‘Back to Black’ Backlash: Marisa Abela Was ‘Attacked’ Over Casting

“Back to Black” will mark the breakthrough to stardom for leading actress Marisa Abela, but the portrayal of the late Grammy winner Amy Winehouse caused a symphony full of hate during production – including from critics calls out Abela’s casting.

Abela’s co-star Eddie Marsan, who plays Winehouse’s father Mitch in the film, told IndieWire that Abela endured “terrible” hate from critics while filming in the UK. The real Mitch Winehouse even had to defend Abela’s casting when the film was first announced, even though Abela was the first actor officially attached to the project.

“I could tell she was nervous. She’s still a young actress and it was a huge role,” Marsan said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “We had an instant bond, so when we had to shoot scenes in London on location in Camden and Soho, it was terrible because even though we had a lot of supporting artists playing paparazzi, the real paparazzi crept in. They did.” Take real photos of me and Marisa as Mitch and Amy. And then…within half an hour it was on social media and people were posting all these comments about the movie about us saying, ‘God, that’s disgusting that they’re doing that.’ They hadn’t even seen the movie yet.”

Marsan continued: “I’m amazed at how many people have commented on this film without having seen it. People just attacked Marisa and attacked the movie. I knew how hard she worked, how hard I worked, how hard (director) Sam (Taylor-Johnson) worked, how hard (actor) Jack (O’Connell) worked. And I was like, ‘You haven’t even seen the movie yet.'”

But perhaps some of that backlash has made the on-screen representation even stronger, at least for Marsan. “If you see me saying ‘fuck off’ on screen, that’s what I’m saying to the real paparazzi (who were on set),” Marsan said, pointing to the media circus that surrounded Winehouse when she was still part of his inspiration lived. “I mean, we know they’re after Mitch and the family.”

The controversial decision to have Abela sing on screen as Winehouse was part of the actress’ process of getting into the mindset of the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. While early clips of Abela singing as Winehosue went viral and fans criticized Abela’s voice, actor Marsan called it the “right decision” to have Abela fully embody Winehouse on screen.

“She felt like she brought so much to this character. And Amy’s music was a way for her to come to terms with her own psychology, and Marisa couldn’t switch off while singing,” Marsan said. “She couldn’t just start singing. She had to use all the work she had put into the songs. I thought the performance was great.”

While “Back to Black” opened internationally before debuting in the U.S. on May 17, Marsan pointed to its box office success in the U.K. and called it a “screw you” to the film’s early snap judgments.

“What’s wonderful is that the film’s box office has shot up. It is number one in seven territories. “It was a huge success, and I think it’s a really good shoo-in for the critics who scorned the film before it happened,” Marsan said. “I think critics are not being informative now. They’re not trying to inform people, they’re trying to clickbait. So what they do is write reviews because they want to put them on social media, and what they don’t realize is that the audience stops listening to them because they just sound like people on social media do that they don’t “Doesn’t sound like logical film critics.”

Marsan concluded that perhaps everything about “Back to Black” is actually a punk response to the “dominant narrative” of lore surrounding Winehouse’s legacy. “To make this movie, to be honest, you have to have a certain ‘fuck it’ attitude,” Marsan said, “otherwise nothing would ever get made.”

Focus Features will release “Back to Black” in U.S. theaters on Friday, May 17th.