Michaela Coel's Success Metrics Are Rooted in Poetry

Durga Chew-Bose interviews creator and star of HBO's I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel, for Garage. Turns out, Coel has a poetry background (which may account for her understanding of trees, discussed further in):

I ask Coel if she’s had to develop new ways to tap into her instincts as the creator of this show. “I always go back to the fact that I used to go to church, and I used to be Christian,” she says. “Something about value and understanding your value, and the idea of resisting temptation. I wonder whether that stayed with me by the time it came to making those early decisions. In drama school, I remember my first audition came up, and I didn’t want to do it because I just didn’t think it was for me. Even though it was TV, and I imagine many people would have instantly wanted to go do the audition, I didn’t. Also, I was a poet. That’s my origins. My metrics of success and happiness were quite unique for someone who finds themselves pursuing a career in theater and television. Every aspect of this, it’s a constant deliberation and realizing where you’ve got something wrong.”

Read on at Garage.