Page 262 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

Michaela Coel in I May Destroy You (BBC)
“I pitched it to them, they liked it, but niggling in my mind was a desire to retain a small portion of
my rights as the creator, writer, director, star of the show – even two per cent of my rights. And
they wouldn’t go for that,” she says with a wry smile. “So, I said no.”

But during the shoot for Black Earth Rising, “I got to know the BBC a little bit, so I went in to meet
them. We spoke for an hour, then Piers [Wenger, controller of BBC drama commissioning] emailed
me in September to say: ‘We would like you to do this show with us. And we would like you to
make it as near the knuckle, as honest and as true to your creative vision as you desire. And we
want you to have your rights, too.”

Retelling the story now, Coel beams. “And this email was humbling. Humbling. Humbling! I
sometimes go back to it and read it now!”

I May Destroy You is a gripping, unsettling watch, as it must be. There is scatological humour and
explicit sex, some involving Arabella, some involving her gay male best friend, some involving
threesomes. There is significant drug use. There are intimate details relating to periods. Was there
any pushback from the BBC to any of these scenes?

“No! And, you know, periods aren’t taboo. How could a period be taboo? It’s like saying oxygen is
taboo. No, there was no pushback.”

Still, she understands what I’m getting at. “Honestly, friends are like: ‘Oh, God, was it hard doing it
with the BBC?’ I’m like: ‘Guys, they let me [do anything].’ You know those things you put your
toddler in – some sort of harness?”

Reins.

“Yeah? The BBC took them off. And I just went running, s***ting, vomiting, period-ing everywhere.
And they were like: ‘Good!’”

She laughs as she delineates the “insane” demands on her time, energies and focus during the
gruelling six-month shoot for a 12-episode show that, when we speak, she’s still finishing. She
likens it to “a big, long extended high. It’s like being in a long labour! And at the end you get a
baby. And this is my baby.”