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When a new clip of the upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, fans flocked online to make their feelings — mostly negative — known, The Independent reported.
They criticized the movie's production value with one X (formerly Twitter) user posting, “Could the Amy Winehouse movie actually be worse than Bohemian Rhapsody? (realistically, I think it is unlikely, but it looks so damn cheap).”
Another said, “Sucks they gave Amy Winehouse a biopic with eastenders production values.”
Back to Black vs. social media
Some have also pointed out the difference between the original Winehouse's singing voice versus that of the the actress playing the singer Marisa Abela's. One X user posted, “This is the worst Karaoke I've ever seen. Scrap it, just scrap it.”
The clip was first posted on TikTok. However, the film's page disabled the comments under the clip. Since TikTok users have been unable to comment and stitch the video, they have been making their own, saying that either Lady Gaga or Lauren Jauregui or Raye could have played Winehouse.
Others have asked whether the production had access to the singer's actual recordings and should have used them instead.
“Amy was an amazing singer this tarnishes her legacy,” an X user said.
Becoming Amy Winehouse
However, Abela told Jonathan Ross during her appearance on the show, “I don't think anyone even asked me in the audition process if I could sing! I knew Sam and I felt the same way that whoever was going to play this part needed to be Amy from the inside out.”
The actress is referring to the film's director, Sam Taylor-Johnson.
“For me when I got the job I wanted to learn to sing as much as I could because this was her chosen medium – this is her art form, this is how she expressed herself. It felt so odd to do all of this work and then come to open my mouth to sing and cut to a studio recording. I trained really hard, I trained for two hours a day for four months,” Abela continued.
As for playing the singer, she said, “It was definitely nerve-wracking. You have to take that fear and use it as a driving factor in your preparation. I wanted to use that energy that I had. It's an element of responsibility that you feel. I took that responsibility and I worked pretty hard.”
Back to Black is set to premiere on April 12 in the UK and May 17 in the US.
While I've only seen the trailer and the recently released clip on TikTok, it did make me wonder whether the film had rights to Winehouse's recordings and the creative decision not to use them.
It's not the first time a biopic has opted to use the artist's voice instead of the actor playing them. This was done for the 1997 biopic Selena. Jennifer Lopez played the singer, but for the most part, it was Selena's voice that was used when she was singing.
