Lead actress Marissa Abella attends the ‘Back to Black’ World Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on April 08, 2024 in London, England. Photo credit: Kate Green

Amy Winehouse’s lyrics and music director Sam Taylor were the “guiding star” for Johnson to bring the late singer’s story to the screen in “Back to Black.”

The biographical feature film follows Winehouse’s rise to fame and depicts her relationship with her family and ex-husband Blake Fielder Soule.

It comes nearly 13 years after the death of the six-time Grammy Award winner, who was 27.

Telling the story from Winehouse’s perspective was important to Taylor Johnson.

“I just wanted it to be in her perspective to give her her agency back because I felt like it was kind of taken away from her and she was just going to fall victim to her tragedy,” she said. said at the world premiere of the film. London on Monday.

“I felt that it was her words, her music, music that kind of resurrected her and celebrated her again, and it felt so important. It felt like she deserved it.”

Jack O’Connell, Marissa Abella, Sam Taylor Johnson and Eddie Marsan will attend the world premiere of ‘Back to Black’. Photo credit: Kate Green

British actress Marissa Abella played Winehouse, a role she found to be both a challenge and a dream.

“You don’t get parts like Amy every day. And it’s not because she’s Amy Winehouse, it’s because she was everything in one.”

“She was smart and funny and bold and brave, but also incredibly vulnerable and emotional, and that’s what I wanted to bring. I wanted to remind people of Amy’s vulnerability, which is behind the music. Wally was a girl.”

Abella, 27, who performs the “Rehab” singer’s hits in the film, said she took daily singing lessons for four months and studied Winehouse’s lyrics to prepare for the role.

“Back to Black” has been approved by the Amy Winehouse estate and Taylor Johnson even met Winehouse’s parents.

British singer Amy Winehouse performs at the Glastonbury Festival 2008 in Somerset, southwest England, in this June 28, 2008 file photo. Photo credit: Luke McGregor

“I didn’t need anyone’s approval. And it’s important for me to say that because it’s also important to announce that I made exactly the film I wanted to make. I had all the approvals for the music. But I I wanted to meet the family, the fact that I was making a film about their daughter, and it felt wrong not to meet them, and the fact that they approved of it after seeing it. is,” Taylor Johnson said.

“I hope that Amy is proud that her music has stood the test of time, and that we’re here to celebrate it again,” she added.

“Back to Black” begins its worldwide theatrical rollout on April 11.