Actress Marisa Abela on Becoming Amy Winehouse in 'Back To Black' Movie | This Morning

so back to black is out in UK Cinemas this Friday and Bell plays Amy joins us now hey so good to see you first congratulations we both seen it and we both love it want to watch it again I want to watch it again it was that good thank you and you were so so good but I mean what was it like auditioning for the role did you really want it and when you got it how did that feel it was weird actually I mean it wasn't one of those jobs where I was like I have to get this even though it was sort of objectively probably the biggest thing I'd ever auditioned for because it's not the kind of part that you want if you're not going to do a good job like I wanted to really make sure that I was the best person for them to play this part if I was going to get it cuz you you just don't want to be that exposed if it's not right you know so I did a lot of research even before auditioning just into you know I felt I wanted to find Amy the the girl the person cuz you can't really play an icon you know you have to play a human being she yeah if honest that's what I love about the film it's about it's about her addiction to love as much as anything else and just how she goes through those stages of her life yeah but the but the love and specifically the love for Blake and the love for music are the two great sort of Love of I suppose the two great three yeah I think that why I found him in you know in a lot of the research that I was doing was that she had this sort of insatiable appetite for a lot of things in life whether it was like music and those references or love or a dependency on whether it's relationships or other things like but there was this appetite that was just completely like a well that she could just constantly feed but the incredible thing about Amy is that her capacity to turn that those experiences and her relationship to you know other people or her music into this art that we now get to enjoy is I mean it's so singular to have a talent like that with a voice like that but also you know she's a poet a songwriter all of those songs are her own and I think it's one of the amazing things about our film is you watch her you know write these songs and the experiences that formed the album especially Back to Black I heard that you actually moved to Camen at the time how did you find that it was great I mean I you know to be honest I had I had flatmates when I booked the job so I was like we were irritating each other I was like learning to play guitar and they were watching that whatever and so I I knew I had to have my own space so then when I knew I had to move cam didn't seemed like the obvious place to be sense and also it was great you know I meant I could go to the good mixer at 11:00 on a Tuesday afternoon and watch people play pool and see what that felt like and really get a sense of a place that's not you know you guys to Camden and you go to Camden Market or whatever and it's very different to living there and really getting a sense of the community and the people that choose to spend all of their time in cam she really embodied that and I was there for 12 years and she really embodied Camden and you see I mean literally I was there last night and she you know there a big mural of her out just under the bridge and you know she was everything that was kind of her life around there wasn't it was important for you as well to play her and not mimic her wasn't it yeah definitely I mean I knew that it had to be recognizable as Amy and distinguishable as as the person that we all know she has such an iconic look and an iconic sound but in a way the most overwhelming thing to me as an actor was her magic you know her soul and it was that thing that I really wanted I want people to go to the cinema and and feel her yeah and I I I was trying to sort of find what it was in myself I guess that I could connect to about her that made that sort of soulfulness come alive it's unbelievable what you managed to achieve to be fair um you met her family as well didn't you how did that go and what did what did they ask you to do I mean I you know it was important to me to be respectful of all parts of Amy's life and you know tragically what I found when I you know met Amy's family were were just people that were grieving you know and and um I wanted to be just sensitive and also show them that like my only intention in this job was to you know was to bring her Legacy back to her music and to make people remember how talented an artist she was and just enjoy being in her orbit again for two hours and I think that they were really excited by that but yeah like I said it I mean it's a sensitive it's sensitive for them and it just required sort of being gentle and and respectful did they visit set at all or you they did yeah they they they came um there was one day that that they came and yeah I remember Janice said to me you know I can't believe all these people are here for my naughty Amy and you know that's what it is and I think that's what our film really represents is that is is that girl you know part of the reason that everyone fell in love with her in the first place was cuz like where did she come from this girl from North London who had that voice and all those things to say and and um yeah I think that you can really feel that but she what I think what most people loved about was she wasn't perfect and she so you know so she was a mirror up to all of us in many ways and but she had this incredible cuz you know you can fall in love with music but to fall in love with the artist you have to fall in love with the purse and she had this incredible empathy about her yeah that was sort of reminds me of B Shane mwan as well cuz she just always had time for every you know and she you know and her rise I remember when Frank came out the first album and everyone was like she's really good and then suddenly Back to Black and we you know we were lucky enough to give her one of her first sessions at Radio to and it was I can count it was her and Adela the only two artists but the whole the whole building Stood Still really people were up literally I looked up from the microphone you can just see the whole place is cram full of people and normally be an engineer and a producer do you know what I mean so it's it's almost more than the music I think isn't it and I think you capture that that that empathetic side to us so well thank you well I think that that's for me I mean people often talk about the tragedy within her story and of course with hindsight we know that there is there's lots of tragedy there but for me one of the one of the more heartbreaking things is that is that part of the thing that made her who she was was this strong sense of nor normality she craved normality in her life and relationships that felt authentic and real and you can really hear that in the music and because EV responded to that authenticity so well and that recognizability so well she became sort of overwhelmingly famous and her ability to maintain authentic connections to Camden to her family to her friends it it becomes harder and harder the more exposed it was never about money was it for her no I I mean I you know I I I think for her it was always about the art of the music was about the art of the thing and you know she said and I think there's nothing wrong with with with ambition I think you know she said she wanted people to remember her as one of the great jazz singers of all time and I think that you know they will but I think like famous in terms of being hounded was not what she was interested in you absolutely embodied her fully like the look The Voice how did you research ins did you just watch loads of videos what did you do I watched I mean I think I watched everything that there is to see about her and I listened to also lots of radio interviews that was really helpful helpful for the for the voice but also you know I work with a singing teacher and a movement teacher and um I just yeah I mean I I book the job about four months before we started filming and it was really you can kind of split it into two camps I think there's the the the physical training and the technical stuff to make it distinguishable as a real person but then there's the work that you'd always do as an actor which is like what does what does Amy want from her life yeah how does she connect how does she love Blake how does she love her family how does she Express herself and it's kind of The Duality of those two things that make someone make sense I think your voice is incredible by the way because it is your voice on the film as well unbelievable Back to Black in cinema tomorrow Rissa thank you so much thank you than you

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Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2024