Michaela Coel On Dream Dinner Guests, Quitting Instagram And Spying On The Government
Michaela Coel has had one heck of a year.
As we endured pandemics, lockdowns and a total overhaul of the way many of us live our lives, Coel delivered some much-needed escapism with her groundbreaking consent drama, I May Destroy You.
Was it an easy watch? Not always, no. An important one? Most definitely. Critics and (most of) the awards bodies have agreed too, with Coel walking away with two BAFTA TV awards in June and nominations for two Emmys (Best Leading Actress and Limited Series, while co-star Paapa Essiedu is nominated too).
Coel's peers are just as admiring as awarding bodies, which is why many of them, like Seth Rogen, Natasha Lyonne and Lena Waithe all wanted to film a question for our 'Ask Me Anything' video, to celebrate her October cover of ELLE UK.
Rogen and Lyonne - both acclaimed writers in their own fields - wanted to know about the creative process for Coel, with the Super Bad star asking about the consequences of putting such 'heavy' and honest material out into the world and the Russian Doll actor relating to Coel by asking how she bets on self and has the confidence to keep going with the writing process.
'Most of the time, when I bump into people, they're willing to share stuff with me because it means they are being very present with me and it means that you get to have actual moments of substance with complete strangers,' Coel responded to Rogen's question. 'Obviously it feels like you are expending a lot of energy when you make the kind of work that I make, but I don't think I know how to make any other kind of work.'
Little Simz, whose tracks appeared on the must-listen-to I May Destroy You soundtrack, wanted to know about the art of creating non-traditional story lines. Lena Waithe, who is the writer behind boundary-pushing work like Queen & Slim and Master Of None, wanted to know how the London-based star's life has changed since she quit Instagram.
'I went outside and I went to a café and I sat outside...for some reason before I would never have just sat by myself, outside in like Soho,' she said in answer to Waithe's question, 'because I've got all this anxiety about people coming up to me, people are going to see me.. all this weird stuff.. and I just felt, like, this is where I life, this is planet Earth, this is nice... This is life looking out, instead of looking here [looks down at phone].'
Meanwhile, Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey (who also starred in Coel's Chewing Gum) wanted to know about the inner workings of Coel's mind and how much she thinks about the future. It's A Sin's Lydia West asked the always intriguing question about who Coel's dream dinner guest trio would include (FYI, it's Dave Chappelle, Donald Glover and Lena Waithe - what a mind-blowing meal that would be.)
Coel's friend and fellow actor Kadiff Kirwan (Chewing Gum and Fleabag) asked what his friend would do if she was given the gift of invisibility in London for a day: Going on PDA-filled dates, attending Lovebox festival topless and spying on the government, seems like a very good use of a super power to us.
Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel is out September 7.
The October issue of ELLE hits newsstands on September 2, 2021
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