewhere and he followed me home or something like that. But they never figured out exactly why," Cosgrove said, per Today.
The actor said the incident "freaked me out really bad" so she began staying with her parents again.
"It was really bizarre," she said. "I have a fantasy of diving into the story and figuring out exactly why it all happened just because I think it'd be interesting to know who the person was, why they were there, and exactly what was going on."
She added, "I don't know if that'd make it worse or if that'd make it better, but it just seems like it'd be interesting to have more answers."
Celebrities encountering stalkers is not rare. Often referred to as the "dark side of fame", the personal safety of A-listers often becomes compromised as their private lives find their way into the spotlight.
Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bullock, Taylor Swift, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Gwyneth Paltrow are just a few of a long list of celebrities whose safety has been compromised by stalking. The Kardashians are not immune to such encounters either, including Kendall Jenner who said she had "never been so scared in my life" in court when filing a restraining order against a man who was stalking her.
The 28-year-old talked about her experiences previously on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, recalling "sobbing [and] crying" after finding the man in her driveway in 2016. "I used to be the one who was so independent," she said in a March 2017 episode. "I was always kind of by myself, in a good way, but now it's fully flipped."
Feature Image: Instagram @mirandacosgrove.
Are you a new or expecting mum? We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the below survey. PLUS as a token of our appreciation…you’ll go in the running to win a $50 gift voucher!