Michaela Coel

Michaela Coel on MacTaggart lecture: 'I feel better having shared'

This article is more than 3 years old

The Chewing Gum star said she hopes her speech, in which she spoke about racism and her own sexual assault, will bring about change in the UK

Lanre Bakare in Edinburgh
Thu 23 Aug 2018 16.38 BST

Michaela Coel says her MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV festival, during which she revealed she had suffered racism and sexual assault while working in the industry, was a cathartic exercise aimed at bringing change.

In a post-MacTaggart interview with comedian Katy Brand, Coel spoke about how the lecture was a way of letting others know they can speak about similar issues. “I feel better having shared honestly,” she said. “My only selfish gain is a good night’s sleep.

“I’m becoming clearer on what my role is in this industry,” she added. “I love telling stories, but I want this process of finding your role to be easier for other people. I really do, and that is really it for me.”

On Wednesday, Coel used the prestigious speech, which is delivered each year by a prominent TV industry figure, to speak about her experiences in the sector and the way she had been treated by peers and production companies.

She explained she had be sexually assaulted after going for drinks the night before a writing deadline.

“I had a flashback,” she said. “It turned out I’d been sexually assaulted by strangers. The first people I called after the police, before my own family, were the producers.”

Coel said after doing so, the production company staff she had been working with began “teetering back and forth between the line of knowing what normal human empathy is and not knowing what empathy is at all”.

The speech, which brought audible gasps from the audience, was Coel trying to create a “transparent space”, she said. “I’m seeking out people who are willing to be transparent and that comes with the risk of losing everything. But I don’t mind because I’d rather have transparency.”

Coel also expanded on a story she told in the lecture about an American production company trying to acquire a show she had written for $1m, in a deal that would have seen Coel sign away all copyright.

“I’ve no mortgage, no credit card, no real kids, no car, happy with my bicycle; money’s nice, but I prefer transparency,” she explained. “My stories are my babies, I wanna look after them, so I asked to reserve a portion of my parental rights; my copyright … I used the only power I had; and declined.”

When asked to explain why she turned down the offer, she said the company’s response to the question of why they would acquire all the copyright wasn’t satisfactory. “The first thing I asked was: ‘Why do you want to take all the copyright?’” she said. “And when the answer is ‘that’s just the way it is’, then I’m out because that doesn’t sound like a good answer to me. It sounds cloudy. I don’t trust that.”

“Bless us, [creatives] want to share; that’s the reason why we are doing this,” she continued. “And when someone gives you the opportunity to share, because that’s your goal, sometimes you just take it. But I’ve learned to go: ‘What are the terms and what are the conditions?’”

When asked if it was hard to turn down the $1m, Coel said: “I just don’t care.”

When asked by Brand if she felt like she had a place in the TV industry, she said, “Yes, 100%. And that’s why I say I want to play whatever part I can in fixing this house.”

THE GUARDIAN

Maya Angelou and Still I Rise review - perceptive portrait of legendary writer

4/5stars

    

BIOGRAPHY

Her unmistakably raspy tones narrate this story of her trajectory from a brutal childhood in the south to a leading figure of black American self-empowerment

SUNDACE 2016

Lanre Bakare
Wednesday 27 January 2016 21.10 GMT

First published on Wednesday 27 January 2016 21.08 GMT

I

n the opening moments of Maya Angelou And Still I Rise, Hillary Clinton says it would be sad if the poet, thinker, and performer were only to be remembered for one thing, alluding to her classic work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But this documentary – put together by Bob Hercules and first-time film-maker Rita Coburn Whack, shows the varied, creative and often brutal back story that created one of America’s finest writers.

Starting with her upbringing in Stamps, Arkansas, the directors use Angelou’s unmistakably raspy narration to weave a story of abuse and neglect. Her mother leaves home, and a seven-year-old Angelou is raped by her mother’s new boyfriend when they are reunited in St Louis. After she tells people about the rape, her attacker is arrested and released before his corpse is found: seemingly, he has been beaten to death. It’s a moment that profoundly affects Angelou, who not only has to recover from the assault but also the fact that she now believes her words were responsible for his death. She decides not to speak for five years. The thought of Angelou being mute is shocking, not least because the film is so much better thanks to her voice. She could read a shopping list and make it thrilling.

Angelou finds her voice again when learning poetry – she reads every book in the black library. It’s from here we learn about her developing into a performer. She moves to San Francisco and begins a career onstage; she also gives birth to her son Guy Johnson (there’s an amazing moment when she describes losing her virginity and how underwhelming she found the whole process). Johnson steals the show. His accounts of their life together (and apart) are heartbreaking and tinged with anger. He talks about the time American entertainer Pearl Baileystopped his mother from being her understudy because she considered her too ugly. It was a decision that meant they’d be separated again because Angelou would have to go back on the road in a touring company. There’s a mix of fury and pride as he tells the story of Bailey getting a lifetime achievement award and choosing Angelou as the person who should give it to her. His mother did it happily, without mentioning the pain she had caused.

It’s their relationship that drives the action again as Angelou becomes involved in the civil rights movement, spending time with James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, as well as operating on the front lines of protest despite the dangers. Throughout everything she is outspoken and defiant, refusing to be cowed by past mistakes or indiscretions. The only times she is withdrawn is when discussing her son’s accident in Ghana, during which he broke his neck and almost died.

What Coburn Whack and Hercules do so well is capture Angelou’s power and elegance, which seems to have increased as she got older. An important figure throughout the 60s, in the 70s and 80s she developed into a maternal figure for black America, ushering in the period of Oprah and black female empowerment. It’s that longevity and creative drive that the film celebrates. No hagiography, it paints a portrait of a life lived to the full and dedicated to being true to oneself.

THE GUARDIAN

Isabelle Huppert accepting the award for best actress in a motion picture drama for her role in ‘Elle’

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Lanre Bakare
Monday 9 January 2017 07.40 GMT