When it came time for the Golden Globes nominations earlier this year, Michaela Coel’s groundbreaking HBO series “I May Destroy You” infamously received zero recognition. That news, in part, inspired a reckoning in Hollywood about the makeup of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the annual awards and now must find ways to make its voting body more diverse. One huge fan of the show, which she expressed when receiving the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award back in February, is Jane Fonda, who in a recent, wide-ranging interview in Harper’s Bazaar, said that Coel’s series should’ve gotten more awards attention.
“I don’t understand it. They should have recognized her. With the Emmys, if I have anything to do with it … . There’s very little as important as what Michaela’s done,” Fonda said. The series, based on Coel’s own experience, follows her character as she tries to put together the pieces in the aftermath of her sexual assault.
Fonda also said she watched the series several times. “She’s a true artist. An observer of life,” Fonda said. “I mean, the way that she filmed the last episode where she did so many versions of her with the rapist, I just had to keep watching it because I would be thinking about a scene and [go], ‘Wait, wait. Did I make a mistake?’ Whoa. Michaela’s got a sense of the truth. It’s somatic.”
“I May Destroy You” may not have received any Golden Globes love, but it did earn a Producers Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Producer of Limited Series Television.
Coel directed nine of the British-American series’ 12 episodes, including the finale praised by Fonda. But Fonda, in the Harper’s interview, said that while she is inspired by Coel, she’s unlikely to ever direct herself.
“I’m not a good leader. I look like a leader, but I’m not. I’m very uncomfortable being out front. What I love about movie-making or television is the collaborative part of it, people working together. I never liked to be the head. I freeze,” she said.
Fonda, outside of her ongoing activism work, will next be seen opposite LIly Tomlin in the seventh and final season of Netflix’s beloved comedy “Grace and Frankie.”
“I don’t understand it. They should have recognized her. With the Emmys, if I have anything to do with it … . There’s very little as important as what Michaela’s done,” Fonda said. The series, based on Coel’s own experience, follows her character as she tries to put together the pieces in the aftermath of her sexual assault.
Fonda also said she watched the series several times. “She’s a true artist. An observer of life,” Fonda said. “I mean, the way that she filmed the last episode where she did so many versions of her with the rapist, I just had to keep watching it because I would be thinking about a scene and [go], ‘Wait, wait. Did I make a mistake?’ Whoa. Michaela’s got a sense of the truth. It’s somatic.”
“I May Destroy You” may not have received any Golden Globes love, but it did earn a Producers Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Producer of Limited Series Television.
Coel directed nine of the British-American series’ 12 episodes, including the finale praised by Fonda. But Fonda, in the Harper’s interview, said that while she is inspired by Coel, she’s unlikely to ever direct herself.
“I’m not a good leader. I look like a leader, but I’m not. I’m very uncomfortable being out front. What I love about movie-making or television is the collaborative part of it, people working together. I never liked to be the head. I freeze,” she said.
Fonda, outside of her ongoing activism work, will next be seen opposite LIly Tomlin in the seventh and final season of Netflix’s beloved comedy “Grace and Frankie.”