Mitch Winehouse Defends Marisa Abela Playing Amy Winehouse In Biopic

There's a new Amy Winehouse movie in production, titled 'Back to Black', directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh. The film got the go-ahead from the Amy Winehouse Estate, controlled by the singer's father, Mitch Winehouse.

English actress Marisa Abela is playing Amy, and social media erupted over the pictures, given that Abela looks nothing like the "Rehab" singer. But it seems dad Mitch is quite on board with Abela playing his late daughter because...

First up, who is Marisa Abela, and what roles do we know her for? If you've seen the Sky One action series, "Cobra", and remember Ellie Sutherland, then you've seen Abela in action. She also played Yasmin Kara-Hanani in the BBC Two and HBO drama "Industry" and was seen in films like "She Is Love" and "Rogue Agent." Abela is also part of the cast of the upcoming 2023 Greta Gerwig film, "Barbie," helmed by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

Abela is the daughter of actress Caroline Gruber and director Angelo Abela and boasts Maltese-Libyan, Polish-Jewish, Russian-Jewish, and English ancestry.

All of 26 years old, her portrayal of Amy Winehouse in the biopic, "Back To Black" is considered a breakthrough, although the Internet is not happy with it at all. That said, people on her Instagram certainly seemed excited for her.

While most congratulated her for cinching the role, Lily Allen felt she "can't wait" while Daisy Ridley declared it to be "Mega!".

The official Instagram account of the film released a single picture of Abela as Amy Winehouse and the Internet nearly exploded with ire.

Fans seemed rather unhappy with Abela given that she looks nothing like the late singer, and the comments showed their angst about it.

"She doesn't look like Amy Winehouse, just looks like a normal person styled like her? Can she sing?"

"Those pics that are surfacing from this movie look awful. It needs to be scrapped. This actress looks nothing like Amy. If you’re going to exploit someone’s death at least do it justice. You really couldn’t search for a better actress any longer to make a perfect movie? You had to settle because you want money and you want it fast. It’s really disgusting."

"There is still time to change actresses, as Marisa Abela has no similarities with Amy. If you want veracity and to portray what happened to Amy, hire an actress who looks like AMY!!! I'm not discrediting Marisa's work, if she got the role, it was on her merits."

For others on social media, the villain of the story seemed to be Amy's dad, Mitch Winehouse as they commented:

"Amy Winehouse would not allow this, you are taking advantage of the situation to clean up the image of the MONSTER WHO IS HER FATHER!"

"We don’t need this biopic. Leave Amy alone."

Others felt both Abela and the movie should be given a chance, given that all this furor was over a picture, and even the trailer wasn't out now.

Meanwhile, the one person who feels that Marisa Abela is doing a fine job playing Amy Winehouse is the singer's dad, Mitch. According to TMZ, Mitch feels that Amy was Amy and Abela is Abela, and all she is doing is playing a part, so it does not matter if she does not look like Amy. He also made it a point to share how, in the film, Eddie Marsan is playing him (Mitch Winehouse) and they too look different, so it shouldn't matter all that much.

Amy's dad Mitch also felt there was too much emphasis on looks in Hollywood, and that there have been several actors playing real-life characters and looking nothing like them. He stated the example of Cary Grant playing famous composer and songwriter Cole Porter, even though they looked nothing like each other.

So the Internet and the masses may be unhappy with the casting, but daddy darling is perfectly on board with Marisa Abela portraying his late daughter.

Here's another look from the film: