Amy Winehouse star on why she was determined to sing in Back to Black
Marisa Abela explains why she was determined to use her own vocals while playing the iconic singer in the new film.
Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black arrives in UK cinemas tomorrow (Friday 12th April), with Industry star Marisa Abela taking on the lead role of the late singer.
As if the job of playing one of the most iconic musical figures of the 21st century wasn't challenging enough already, Abela is also providing all of her own vocals for the film, including renditions of popular hits such as Rehab, Tears Dry on Their Own and the title song, Back to Black.
In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com ahead of the film's release, the actor spoke about the most challenging aspects of mastering such a unique vocal style, and explained why she was so determined to sing rather than lip-sync to the original tracks.
"I mean, it's an incredibly distinctive sound, so just nailing that sound was the difficult thing," she said.
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"Because I think that, you know, one of the incredible things about Amy was that she never performed the same song the same way twice.
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"So in those moments that are, you know, specific interviews or specific performances, it kind of has to be right, because that's the only time it ever sounded like that. So that was important to me."
She continued: "But again, it's just another challenge. It's just another, like, way to work.
"It was very challenging in terms of... just technically, it was, but if this is a person's chosen medium, it didn't make that much sense to me to work so hard on everything else, and then come to the song and nothing comes out, you know? It doesn't make any sense.
"So, I really wanted to put everything into that. But, I mean, every song is different, and even the two albums use very different parts of her voice. It was fun, though. It was very fun."
Read more:
- Back to Black's Eddie Marsan says it's "not a riposte" to Amy documentary
- Eddie Marsan: 'I wouldn't do Back to Black if it sanitised Mitch Winehouse'
Meanwhile, director Sam Taylor-Johnson revealed that when she started the casting process, she wasn't necessarily looking for someone to provide their own vocals – explaining that the most important aspect was finding "someone who could embody and bring to life the essence of who Amy was".
"I think if there was a world in which singing came too then it was just [the] jackpot," she said.
"So it felt like, you know, what Marisa brought was a really solid, hard work ethic, to a place where I had hints of [it] in the audition, because she said, 'How amazing, whoever gets this is going to put in so much work.'
"And she did... Marisa went off and trained and trained. And really, we started with, let's do the training to sort of get the face movements right, to then, you know, allowing the possibility of her singing, and then seeing her transformation was quite extraordinary - to the point where myself and Giles Martin, the music producer, just went: 'Okay, we think this is possible.'
"And the possibility then, I think, urged everyone forward. But it's extraordinary, you know, what Marisa does. She sings the whole movie, and it makes it… it's like an added layer of emotion. Because it's just feels very alive and in the moment."
Back to Back will land in cinemas in UK and Ireland on Friday 12th April 2024.
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