In 2021, Michaela Coel gave an acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards that I think about almost daily. In it, Coel said, “In a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to, in turn, feel the need to be constantly visible, for visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success. Do not be afraid to disappear, from it, from us, for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence.” I think about this speech a lot not just because I am a writer, and that’s who Coel was speaking to specifically, but because it says a lot about fame and creativity. Mother Mary, the A24 gothic pop opera in which Coel stars alongside Anne Hathaway, is mostly about who gets the credit for creative genius, but it’s also about what happens when you are constantly visible and when that visibility eats away at the truest parts of you, rendering you unable to differentiate performance from reality. It’s about deafening silence battling against screaming crowds, the inner quiet that refuses to acquiesce to loud adoration. The film is also a ghost story and a love story, despite what its tagline suggests.
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