After five seasons stalking, judging, love bombing, gaslighting, and murdering beautiful women, Netflix’s most dangerous serial monogamist finally meets justice — and an unfortunately not-too-bad-looking buzz cut. You’s finale ends with Joe Goldberg in a jail cell, a joint effort between Madeline Brewer’s Bronte and the police work of Nava Mau’s Detective Marquez. Though brief, the detective’s time onscreen is effective: She manages to turn one revealing interrogation into a chance to hold Joe accountable while revealing how Bronte, as Beck’s former student and mentee, has been trying to bring Joe down since Beck’s murder.

This isn’t the first time Mau’s had to force a reality check on a show full of unreliable narrators. In last year’s cultural juggernaut Baby Reindeer, she played the Teri, the girlfriend of Richard Gadd’s Donny and the person most capable of emotionally grounding him. “Once Baby Reindeer reached the scale that it did, everything felt possible,” Mau says about the way the Emmy-winning series changed her approach to new projects. “I just gave myself permission to dream bigger and further.”

How did you prepare for the momentousness of bringing down Joe Goldberg?
There’s an approach to acting that is sort of discovery based, and it really worked for this particular role. The director wanted us to focus entirely on that episode and what was going on between me and Madeline Brewer’s character, so it almost felt like I was on a spinoff or something. We weren’t really talking about Joe Goldberg. We were talking about this girl right in front of me that I had to question.

Did you and Madeline discuss the dynamic between your characters?
The director actually told me, “When you show up in the morning, you can be polite and cordial, but don’t talk to Maddie. Don’t be friends with her.” She said, “Maddie’s really sweet, and I think y’all will probably hit it off, so actually you need to be kind of mean to her.” Honestly, it didn’t last very long. I would say by 10:30 that morning I had to confess and tell her, “I’m so sorry, I actually adore you. Gabby told me that I shouldn’t talk to you, but I can’t help it.” So then we had to actually be good actresses! I remember Maddie saying, “Yeah, Bronte, she’s really slippery.” And I hadn’t quite realized from what I had read that you couldn’t trust this character at all. I originally thought, Maybe she’s just going through a crisis. Maybe she’s just a little overwhelmed. Seeing the way Maddie talked about the character and her arc made me realize I needed to be very apprehensive about the way I was approaching her character. So I’m glad I talked to her.

Right, this show is so much about what we’re willing to believe. It’s easy to look at Joe as the most unreliable narrator, but really, every single character has to evaluate whether they trust anyone else.
Also, can we trust ourselves? Obviously for Bronte, that’s the question, but the mirror is also held up by the detective. Then there are moments where the detective is caught off guard and it’s like, Hold on, can I trust what she’s telling me and what I thought was true and what the evidence seemed to suggest? I can’t imagine showing up to work, it’s very late at night, and I’m trying to get the fuck out of there. It’s the end of my shift, it went too long anyway, and they made me stay because I was probably the only woman on the team at this small precinct. That’s how I played it: I’m the young woman on the team and they made me stay. I was thinking about what it must have been like for somebody to have this show up on their desk at midnight when they’re not even trying to be there.

Had you watched all of You before you were cast?
I have not, and I actually think that that was good for the character I came to play. She comes into the story and has to figure out what the fuck is going on, and so it kind of worked that I genuinely didn’t know.

What kind of preparation did you do?
I skimmed different seasons to get a feel for the tone and to understand who Joe Goldberg is supposed to be. I read everything the team sent me, which was only my episode and a letter that was very thorough that told me how the showrunners were thinking of the character within the season’s arc.

How were they thinking about the character? Were you thinking about her the same way?
They said she was an emotional anchor and was pivotal to this emotional turning point in the season. I didn’t get to read the whole season, so I didn’t really know what was going on, but they made it clear this was a pivotal episode in Bronte’s character arc. They really wanted the detective character to guide the audience through the discovery of Bronte’s transformation. I would not have immediately seen the character the way they framed her for me, so I really appreciated that.

In both You and Baby Reindeer, you play some of the only characters who are actually grounded in reality and can hold other characters accountable. Were you thinking about similarities between the two shows when you were filming? 
Actually, no. I just dove into this as another world. But afterward, I did realize. On paper, the tags for the show are “stalking” and “social media.” But I didn’t quite realize it at first.

How do you look back on that period of Baby Reindeer?
Every time I think back to it, I remember new things. So many things happened so quickly and all at once, and every single thing that happened was brand new for me. It might be the most unbelievable, highest volume, biggest-scale period of my life. I know that manifestation is important, and I know that I want to continue my career, and there’s so many people that want that as well. I’m so grateful for my team. We’re working really hard. And it’s possible that might have been it.

Has the success of Baby Reindeer changed the types of projects that you’re interested in, or the way you pursue them?
Yeah, definitely. I had never really thought about action as a genre for me until I did Baby Reindeer. I had to do stunts for two days, and I was like, Oh my God, I love this. Actually, it was the stunts and the ballet. I had to do some training outside filming, and that was the most fun for me. Once Baby Reindeer reached the scale that it did, that felt possible. Everything felt possible. I just gave myself permission to dream bigger and further.

And I know you’re planning to release a short film soon.
Yes! It’s going to be out next month. A lot of people don’t realize that while the Baby Reindeer explosion was happening, I was simultaneously having a festival run of my little short film and going to festivals and screenings. That was just as meaningful to me. It’s a film that touches on intimate partner violence. I’ll leave it up to audiences to decide if they feel like it’s a healing narrative, but I came out on the other side a different person. It sounds so cliché and corny, but I genuinely needed to make it. I feel like it’s my Tortured Poets Department. It’s heavy and there’s some sadness and pain, but the process of making it was so healing and cathartic. I hope after watching it, people know that I am on the other side now.

 But the You and Baby Reindeer star didn’t see the similarities between her characters at first.