Back To Black with Marisa Abela & Sam Taylor-Johnson

0:00 In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, it's all about the Amy Winehouse biopick Back to Black. I'd talk with Marissa Abella and Sam Taylor Johnson. Let's go Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from my Heart Radio, your pop culture news, views, reviews, and celebrity interviews on Fall, the Movies, TV music, and Pomp Culture U Crab Weekly. Here's Kyle McMahon. Nana no no, no no, Hello, and welcome the pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon. I of course am Kyle McMahon, and I am so hyped that you are hanging out with me for another episode of the show.

0:42 Today is all about the Amy Winehouse biopick Back to Black, which you've got to see. It's in theaters now. If you're a fan of you know, biopicks or Amy Whitehouse or you know compelling dramas. It really is is a great film. They you can see my full review up on popcultureweekly dot com and I go into depth, in depth on you know, the film and the performances are absolutely incredible and Marissa does all of her own singing, which is a big task when you're you know, emulating a iconic voice. Like Amy Winehouse. So let's get right into it. I talk with Marissa Abbeyo, who plays Amy Winehouse, and Sam Taylor Johnson, who directs it. Here we go. Hey, thank you both for speaking with me.

1:38 I really appreciate it. I love Back to Black. It's an amazing film. Thank you, of course. So this question is for both of you. But Marissa, I'll start with you. Do you feel that there is a responsibility or pressure or something like that when you're portraying, you know, a person who has lived you know, yeah, I mean definitely, you know, there's definitely, I mean there's definitely a responsibility. I feel that the biggest responsibility you have is to the person that you're playing, and to play them authentically and with a hell of a lot of you know, awareness, And I think that that comes from preparation. I think that you have to work as hard as you can to get inside them, inside their skin. I think with someone like Amy particularly, there's a lot of from the outside in with her. You know, we've seen her story play out, but we've seen it play out sort of from a more sort of voyeuristic point of view. So to be the person that's inside her, I felt it was important that I was really inhabiting her soul, you know that.

2:52 Of course, the mannerisms are important, and the voice and the physicality and all of those things are necessary for it to be a recognizable performance as Amy Winehouse. But most importantly, I wanted there to be just the feeling of Amy, the essence of Amy just being overpowering in this movie, because it was her soul as well as her artistry that was what everyone made everyone fall in love with her in the first place. I love that, Thank you, and Sam similarly for you, although you know you obviously did Nowhere a Boy, which which has a bit of that element to it obviously, but how about for you in general? With that, Yeah, I mean I think that there's an enormous responsibility and I really felt it with this particularly.

3:39 I mean I felt it with you know, Noah Boy and John Lennon, but with this it just felt very different, and I felt like one of the most important things for me was to come to it with no judgment, you know, to sort of just come to it with absolute humanity and the hope that people would also respond to that in a way and look at her life as complex as not just you know, a victim of her tragedy, but you know, look at the creative soul of who she was and just to really celebrate the music again and to sort of keep everyone you know, on on track with the music and that be the sort of north star of who she was. I love that. Thank you both so much. That's my time. I really appreciate it. I can't wait for everybody to see back to play Me too. Thank you bye, Marissa Bella and Sam Taylor Johnson. I love their insight into the filming of this movie. It's got to be really tough, I would think when you're doing a biopic, especially one where you know that person lived recently, you know. I mean I always wondered about that. If the person is still with us, or you know, it's been relatively recent, is there extra pressure or you know, is it easier if you're playing like some historic figure that none of us were around for from a thousand years ago or one hundred years ago or whatever.

5:04 Is that easier? You know? So it always intrigues me. Back to Black is in theaters right now. I do recommend to watch. It's a great film, and like I said, the performances are incredible. Both the acting performances and the musical performances. So huge props to the cast and crew of Back to Black for making that happen. That's got to be a huge undertaking, especially with you know, somebody with that iconic voice like like Amy Winehouse. So that is our show for this week. Let me know what you think. Hit me up on socials or if you're on the iHeartRadio app, use that talkback button and I might just feature you on an episode of pop Culture Weekly. Make sure to hit the reviews podcast dot popculturewekly dot com.

5:58 We'll give you all of the info that you need on the show and the guests and all of that stuff, and I will see you next week. I love you, We thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly. Here all the latest at popculturewekly dot com and I go back to Blease