Coel brought her mother, Kuukua Kwenua Osborne, to a special screening of her new movie 'Mother Mary' in New York City on Monday, April 13
Credit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Michaela Coel tells PEOPLE how she connected with her mother, Kuukua Kwenua Osborne, by playing a seamstress in her new movie Mother Mary
- Coel’s mother, Osborne, accompanied her to a special screening of the film in New York City on Monday, April 13
- Mother Mary, which also stars Anne Hathaway, is in limited theaters April 17, then nationwide April 24
Michaela Coel kept her mother at the front of mind when she was filming her new movie with Anne Hathaway.
Coel, 38, brought her mother, Kuukua Kwenua Osborne, to a special screening of her new movie Mother Mary in New York City on Monday, April 13. Coel portrays a costume designer to Hathaway's pop star character in the new psychological thriller; her mother Osborne is a seamstress in real life.
"My mum was on my mind every single day of this shoot, my God," Coel tells PEOPLE on the red carpet. "I channeled my mom every single day. And it wasn't just about being a seamstress, it was about the pain that she endured, raising children by herself, feeling completely deserted and alone, pining for the love of her ex-husband, my father."
"Pining, the yearning, the yearning I would sense my mum was feeling every day of my life poured into how I yearned for Mother Mary," Coel adds.
Credit: A24
Coel was born in London to Ghanian immigrant parents Osborne and Derek Kwesi Coel. In a 2022 interview with Vogue, the outlet reported that Osborne works as a mental health nurse, but that she learned how to make clothing herself from her own mother. (At the time, Vogue reported that Osborne used to make the dresses Coel wore on red carpets before she found fame.) Vogue also noted in that 2022 piece that Coel's parents were separated for much of her childhood and that her father returned to a life in Ghana.
Hathaway and Coel's new A24 film Mother Mary follows Hathaway as a pop star who seeks out "her estranged best friend and former costume designer Sam Anselm (Coel) on the eve of her comeback performance," per an official synopsis. Coel, in tune with her seamstress character, wore Givenchy on the red carpet on April 13.
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Credit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty
"I have to come through with the look," she tells PEOPLE.
Mother Mary is in limited theaters April 17, then nationwide April 24.
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