Amy Winehouse is the latest musician to receive the biopic treatment with the upcoming Back to Black. However, fans are furious with the movie being made about her life.
Behind-the-scenes photos have been shared from the set in central London, England. The images show actress Marisa Abela, who's playing the late singer, and actor Eddie Marsan walking through London, but the brief glimpse has given some enough information to form a harsh judgment of the movie.
Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson is directing the biopic.
There is currently no release date on the project, but the behind-the-scenes images taken by Neil Mockford saw people commenting on the quality of the movie.
The photographs were taken on January 16, showing a scene where Amy and Mitch Winehouse (her father) walk into Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho, London. Marisa is wearing the late singer's iconic beehive hairstyle, with a black handbag, leather jacket, and short dress.
"This makes me very nervous about this film," wrote Touré, the host of the podcast Touré Show on Instagram. Another commenter, @lesermatt slammed, "This whole project is [...] cringe."
The popular pop culture Instagram account Diet Prada shared the images which got people talking. Plenty of verified users weighed in to comment.
The model and Pose actor Leyna Bloom was cutting with her assessment. "Nahhhhhhh This is giving Halloween costume in NJ. Not movie magic stills," she wrote.
Comedian and writer Phoebe Robinson believed it was representative of the problem with biopics in general. "This is not a great start. Can we please [leave] the deceased alone? More often than not, these biopics are a mess and exploitative," she wrote.
Singer and Ru Paul's Drag Race judge Michelle Visage simply wrote, "enough" in all caps.
The account that shared the images, Diet Prada, already set the project up for failure by highlighting a career low point of the director Taylor-Johnson. "Spotted: Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse filming for Razzie Award-nominated director Sam Taylor-Johnson's Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black." She received the Razzie nomination for directing Fifty Shades of Grey in 2015.
"SNL could do a better job," wrote the user @tomas_larcombe while @kate_selkie quipped, "Amy house wine."
Actress Abela is a relative newcomer with a few major career credits to date. The 26-year-old starred in the BBC and HBO series Industry as well as recent British movies She Is Love and Rogue Agent. In July 2022, it was announced she'd be starring alongside Margot Robbie in Greta Gerwig's Barbie.
"Why does the actress playing Amy Winehouse look like Anna Farris filming a scene for Scary Movie 32?" @benjec83 weighed in as the reactions continued on Twitter.
Writer and critic Kayleigh Donaldson admitted she didn't hold out much hope for the biopic. "Can't wait to see a whitewashed Amy Winehouse biopic where her dad is a glowing angel and Amy's many troubles become Walk Hard-esque parody," she said.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jamie Burton is a Newsweek Senior TV and Film Reporter (Interviews) based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
