Michaela Coel on Turning Down Netflix: ‘I Was Empowered and Happy to Have Nothing’
Naman Ramachandran “I May Destroy You” creator and star Michaela Coel has said she felt “incredibly empowered” after turning down a $1 million offer from streaming giant Netflix for the show that eventually found its home at HBO and the BBC.Coel revealed earlier this month how, in May 2017, with the help of her then agents CAA, she had negotiated a deal with Netflix, but it fell through when she asked for a percentage of the show’s copyright. In a frank conversation hosted by Farrah Chaudhry on Tuesday, as part of the BBC’s first ‘Creative Diversity Xperience,’ Coel said that while it was initially easy to accept the check, “something made me question the nature of the deal.”“It wasn’t just a check,” Coel said.