Michaela Coel covers the November issue of American Vogue. She’s promoting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, joining the ensemble as a comic-fan-favorite character, Aneka. People are very excited about her entrance in the MCU and what it all means. The Vogue interview takes place over the course of several days in Ghana, where Coel’s family is from (although she was born in the UK). It was basically Vogue not only giving Coel her flowers, but allowing her a platform to talk about and show the real Ghana, a country she loves deeply. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Coming to Ghana for the first time: “I’d been to Africa before—Kenya and Uganda—but when I came here I was really seeing people who looked like me. A friend of mine was with me, and he remembers us getting off the plane and me walking around as if I knew where I was going. I remember looking at all the kids playing and it hit me, like, Wow, this could’ve been me and I think I would have really enjoyed that. Yes, there are a lot of sad things; poverty, unemployment, struggle. There’s also a lot of peace, friendliness. There’s a lack of anxiety.”
She auditioned for the first Black Panther: “I think for a lot of people it was the first time we’d seen some sort of representation on a very mainstream platform about the magic of Africa, the magic of the people, our ancestors. Coming here, you do feel something magical.”
Joining the MCU following Chadwick Boseman’s passing: When filming began last year, “it felt like the entire cast was processing grief,” she says. “There was a sense that we have to bring this baby home in the name of Chadwick. I thought to myself, I’m rolling up my sleeves and I’m getting in. I don’t need to be front and center, I’m here to support.”
Playing Aneka, a queer character in the canon: “That sold me on the role, the fact that my character’s queer. I thought: I like that, I want to show that to Ghana.” Like many African countries, Ghana has draconian antigay laws dating back to the colonial era. Most recently though, a bill has been put to parliament calling for some of the most oppressive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation the continent has ever seen. If passed, it could make identifying as gay or even an ally a second-degree felony, punishable by five years in prison. “People say, ‘Oh, it’s fine, it’s just politics.’ But I don’t think it is just politics when it affects how people get to live their daily lives. That’s why it felt important for me to step in and do that role because I know just by my being Ghanaian, Ghanaians will come.”
Portraying her real-life sexual assault in ‘I May Destroy You’: “I don’t think I really understood how much making a show would make this thing lose its power. Now it’s just a scar like these ones.”
Whether she’s looking for a relationship: “I do want a life companion. I love romance and I love when romance turns into something deeper, a relationship where there’s understanding, transparency, forgiveness, openness. But you have to find that person, and I personally haven’t seen many healthy men. So I don’t know if I trust myself. I’m trying to do the work. I talk about this in therapy all the time, and actually, person by person, they’re getting healthier and healthier.”
What strikes me is how free she is – she’s not a typical celebrity, complaining about loss of privacy or loss of creativity, feeling constrained by typecasting or fame. The way she describes herself as a little girl and as a woman, she just feels like she regularly just picks up and goes on adventures, a wandering spirit with a big heart and big dreams. It’s refreshing and her life force just jumps off the page.
“But you have to find that person, and I personally haven’t seen many healthy men…I talk about this in therapy all the time, and actually, person by person, they’re getting healthier and healthier.” I think she means that while the men are not okay, she’s not totally okay either and as she gets healthier, she sees better qualities in men? It’s like a riddle, I don’t know.
Photos courtesy of Vogue.
I love her and can’t await to watch her in Black Panther!
Ps: I have similar facial features , long face and sharp cheekbones and people tell me that I look like her.
Lucky you! I think she’s one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen.
Lucky you she’s gorgeous!
Wow! You must be stunning!
I am excited she’s joining the cast! This will be the only movie I see in theatres this year I think.
@kaiser; I took it to mean as she does her own inner work, the men she chooses are healthier and healthier because she’s addressing the issues that lead to choosing problematic partners in the first place. (And probably able to see red flags a lot quicker to avoid some people entirely right away!)
This is my take also. As she gets healthier she makes better choices. And here’s to that! This is also my goal so I love to see it.
This woman is so beautiful and so attractive in spirit. Watching “I May Destroy You”, there were times when she would just crack me up with her childlike energy and others when pure love and affection would just shine out of her eyes. I love when you can see that innocence in a person.
I love her, have since Chewing Gum. I haven’t been able to watch I May Destroy You yet, as I keep worrying it’ll be too triggering around my own sexual assault. But I think she’s so amazing for making her pain into art.
Yes that’s what I discovered her to from Chewing Gum and I’ve been Fan ever since.
This has been precisely my predicament as well, thank you for putting it into words.
I just think she is amazing after watching I May Destroy You and Chewing Gum. Highly recommend both for those that haven’t seen her work.
💕 💗 ❤️ her so much
She sounds so lovely and self-assured. I hope she does find the partner she’s looking for.
I think she means that she is not meeting a lot of men who are also doing their own personal growth work. That she is in therapy and working on herself and her traumas and how to show up in relationships but that it isn’t reciprocal on the other side.
As someone who is starting the process of getting out of a marriage and thinking about what it will be like to date, I completely get where she is coming from and have the exact concern.
I totally relate to what she is saying.
She is so stunning and so talented, it’s exciting to see her taking on a big movie. I wish her nothing but the best, she’s an amazing person.
Hi. Hoping someone can help me. I stopped subscribing to British Vogue after the editor’s comments re Meghan. I am based in the UK but now subscribe to American Vogue. I received my first edition thru the post this week, the one above, and it’s about half the size of UK Vogue. Is this right? It’s tiny – really slim. A bit like Cosmo.
American Vogue is trash too. Yes it used to be think, but now is only the size of a pamphlet except for two times a year in September and in the Spring the big fashion events. It’s really not worth subscription, better to buy individual copies there’s someone on the cover you like.
Thanks, Coco. I couldn’t believe how small it is and how crappy most of the articles are. And this is all Anna Wintour manages to do every month! It’s nothing. I started thinking it must be a one off, but if this is what it’s really like, I’m cancelling. A total waste of money.
FWIW you can find copies of American Vogue at most WHSmith stores, albeit several weeks behind the US release schedule, so if there’s a particular issue you want you can usually find it there. But I know what you mean – I picked up an issue once out of interest and quickly put it back again, the cover was beautiful but the page count was ridiculous.
Not sure about the UK but my library in Canada has all the international Vogues for download each month so no need to pay.
My God, her fashion. I was puzzling over her thoughts about unhealthy men (I’m sure she meant in mind as well as body). Yes, this country alone has so many famous, ugly examples of unhealthy men, in mind as well as body. I do hope she finds that healthy man, but I also think she’ll be fine no matter what. I too look forward to seeing her in Wakanda.