Michaela Coel on Creativity, Romance, and the Path to Wakanda Forever

BY Chioma Nnadi, Vogue

Michaela Coel doesn’t like to sit still; she’s a self-​described mover, the type to run a half-​marathon in the middle of the night for fun. So I’m not all that surprised when the 35-year-old actor-writer-​director suggests meeting for a Rollerblading session on a Sunday morning in Accra, Ghana’s capital city. “Totally down for that, sounds like fun!!!” I respond via WhatsApp, adding one too many exclamation points out of apprehension. To be honest, it’s a terrifying idea. The day before, in Accra’s historic Jamestown, I’d witnessed Coel flying through traffic on her skates, her polka-dot Burberry cape flapping wildly behind her, photographer Malick Bodian and his crew in hot pursuit. It was a daredevil stunt suited more to an action movie than a Vogue cover shoot.

Looking every inch the athlete, Coel shows up early for our meet, slender but strong in black running shorts and a sports bra, a purple baseball hat thrown over her closely cropped ’fro. She shows me her skates—white with gigantic lilac wheels—and tells me that big wheels equal great speed. “The balance is tough, but the enjoyment is max,” she says, grinning.

[…]

As a little girl, Coel would skate around the East London council estate where she grew up with her mother and older sister. But it wasn’t until March of last year, while visiting her grandmother in Accra and inspired by a group of kids learning to Rollerblade, that she picked up the sport again. Before ascending to the impressive custom gear she’s wearing today, she bought her first grown-up pair of skates at Decathlon. “This is what happens when you’re not risk-averse,” she deadpans pointing to the scars on her knees, the result of a tumble she took last spring shortly before she flew home to London for the BAFTA awards.

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In November, Coel will appear in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the second in Marvel’s wildly popular Afrofuturist series. News of her role immediately lit up the internet, energizing Coel fans and comic book aficionados alike. For the actor, joining the ensemble cast was a wish fulfilled; she’d been one of the many young hopefuls who auditioned for the first Black Panther movie while she was still a student at the Guildhall drama school in London. “I think for a lot of people it was the first time we’d seen some sort of representation on a very mainstream platform about the magic of Africa, the magic of the people, our ancestors,” she says. “Coming here, you do feel something magical.”

Learn more about Coel.

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