How did Michaela Coel turn her trauma into a cultural triumph?
about 5 years in The guardian
From a London council estate to world acclaim, friends and colleagues explain how the writer, director and star of I May Destroy You brought her world to the screen
A year ago this week , Michaela Coel stood in an ornately gothic private suite in the heart of Bloomsbury, eyeing her assembled troops. The 12 episodes of her show I May Destroy You were to be read aloud in full for the first time by her cast. The production crew jigsawed themselves behind the actors’ table while producers from HBO and the BBC sat tight in anticipation.
At this point, still only 31, Coel had won a Bafta for her debut series, Channel 4’s Chewing Gum, and turned down a £1m deal with Netflix. Now she was in the room as the writer, director, producer and the star in full control of her own show; a semi-fictionalised portrait of her world in London, of sexual assault, friendships and anxiety. A quiet pressure hissed. Continue reading...
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