Taking on the role of the late, great Amy Winehouse is no easy feat, but MARISA ABELA embodies the legendary singer with a heady mix of vulnerability and chutzpah. Leading Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back To Black, this is the actor’s biggest career moment so far, having risen to prominence in HBO finance drama series Industry, with an appearance in Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie as Teen Talk Barbie also contributing to this rising star’s ascent.

“In terms of the audition process, it was the first job I’ve ever gone for where I felt a weird sense of calm, because I didn’t want to fight my way to the front of the line. I felt it was such a huge responsibility and undertaking that the person had to be right,” says Marisa. “There was no ‘elbows out’ energy, it was simply, ‘Can I get to a certain level of emotional and psychological truth of Amy that’s going to humanise her and allow the audience to see the woman behind all of the iconography?’”

Of course, portraying someone as beloved as Amy was always going to come with some backlash; from the moment the Back To Black trailer dropped in February there was online discourse about whether Marisa was the right actor for the part. Was there even a need for another Amy Winehouse movie, following 2015’s Oscar-winning documentary feature, Amy? Back To Black proves there was.

The film allows us to see Amy, the woman, and how the iconography came to be. Some of the film’s most touching scenes are between Marisa and Lesley Manville, who plays Amy’s beloved nan, Cynthia. A singer herself, who once dated legendary musician and club owner Ronnie Scott, Cynthia instilled Amy’s love of Jazz music – and inspired her signature retro outfits and beehive hairstyle.

As a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Marisa found that her schooling gave her an interesting relationship with her “Amy” glam, because perfecting how she looked as the icon went against a lot of what she had previously been taught. “You spend so much time doing all of this internal work – about four months from when I got the job – learning Amy’s mannerisms, learning how she spoke and how she sang, but more importantly for me, what she was thinking, what she wanted, what was driving her,” she explains.

“All of this work feels incredibly internal, and I went to drama school where we were told, ‘Never practice how you’re going to say a line in a mirror, it should be responsive and spontaneous, and it should be about how you are trying to affect the people in front of you.’”

“Doing a job like this really flips that on its head, because you have to do something that is recognisable and you have to know that it’s working… The most important thing about my job is that the audience feels Amy,” she continues. “But the hair and the makeup, and the tattoos and the jewellery, were also incredibly important. I’d have hours in the makeup chair when I would listen to her speaking in interviews and singing certain songs that would pertain to that day. It was not only a time to physically transform, but also for me to get into the emotional and psychological headspace that I needed to be in that day.”

The final transformative touch? A spritz of Amy’s signature scent. “There were two fragrances actually,” says Marisa. “I would put on one that I think had been made for me, it didn’t have a specific name, but it had a very oud-y, leathery, tobacco-y smell. I’d put that on when I sat in the makeup chair and got into character. Then I’d get dressed as Amy and spray on what was her perfume, which was Alien by Thierry Mugler, a classic.” Off-duty, the Brighton-born actor prefers Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle and Guerlain’s Néroli Plein Sud.

Marisa was just shy of ten-years-old when Amy’s second and final studio album Back To Black was released; she’s now 27, the age Amy was when she tragically passed away in 2011. “I was definitely too young to understand the emotional intricacies and nuances of songs like “Love Is A Losing Game” and “Tears Dry On Their Own”, but it didn’t stop me from singing them at the top of my lungs with my mum in the car,” she smiles. “This kind of duality to Amy’s music, especially with Back To Black, is so enjoyable, singable and listenable. But the level of respect and joy I’ve had in experiencing her music as a grown woman is a totally different experience, because I think you have to go through life – even just to a certain degree – to fully understand where someone might have been in their life to write a song like “Love Is A Losing Game”. The journey for me has also been learning to understand her as a songwriter; all of these songs came out of her soul and her experiences before the age of 27. It’s just remarkable.”

To read the full interview, pre-order the Summer 2024 issue here.