The actress who is playing Amy Winehouse in an upcoming film says the singer’s life was not just “soaked in tragedy”.
Marisa Abela, who is starring in Back To Black about Winehouse’s whirlwind years living in London and her journey to fame, was at the Royal Festival Hall in London for the Bafta ceremony.
The film also stars Lesley Manville, Eddie Marsan and Jack O’Connell – and has the backing of Winehouse’s estate.
Abela told the PA news agency on the red carpet that the upcoming biopic will remind people why they fell in love with the singer.
She said: “I don’t know that her whole life was soaked in tragedy.
“I think that’s what we wanted to bring back is, remember why you fell in love with this woman – the hooks, the energy, the lust for life, the hunger to sort of suck every drop out of life.”
She added: “Part of the reason we fell in love with her was because she was honest and brutal and iconic and amazing, fearless. So we just wanted to bring that back, you know?”
Winehouse’s career was tragically cut short in 2011 when she died at age 27 following struggles with alcohol and drugs.
She was found unresponsive on her bedroom floor in her home in Camden, north London, and died shortly after.
After two inquests, the Grammy Award winner’s cause of death was ruled to be accidental alcohol poisoning.