Black Panther’s Michaela Coel shares her joy to play a queer character
Michaela Coel shares her Black Panther: Wakanda Forever role is all about representing Ghana and playing an authentic queer character.
Michaela Coel has shared that she was drawn to her Black Panther: Wakanda Forever role for the chance to play a queer character.
The 35-year-old screenwriter and actress whose parents are from Ghana noted that taking the role of Aneka in Ryan Coogler’s sequel to Black Panther “wasn’t about the Marvel universe, it was about representing Ghana and putting my feet in the shoes of a queer character.”
“For me, it was about why I took the role and what it meant to me to portray a queer character, being from Ghana, where there’s a lot of confusing LGBTQ+ laws going on,” she said.
In Ghana, a draft bill that would criminalise identifying as LGBTQ+, same-sex relationships, marrying someone who has had gender reassignment surgery has been put forward. Coel described it as “heartbreaking” when speaking to Good Morning America.
“Any time I can contribute to pushing a queer narrative and making it acceptable and normalising it in places where it’s considered abnormal, I’m very on board for [it],” she added, saying that the passing of bill “hopefully doesn’t happen.”
At the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever European premiere Coel told the BBC that she feels immense pride over this character.
“The feeling it gives me, as a woman of colour, to see my story reflected back still gives me a rush of exhilaration to be seen,” she explained.
She added that the cast gives her “a lot of confidence” and she feels “proud to be among them.”
The Black Panther sequel is set to follow Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and the Dora Milaje fighting for their nation in the wake of King T’Challa’s (Boseman) death, the Wakandans must forge a new path for their kingdom and start a new chapter.
Michaela Coel has said her character is a supporting role in the upcoming film: “I feel like she’s much more concerned about the individual lives of people rather than the big picture or the big mission or the rules.”
She also noted that Aneka is more focused on “community and heart” but will undoubtedly “break the rules if it means looking out for her fellow sisters.”
Coel shared she identifies as aromantic in 2018, in an interview with Culture Trip, explaining that: “I googled aromanticism and I very much felt like, ‘Oh, that’s me.’
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in UK cinemas from 11 November.