Earlier in July, British actress Michaela Coel made headlines for turning down a lucrative $1 million deal from the streaming giant, Netflix. Sher has developed  2 mindblowing seasons of comedy series Chewing Gum for the streamer in the past, as well as, she has starred in USS Callister, one of the most celebrated episodes of Black Mirror. In May 2017, she pitched her next series, I May Destroy You, to Netflix and was offered a sum of money that could make anyone say yes. But Coel had her apprehensions. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Teaser: New Animated Series Inspired by the Movie Franchise to Hit Netflix (Watch Video).

I May Destroy You is based on the actress' own sexual assault. Around the time she was developing the season of Chewing Gum for Netflix, she was sexually assaulted by two men who spiked her drink. The show was wonderful on paper, so Netflix was ready to shell out money but not copyrights. After negotiations, the streamer did not even agree to let Coel have 0.5% of the copyright to her show about her own story of assault. Coel turned down the million dollars. She also cut ties with her talent agency based in the US, when she learned that they'd be making a cut from the show.

Michaela has famously revealed, earlier in July, about how the conversation went down, revealing one of the officials even said that she was doing the right thing. It's OFFICIAL: The Kissing Booth 3 Is Filmed and Ready For Streaming in 2021, Netflix Drops Exciting Sneak Peek (Watch Video).

Now, in an interview with BBC’s first Creative Diversity Xperience, the actress has opened up more. "It wasn’t just a check," Coel said. "I needed to know what was behind the check and exactly how things were operating. So I guess I began to ask questions. I think that’s the difficult bit — daring to ask questions. That wasn’t easy. But then the minute you begin to ask, and you realize that the answers aren’t clear, for me then it was very easy."

"And I felt incredibly empowered," Coel continued. "Keep asking questions and watch people stutter… I began to enjoy it. I began to enjoy realizing that they thought I was … just going to take it, then being like ‘Surprise bitches, I’m not taking it.’ And then actually I was really empowered," Coel said.

The actress said that she was ready to be dragged to the court and was prepared to lose everything she has and become homeless.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2020 12:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).