Marisa Abela has reflected on the backlash her latest film Back To Black received.
The Industry actor played music legend Amy Winehouse in the recent biopic, which also featured Eddie Marslan, Lesley Maville and Jack O’Connell as the late Grammy winner’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
When the movie was first announced, many fans were left questioning whether the project was appropriate or necessary – and it didn’t fare too well with critics, either.
During a new interview with Rolling Stone, Marisa insisted she had no regrets about her performance as Amy, while discussing the film’s largely negative reception.
“It was a more exposing experience to anything I’ve dealt with in the past,” she told the magazine. “I’ll never fully understand the need to be a negative presence.
“But I think that my response to it was, and only ever could have, been, to work hard. To create something meaningful and a story that felt like it was being told from the inside out, finally, rather than a kind of voyeuristic look into Amy’s life.”
Back To Black was made in collaboration with Amy Winehouse’s estate, with Fifty Shades Of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson at the helm.
To prepare for the role, Marisa took guitar and vocal lessons four times a week for three months, and it’s her singing voice that you hear in the finished film.
After hitting cinemas earlier this year, Back To Black recently arrived on Netflix, and at the time of writing, is the second most-watched film on the streaming service.