Back to Black actor Eddie Marsan has dismissed the ‘narrative’ that Amy Winehouse’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, or her father, Mitch Winehouse, were to blame for her death.
The English actor, 55, who plays Mitch in the biopic released Friday, said instead that addiction should be considered the “main villain.”
Speaking on The One Show on Tuesday, Eddie said he believes Amy’s death affected so many people so much that they needed to create a “comfortable narrative”.
The talented singer died of alcohol poisoning in July 2011 at the age of 27.
Reflecting on the public’s reaction to his untimely death, Eddie shared: “The comfortable narrative for everyone was that there was someone to blame, it was Blake or Mitch, and it created a narrative of villains and victims.”
Back to Black actor Eddie Marsan has rejected the ‘narrative’ that Amy Winehouse’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, or her father, Mitch Winehouse, were to blame for her death.
The English actor, 55, who plays Mitch Winehouse in the biopic (pictured with Marisa Abela as Amy) instead said addiction should be seen as the “main villain”.
Mitch Winehouse (left) pictured at the opening of the Amy Winehouse exhibition in 2021 and Blake Fielder-Civil pictured during a rare media appearance at GMB in 2023.
Eddie continued, “The reason that’s comfortable is that you think, ‘Well, if my daughter doesn’t marry someone like Blake or if I don’t act like Mitch, then my daughter won’t die,’ but that’s not how it works.” The addiction”.
Speaking about the pressure of filming Back to Black, which director Sam Taylor-Johnson says is told using Amy’s own diaries, Eddie said the audience gets an idea of who she was.
“The interesting thing is that I’ve never been involved in a movie where the audience has as much ownership over an issue as they do with Amy,” he said.
“And the thing is, when someone like Amy dies so young, who affected our lives in such a profound way, there’s like a collective trauma.”
He added: “Addiction is arbitrary and cruel and we all know that some addicts come from the most loving families and remain addicts.”
“What I love about this movie, and the main reason I’m really proud of it, is because the main villain is addiction.”
The actor went on to reveal that he had spoken to a friend who had worked with Mitch and Amy in the music industry, so he approached him about his new role.
On how he wanted to portray Amy’s father, he said: “I wasn’t interested in the narrative that was out there. I said, ‘I want you to tell me what Mitch was like.’
“He said, ‘I liked the man Eddie. I thought he was a loving father, but he was in an impossible situation.”
“She had an addicted daughter, she was the most famous woman in the world, the paparazzi were after her, she had unlimited resources and money. Every drug dealer in London wanted to give her drugs.”
Speaking on The One Show on Tuesday, Eddie said he believes Amy’s death affected so many people so much that they needed to create a “comfortable narrative”.
Speaking about the pressure of filming Back to Black, which director Sam Taylor-Johnson said is told using Amy’s own diaries, Eddie said the audience gets an idea of who she was.
And he said he was trying to do everything he could to save her, but he made mistakes. I know I have four kids, four teenagers, and I love my kids, but I make mistakes every day, so I wanted to play…
“I wouldn’t have played it if I had sanitized it or demonized it.” He wanted to play a human being.”
Eddie revealed that he met Mitch to help him understand him for the role.
Admitting to not being “academic,” Eddie asked for Mitch’s aftershave, his music collection and photographs of his life to paint a picture of the man.
Fans were left divided by a clip of actress Amy Marisa Abela’s singing voice in the film, with some joking that the singing scenes are so “offensive” that “criminal charges should be brought against the film’s makers.”
But Eddie responded to the criticism by saying: “The problem is that you don’t want to give an impression, Marisa talks about this; she didn’t want to do an impression of Amy, she wanted to bring Amy’s emotional and psychological authenticity.” he.
“But you’re not doing a Mike Yarwood, you’re trying to honor a story in the emotional context and that’s the most challenging thing.”
The role is not Eddie’s first in a musical style, as it was revealed that he was first discovered in a nightclub when he was wanted as an extra for the 1987 crime thriller Empire State.
Back To Black sees Marisa, 27, playing Amy while actor Jack O’Connell33 years old, plays her widower Blake Fielder-Civil.
Lesley Manville CBE, 68, also stars in the film as Cynthia Winehouse, Amy’s mother.
The film, which has been backed by Mitch, has sparked outrage from the singer’s friends who criticized it for its “macro” depictions of the star’s drug addiction and also the filming of his funeral.
Back To Black sees Marisa, 27, play Amy while actor Jack O’Connell, 33, plays her widower Blake Fielder-Civil.
Lesley Manville CBE, 68, also stars in the film as Cynthia Winehouse, Amy’s mother.
Blake, who was married to the singer between 2007 and 2009, previously admitted introducing her to heroin and many of her fans hold her partly responsible for her death from alcohol poisoning.
In the trailer, Amy declares that she wants to be known for more than her singing and her desperation to be a mother, before sadly dying childless.
In an emotional scene, she describes Blake as “her life and her soul” before their on-again, off-again relationship inspires her to write the iconic song Back To Black.
Last year, Blake said she would have done “almost everything differently” in their relationship when she celebrated what would have been Amy’s 40th birthday.
Back To Back opens in UK cinemas on Friday 12 April.
For confidential advice and information on drink and drug abuse, call FRANK on 0300 123 6600 or go online at talktofrank.com/help