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Doctor Who and Marvel star debuts baby bump in glamorous red carpet appearance.
Virgin Radio
9 Apr 2024, 08:48
Credit: Getty / Studio Canal
Back to Black director Sam Taylor-Johnson has admitted she thought about Amy Winehouse every day as she tackled the challenges of bringing the singer to the big screen.
The filmmaker was at the helm of the biopic, which depicts Amy’s life from the very start of her career right through the highs and lows of her time in the spotlight.
Marisa Abela stars as the late Rehab singer in the movie and stellar cast includes The Crown star Lesley Manville as grandmother Cynthia, Jack O’Connell as ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil and Eddie Marsan as dad Mitch.
Speaking at the World Premiere in London last night (Monday 8th April), Sam revealed that while she never actually met Amy in person, the late singer was constantly on her mind.
“Every day was quite difficult because it was a big responsibility,” she explained to virginradio.co.uk and other press. “So every day I would step into the scene and say to myself, ‘would Amy appreciate what I'm doing now?’ Are the walls painted the right colour? Is she wearing the right costume?
“I'd have to constantly have to refer back to Amy through her images through the songs, so it was every single day.”
That “overwhelming sense of responsibility” was what drove Sam throughout production, as she wanted to give Amy “her agency back.”
The 50 Shades director continued: “I felt she'd been stripped of…her sense of being a victim of her tragedy was just eclipsing her music, who she was and how brilliant she was. So I wanted to just make this film through her perspective, using some of her words, her lyrics and songs so we can celebrate her.”
Meanwhile, music producer Giles Martin was on the red carpet discussing his time as music producer on the biographical film.
The son of Beatles producer George Martin, revealed exclusively to virginradio.co.uk that his involvement began when he was working on Elton John biopic Rocketman: “I was a music guy on Rocketman and trained Taron [Egerton] to be Elton, and Elton's really good friends with Sam Taylor-Johnson and he said, 'you should speak to Giles.’”
Giles continued: “And so Sam contacted me. I was actually in America and she sent me the script. I loved the script. It was honest. And then I flew over, I watched the audition tapes, I saw Marisa and then we started working at RAK Studios, was our first day, the summer of the year before last, and started just going through stuff and work on nuances. She's just got great timing as a singer.
“And then overseeing all the music and performance for the film. So, lots of performance in the film and trying to make it authentic, or being authentic really. I've been around for a long time.”
Back to Black will be released in UK cinemas on 12th April 2024.
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