Screen saviour... MICHAELA COEL
SHE ROSE TO FAME WITH Chewing Gum; NOW SHE’S BACK WITH HER PROVOCATIVE NEW SHOW January 22nd. WE FIND OUT HOW THE ACTOR IS PUSHING TV BOUNDARIES
‘It’s a bit like… EEEUGHHHH.’ Michaela Coel makes a noise that sounds halfway between a deep guttural throat clear and a full-on retch as she explains her sceen-writing process. Step one: ‘the vomit draft’. ‘I think a lot of writers do the smart thing where they… plan?’ she says. ‘But I just write whatever’s in my head. I show my script editors and they say, “OK, thank you for this vomit. What are you trying to say?” Then I go back and redraft until it makes sense. It’s a beautiful process!’ It may sound like an unusual way of working, but it’s a fruitful one. This month, Coel’s new show, January 22nd – which she wrote, directed and stars in – airs on the BBC. It’s a powerful exploration of sexual consent and is being heralded as one of the most exciting new series since Fleabag.
It marks Coel’s first return to the screen since 2O18’s Black Earth Rising, where she played a legal investigator and Rwandan genocide survivor. Before that was a lead role in Netflix musical Been So Long, her highly lauded turns in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, and the show that put her
”AFTER FINISHING A PROJECT, I WALK AROUND GRINNING, I’M SO HAPPY. IT DOESN’T COMPARE TO anything else ”
on the map: the hilarious and outlandish Chewing Gum. If you missed it, it follows Tracey, a twentysomething Londoner desperate to lose her virginity, much to the chagrin of her religious mother, sister and fiancé. It was hugely celebrated for its frank, funny portrayal of women of colour and picked up two BAFTAs in its first season.
As a performer, Coel is dexterous but it’s as a writer that she’s really made her mark. Like fellow writer-actors Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Issa Rae, she writes women who are rooted in real life and defy stereotypes. It’s no wonder she’s adored by everyone from RuPaul – who had her as a guest judge on Drag Race – to director
Rian Johnson, who cast her in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Perhaps it’s because her story tends towards the unexpected.
Born (and still living) in East London, she became an evangelical Christian in 2OO6 after accidentally joining a Christian dance group. Her faith inspired her to become a poet and, after quitting uni, Guildhall School of Music & Drama gave her a scholarship. There, she started questioning her religion; many of her new friends were gay and to Coel – who’d encountered homophobic parts of the Bible – her relationship with Christianity stopped feeling right.
By her final year of drama school, she’d lost her faith, but the conflict had helped her write Chewing Gum. What started as a final-year performance turned into a onewoman play at Hackney Wick’s Yard Theatre before evolving into a National Theatre show and – after 41 drafts – finding a home as a Channel 4 TV series.
If Chewing Gum saw Coel put comedic elements of her reallife on screen, in January 22nd she throws in the most vulnerable moments, too. Coel plays Arabella, a successful screenwriter who is undeniably hard-working, but also fond of weed-smoking, club-hopping, fun-chasing pursuits. Full of filthy comedy, fierce friendships and millennial hedonism, it packs a poignant punch.
Much of the plot centres around an incident not dissimilar to her experience of being sexually assaulted when she was
28. Coel says the act of writing – along with therapy and an incredible support network – helped her heal. ‘I knew very soon after it happened, when I was in the police station, that I’d write about it,’ she explains. ‘I wouldn’t say it was an accurate version of the things that happened to me; other people shared their stories, which led to an idea I would explore, and sometimes simply invent.’
As the air date gets closer, Coel feels ready. ‘I’m on a chill flex: I’m doing yoga, watching Love is Blind, which makes me happy to be single, and reading Afropean by Johny Pitts.’ She’s happier than ever, as is often the case when she finishes a project. ‘The process is like doing a loop around life. Then I’m on my deathbed, sad to leave Earth because I’ve had so much fun – that’s how finishing feels. I have this rush of euphoria and I walk around grinning because I’m so happy; it doesn’t compare to anything else.’ January 22nd is planned for release in June on the BBC