April 8, 2024 – 5:39 PM PDT
LONDON (Reuters) – Amy Winehouse’s lyrics and music were the “guiding star” for director Sam Taylor-Johnson in bringing the late singer’s story to the screen in “Back to Black”.
The biographical feature film follows Winehouse’s rise to fame and portrays her relationships with her family and former husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
It comes nearly 13 years after the six-time Grammy Award winner died from alcohol poisoning, aged 27. Considered one of the most talented singers of her generation, her untimely death shook the music world.
Telling the story from Winehouse’s point of view was essential to Taylor-Johnson.
“I just wanted it to be in her perspective to kind of give her her agency back because I felt like it had been kind of taken away and she’d just become a victim of her tragedy,” she said at the film’s world premiere in London on Monday.
“I felt like doing it through her words, her music, kind of like brought the music back to life and celebrated her again, and that felt so important. It felt like she deserved that.”
British actress Marisa Abela plays Winehouse, a role she found both daunting and a dream.
“You don’t get parts like Amy every day. And that’s not because she’s Amy Winehouse but it’s because she was everything in one.”
“She was smart and funny and bold and brave, but also incredibly vulnerable and emotional and that’s kind of what I wanted to bring. I wanted to…remind people of the vulnerability of Amy, the girl behind the music.”
Abela, 27, who performs the “Rehab” singer’s hit songs in the film said she took daily singing lessons for four months and studied Winehouse’s lyrics in preparation for the role.
“Back to Black” has been approved by the Amy Winehouse Estate and Taylor-Johnson also met with Winehouse’s parents.
“I didn’t need anybody’s approval. And that’s important for me to say because it’s important also to declare I made the exact film I wanted to make. I had all music approvals. But I wanted to meet with the family out of respect for the fact that I was making a film about their daughter, and it felt wrong not to meet with them. And the fact that they’ve approved this since seeing it, is really good,” Taylor-Johnson said.
“I would hope that Amy would feel proud that her music has stood such a big test of time, and that we’re here to celebrate her again,” she added.
“Back to Black” begins its global cinematic rollout on April 11.
Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Stephen Coates