image copyrightPA MEDIA/STUDIO CANAL
Photo caption, The real Amy Winehouse acting in 2008 (left) and actress Marisa Abela playing the singer in the film.Article information
- Author, Charlotte Gallagher
- Role, BBC News
-
April 12, 2024
In her short life, Amy Winehouse became a music legend, but her troubled personal life was under intense and constant scrutiny from the press.
Her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil was the subject of tabloid press and photographers pursued her when she was most vulnerable.
The director of the new film about Winehouse, Sam Taylor-Johnson, maintains that “paparazzi and addiction” are the villains of the film, not her ex-husband.
“Back to Black” follows Winehouse’s life from a confident teenager from North London to her transformation into an international megastar.
Marisa Abela – actress of “Barbie” and the BBC series “Industry” – plays Amy Winehouse.
Jack O’Connell – actor of the British series “Skins” and the film “This Is England” – plays the role of Fielder-Civil.
image captionThe singer’s relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil was closely followed by the tabloids.
Taylor-Johnson, who also directed the 2009 John Lennon biopic “Nowhere Boy,” says he wanted to meet Fielder-Civil before filming, but it wasn’t possible.
“We had to understand why Amy fell in love with him, so it wasn’t about making a one-dimensional villain,” he says. “We had to fall in love with him to understand why she wrote one of the best albums about her relationship.”
“As for Blake, it wasn’t my place to judge someone who was obviously an addict, or the two of them, who had this intense, yet toxic, love story.”
Meeting
Taylor-Johnson and Abela may not have met Amy Winehouse’s ex-husband, but they did get to meet other members of the singer’s family.
The director visited Winehouse’s parents before production began “out of respect,” given that she was making a film about their daughter.
image copyrightDEAN ROGERS/STUDIO CANAL
Caption, Abela with Oscar-nominated actress Lesley Manville, who plays Winehouse’s grandmother.
But he says they were not involved in the making of “Back to Black” and couldn’t say “what he could and couldn’t do.”
However, the family visited the film set and met Abela when she was dressed as Amy.
“It was incredibly important for me to be respectful and aware of the sensitivity of that moment,” says the actress.
Coming soon?
Many have disagreed with the idea of a biopic about Winehouse, with some saying it is too soon after the death of the singer, who died of alcohol poisoning in 2011, when she was just 27 years old.
After the trailer was released, some social media users complained that Abela does not look or sound close enough to the singer.
image copyrightDean Rogers/Studio Canal
Photo caption, Eddie Marsan plays Mitch, Amy Winehouse’s father.
Abela sings in the film, but comments that “it was a relief” to know that this was not a prerequisite for taking on the role of Amy, for whom she has a deep admiration.
The actress took singing lessons before filming. “The important thing for me was that music was the medium with which Amy wanted to tell her story, and if you sing in a way that resembles Amy’s singing style, then you can tell each story the way she would have wanted to tell it.”
“I was very excited about the idea of playing and getting in touch with Amy the girl, and then Amy the singer. The woman before the icon.”
Taylor-Johnson notes that it was important to her to cast someone “who wasn’t going to imitate Amy.”
“There were a lot of brilliant impersonators and people who looked like her or sounded like her. But Marisa came as herself, she was the only one in the audition process who didn’t try to look like her in any way, whether it was earrings, eyeliner or any other thing”.
image caption, Police once had to escort Amy Winehouse home due to paparazzi and crowds gathering there.
uncomfortable reading
The media’s persecution of Winehouse is one of the main themes of the film, where paparazzi are seen camping outside her house and harassing her in the street.
One scene shows her falling outside a pharmacy and the photographers bending down to take a good photo of her, and not helping her up.
These may be dramatized events, but the media’s treatment of the star is well documented.
Looking back at articles written about the singer when she was at the height of her addiction is uncomfortable.
“Not even a lot of makeup can hide the shocking state of Amy Winehouse’s skin,” one reads.
Another comments: “It’s a serious thing when the pin-up girl tattooed on your arm looks better than you.”
In hundreds of photographs taken by the paparazzi it is clear that the singer is distressed and ill.
Pie the photo, Amy Winehouse and 2007.
But have times changed? Is it now a repeat of the way the media treated Amy Winehouse or other stars like Britney Spears?
When Taylor-Johnson is asked if society and the media have moved on, she responds, “I felt like maybe we had evolved to this point where maybe that wouldn’t happen now, but it seems like it’s happening now.”
Both Abela and Taylor-Johnson want their film to show what an incredible musician Winehouse was and for people to come out of the theaters and listen to her songs.
“I think she would feel like we’ve given her music back in a different light,” the director says. “I wish she would feel proud of it and of us.”
And Abela adds: “And about herself too, as a catalog of her achievements and what she knew how to create as a very young woman.”
“I hope she would have seen it and been proud of everything she created.”
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.
