‘Baby Reindeer’ Star Nava Mau Opens Up About Her Commitment to Transgender People

“Baby Reindeer” star Nava Mau may be emerging as a trans role model following the success of the Netflix drama and her Emmy nomination for her work on the show, but the actress isn’t ready to call herself an “activist.”

“I’m really afraid to use that word because I think people who are activists are often involved in organizing, and I deeply respect that work,” Mau told me Friday at the Television Academy’s nominees’ awards ceremony at the Wallis in Beverly Hills. “I tend to think of myself as an advocate.”

Mau’s nomination for best supporting actress in a limited series or anthology or a movie makes her the first transgender woman nominated in that category.

She gets emotional when she talks about the young trans people who thank her for her visibility. “It makes me cry a little bit,” Mau says.

She recalls receiving the CMF Barrier Breaker Award at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. “It made me think about the reality of being transgender, that we have to overcome so many barriers to survive,” Mau said. “The fact that we can achieve our dreams is remarkable and revolutionary.”

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Asked to name some of her trans influences and inspirations, Mau cites the cast of “Pose,” Jamie Clayton in “Sense 8,” independent filmmaker and actor Rain Valdez and “Her Story,” a 2016 web series starring Angelica Ross and Jen Richards. “All of these pieces are pieces of me,” Mau says.

Mau also said her dream role was to play a witch.

A good witch or a bad witch? Mau smiled, “They’re never all good or all bad, are they?”

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