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Michaela Coel Talks to Louis Theroux About I May Destroy You

Michaela Coel Says She's Still Processing the End of I May Destroy You: "I'm Just Grieving"

Programme Name: I May Destroy You - TX: 16/06/2020 - Episode: n/a (No. 4) - Picture Shows:  Arabella (MICHAELA COEL) - (C) © Various Artists Ltd and FALKNA - Photographer: Natalie Seery

Image Source: BBC

I May Destroy You was indisputably one of the most popular shows of the year, and will surely land itself at the top of many "Best TV of 2020" lists for its nuanced exploration of consent, race, mental health, and millennial life. And now, creator Michaela Coel has revealed that, six months on from when the show first dropped on BBC/HBO, she's still in the process of grieving it being over.

Speaking on the podcast Grounded With Louis Theroux, Coel admitted she's been in what she describes as a "post-writum depression" ever since the show premiered, revealing that she found the experience of bringing the story of I May Destroy You to life to be incredibly intense.

"It becomes the centre of your world and then, boom, it's gone. And there's nothing," she explained. "I would work 16-hour days without realising that's what I was doing. Now there's a gaping hole where that work once was and it seems so easy to just fill it with the next thing, to fill it with anything."

"But instead I've decided to sit in this place of emptiness and uncertainty. I'm going to sit in it and I'm going to grieve, I'm going to do things like walk for two hours in the morning, I run in the morning, I meditate, I see my friends, I see my family. All the things I neglect when I'm working a lot. And when that process is done, I'll begin to think a little bit more about opportunities," she continued.

In the hour-long chat, the writer and actor also told Theroux that she's had to quickly adapt to the sudden fame the show's success has brought her, revealing she's gone so far as to change her email address to escape the constant barrage of messages she's received about potential acting and writing projects. "It was too much," she said. "I like writing stories and filming them. I love to act in projects I really believe in . . . but I'm not too interested in being caught up in the euphoria of being 'hot right now.'"

So it looks like we — quite understandably — shouldn't expect to see any new projects from Coel in the immediate future. In the meantime, we'll be rewatching I May Destroy You to remind ourselves just how bloody good it is.

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