![]() “It’s about a safe space for him to express himself,” Essiedu explains. There’s a straightforward satisfaction to Kwame’s romantic life that makes it much less fraught than his female friends’, at least before the upsetting events of the show. The character uses hookup apps with practiced ease, slipping away from a grocery trip with an elderly woman to have oral sex with the checkout clerk. “There’s a symbiosis to the way that we work, to the way that we think creatively.”Īs we meet him on the show, Kwame is ultraconfident, but quietly so. I think she respects me, but maybe that’s wishful thinking,” he says, laughing. Once Essiedu signed on, though, he and Coel started to workshop the character in collaboration. ![]() As one of Coel’s longtime friends, Essiedu had a longer, more indirect path to his role than Opia’s straightforward audition he heard about the project throughout its nearly 200 drafts, but the idea for him to play Kwame ultimately came from casting director Julie Harkin, not Coel herself. “I felt really lucky, because sometimes you really have to do the acting when it comes to playing friends,” he jokes. How’s it gonna work?’”īut according to Essiedu, Opia’s onboarding was seamless. A fan of Chewing Gum and Coel’s roles in shows like Hugo Blick’s Black Earth Rising, Opia says she had some reservations about joining a cast that was already so tight-knit: “I was a bit concerned before I was like, ‘Ooh, I’m gonna be the outsider. Opia, on the other hand, had never met her costar prior to her chemistry read. ![]() Coel and Essiedu have known each other since their time at London’s Guildhall School for Music & Drama for their graduation showcase, the two performed an original piece set at an East London basketball court, written in the same casual vernacular that gives I May Destroy You much of its texture and realism. Regardless of who does what, when, or how, they have decided to be each other’s birth and each other’s death”-the catchphrase Arabella and Terry, who goes by T, use to express their lifelong bond.Įven though T and Arabella’s relationship is the oldest on the show-a midseason episode shows them as rowdy teenagers-Opia was the relative newcomer behind the scenes. “I think that’s rooted in their love for each other, which is somewhat unconditional. “They’re able to accept each other regardless of the flaws, the mistakes, the decisions they make,” says Opia, speaking from her London apartment via Zoom. Would these people actually hang out with each other, let alone be vulnerable or intimate? Coel, Essiedu, and Opia sell their trio’s soul-deep connection, which in turn gives credence to the complicated scenarios their characters are forced to navigate. Less discussed, but equally vital, is the concept of platonic chemistry. Critics talk all the time about the concept of romantic chemistry-whether we believe two actors are as attracted to each other as their characters. Their characters’ journeys underline the show’s focus on the intricacies of consent, even as their lived-in rapport can make it a surprisingly easy watch, considering the subject at hand. Played by Paapa Essiedu and Weruche Opia, fitness instructor Kwame and aspiring actress Terry help form the foundation of I May Destroy You. Get on the Michaela Coel Bandwagon While There’s Still Room The show’s focus expands in kind: Arabella remains the center, but she’s supported and paralleled by her two closest friends, who both have disturbing encounters of their own. ![]() I May Destroy You quickly widens out from the immediate aftermath of Arabella’s assault into its long-term aftermath, even flashing back to the months and years before that give the event its context. And, of course, she plays the lead role: Arabella, an up-and-coming writer who, in a harrowing scene drawn from Coel’s own experience, is drugged and sexually assaulted the night before a deadline.īut, much like Arabella herself, Coel couldn’t do it alone. In addition to penning every script sans writers room, Coel codirected most episodes and serves as executive producer. Which makes sense: After a demoralizing experience on her first marquee project, Chewing Gum-for which she only got credit as a coproducer in the second season-Coel took full control over her follow-up. Halfway through its 12-episode first season, the rapturous acclaim for I May Destroy You has been largely attributed to its British auteur Michaela Coel.
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