Michaela Coel Is Doing Whatever The Hell She Wants | The FADER
The Chewing Gum creator on her fearless second season, diversity in television, and what made her the woman she is today.
Michaela Coel never stops testing boundaries. She is gleefully uncensored in her outrageous sitcom Chewing Gum, calls out institutional prejudice on Twitter, and relishes personal challenges in her work. When we talked by phone in March, she’d just wrapped a long day of filming for her upcoming role as a single mom in Been So Long, a London-set musical telling a love story through an R&B and neo-soul soundtrack. The role presented a couple of obstacles: “I’m not really a children person,” she tells me with a laugh. “But I’m learning to bond with them. And I haven’t done any singing for a while — I’m quite shy about that.”
News of Coel’s reserve may surprise viewers of her explosively funny show, which returns for Season 2 this week on Netflix. Lovable lead character Tracey (Coel) is still on a madcap mission to lose her virginity against the wishes of her evangelical Christian family. She gets into increasingly extreme situations in the six new episodes, from finding herself at a back-alley sex party, to dressing up as a racist caricature to try and please a date. Chewing Gum delights in brashness, vulgarity, and libidinous pleasure, as a counterpoint to shows that attempt to depict intimacy but cut the scene just as it heats up. But it’s its brilliant supporting cast that helps give Chewing Gum its big heart, with beefed-up roles in Season 2 for Tracey’s flamboyant gay friend Olà and her bookish sister Cynthia, as well as a fantastic Stormzy cameo (“I just slid into his DMs!” Coel hoots).
In the past it might have been tough to find a mainstream TV show that passed the DuVernay test. But in the few past years, the dominance of TV streaming platforms and new digital channels has helped the small screen offer an inclusive ecosystem for diverse voices in a way that Hollywood can’t — or won’t — provide. Against this backdrop, Chewing Gum’s wide-ranging representations of the black British working class experience aren’t just brilliant, they’re crucial.
In a thoughtful chat, Coel discusses the real-life inspirations behind Chewing Gum’s most shocking moments, colorism in the black community, and her advice for young black girls everywhere.
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Source: Michaela Coel Is Doing Whatever The Hell She Wants | The FADER
