Michaela Coel Dedicates BAFTA Award to the Director of Intimacy
On June 6, Michaela Coel won three awards at the BAFTAs and dedicated her Leading Actress win to Ita O’Brien, the director of intimacy for I May Destroy You. The British actress took home three awards in the categories, Leading Actress, Director: Fiction, and Writer: Drama.
Leading Actress winner @MichaelaCoel pays a special tribute to I May Destroy You’s intimacy coordinator, @ItaOB, in recognition of the safety and freedom she brought to the production ❤️️ #VirginMediaBAFTAs #BAFTATV pic.twitter.com/H75lTXpmcZ
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) June 6, 2021
Coel stated, “I want to dedicate this award to the director of intimacy, Ita O’Brien. Thank you for your existence in our industry, for making the space safe, for creating physical, emotional, and professional boundaries so that we can make work about exploitation, loss of respect, about abuse of power without being exploited or abused in the process.”
After her win, Coel spoke to Virgin Media about the character Arabella from I May Destroy You. Coel stated, “Not only is Arabella someone who is very close to me, I feel like she represents a lot of women who aren’t really seen on television. She’s messy and she’s not perfect.” The character is based on Coel and her real-life experiences after being sexually assaulted in 2016.
The brilliant, innovative and thought-provoking I May Destroy You wins the BAFTA for Mini-Series at this year’s #VirginMediaBAFTAs #BAFTATV pic.twitter.com/X1ZOC6wxc0
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) June 6, 2021
Not only did the 33-year-old actress and writer have a successful night winning three awards, but she also had a separate win after I May Destroy You won Best Mini-Series. On behalf of the entire crew, Coel accepted the award. Coel started by giving thanks to the other nominees at the BAFTAs stage, calling their work “inspiring.” Then, Coel stated, “I May Destroy You took six months to film. The only people working for every day of that are the crew. I want to thank them and let them know that I am so grateful to them because they don’t get enough credit.”
@MichaelaCoel ive just started watching I may destroy you, actually 6 together, will watch the rest tonight, brilliant 👏 well done on your bafta 😁🥂
— Anna Warrender (@annawarrender) June 7, 2021
If you want to watch the award-winning series I May Destroy You, it can be found on Hulu, Youtube TV, and more streaming platforms.
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