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.
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