Marisa Abela explains why she was determined to use her own vocals while playing the iconic singer in the new film. <\/p>
Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black<\/a> arrives in UK cinemas tomorrow (Friday 12th April), with Industry star Marisa Abela<\/a> taking on the lead role of the late singer.<\/p>\n As if the job of playing one of the most iconic musical figures of the 21st century wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a> ahead of the film\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it\u2019s an incredibly distinctive sound, so just nailing that sound was the difficult thing,\u201d she said.<\/p> \u201cBecause I think that, you know, one of the incredible things about Amy was that she never performed the same song the same way twice.<\/p>\n \u201cSo in those moments that are, you know, specific interviews or specific performances, it kind of has to be right, because that\u2019s the only time it ever sounded like that. So that was important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cBut again, it\u2019s just another challenge. It\u2019s just another, like, way to work.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very challenging in terms of\u2026 just technically, it was, but if this is a person\u2019s chosen medium, it didn\u2019t 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\u2019t make any sense.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, director Sam Taylor-Johnson revealed that when she started the casting process, she wasn\u2019t necessarily looking for someone to provide their own vocals \u2013 explaining that the most important aspect was finding \u201csomeone who could embody and bring to life the essence of who Amy was\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if there was a world in which singing came too then it was just [the] jackpot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo 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, \u2018How amazing, whoever gets this is going to put in so much work.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd she did\u2026 Marisa went off and trained and trained. And really, we started with, let\u2019s 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 \u2013 to the point where myself and Giles Martin, the music producer, just went: \u2018Okay, we think this is possible.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the possibility then, I think, urged everyone forward. But it\u2019s extraordinary, you know, what Marisa does. She sings the whole movie, and it makes it\u2026 it\u2019s like an added layer of emotion. Because it\u2019s just feels very alive and in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n