Why Michaela Coel turned down a $1 million offer from Netflix to make I May Destroy You

Michaela Coel is proud of Chewing Gum, the comedy TV series she wrote and starred in that shot her to fame. But her time making the show was filled with "professional challenges" from the first day, E. Alex Jung writes in a profile of Coel for Vulture. So when it came to selling I May Destroy You, her 12-episode HBO/BBC series, Coel had a few priorities.

Both before Chewing Gum began filming and again before its second season, executives at Fremantle Media refused to make Coel an executive producer, she tells Vulture. And the problems only continued from there: Black cast members were confined to one trailer, some weren't called by their names, the list goes on. Coel ultimately opted against making a third season of the show.

By spring 2017, Coel was pitching her next series, I May Destroy You, which is based on a time she was drugged and sexually assaulted while on a break from writing Chewing Gum. Right off the bat, Netflix offered Coel $1 million for the show — but with a huge catch. Coel wanted to retain a percentage of the copyright to the show, but Netflix wouldn't even give her an outright answer on if they'd let her retain half a percent of those rights, Coel recalled.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Coel went on to pitch I May Destroy You to BBC, and the next day, she got an email ensuring she'd have full rights to the show, as well as full creative control. Still, Coel had "been so untrustworthy of the industry" that she took a day to think about the deal, she tells Vulture, before adding "It's an amazing email." Read the whole profile at Vulture.