Michaela Coel demanded lead role to ‘change the narrative’ on race

BAFTA winner Michaela Coel says she was prepared to lose her latest role rather than play the part of a stereotypical “black friend”.

The actress was offered a supporting role in the musical Been So Long, but turned it down and demanded to play the lead character.

She stars as Simone, a single mother who was originally set to be played as mixed-race. The character finds romance on a rare night out in Camden, with Ronke Adekoluejo playing her best friend Yvonne — the part Coel was originally offered.

Coel, who won two Bafta awards last year for her Channel 4 comedy Chewing Gum, said: “I knew that if I played Yvonne’s part they would cast Simone as a mixed-race girl or a white girl and Yvonne would have been her crazy black friend and I said I was tired of that.

“That narrative is very common and I said I will only be part of this if I get to change the narrative and make it different.”

The film is based on a musical by Coel’s friend Che Walker and Doctor Who star Arthur Darvill, which was staged at the Young Vic in 2009.

The star admits her behaviour can upset people — not least a succession of agents unhappy with her turning down jobs — but says she has to speak up.

She said: “One thing I learnt, and this was while I was in drama school, was when [actor] Adrian Lester gave a talk at Hackney Empire and he said that as an actor the only power you have is no, the power of no, so since I’ve left school if I didn’t want to do a part because it didn’t seem right I would say no.

“One thing I am quite passionate about is the absence of dark-skinned women in the media so I have a passion to show dark-skinned women as beautiful, as vulnerable, as people who can be sexually desired and loving people because it is never really seen on TV.”

A release date for Been So Long is yet to be announced.