Amy Winehouse’s bassist impressed with Marisa Abela’s portrayal of late singer in biopic

Marisa Abela, who plays Amy Winehouse in Back To Black — Sam Taylor-Johnson’s forthcoming biopic about the late singer — has captured her down to a tee, according to Winehouse’s bass player, Dale Davis.

‘There are certain times when I look at Marisa and I’m reminded of Amy, especially in the make-up and sometimes when she talks,’ he tells me. 

‘I’m actually taken back to moments in time. It’s quite evocative in that way.’ 

Davis performed with Winehouse’s band at QT at Middle Eight in London’s Covent Garden this week. 

The bassist worked with Amy for eight months after her success of her album, Back To Black. 

Uncanny: Marisa Abela, who plays Amy Winehouse in Back To Black — Sam Taylor-Johnson’s forthcoming biopic about the late singer — has captured her down to a tee, say’s Amy’s bassist

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Biopic: Sources on the set of Back To Black – directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and named after Ms Winehouse’s hit 2006 album – say that filming is due to last 10 weeks (pictured 2007) 

Back in 2017, Dale revealed he spoke to her three hours before she tragically went to bed for the last time, with Amy dying of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27 in 2011. 

He previously told Music Radar: ‘She was an amazing talent, and very easy to work with, but we all know that the story went wrong.

‘It was hard to go on stage for the last two or three years of her life, but I always lived in the hope that she would get herself back together.

‘By the end, she was tired and she’d given everything.’ 

Marisa has been pictured on set over recent weeks filming the new biopic. 

Amy’s dad Mitch Winehouse recently defended the controversial casting choice for the new biopic – after many claimed Marisa and Amy don’t look enough alike.

Mick disagrees with the backlash as he shared this week that Marisa is a ‘great choice’, admitting it doesn’t matter if they ‘don’t look exactly alike’. 

Chatting with TMZ on the new release about his daughter, Mitch said: ‘Marisa is Marisa and Amy is Amy … so it’s no big deal if they aren’t mirror images. 

‘Marisa is a great choice for the role.’

He continued that Eddie Marsan, who is playing Mitch, doesn’t look exactly like him either, noting: ‘there’s too much emphasis on looks.

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The band: The bassist worked with Amy for eight months after her success of her album, Back To Black

‘Because there’s plenty of Hollywood examples of actors not looking like their real-life character.’

Friends of Amy are also furious with the makers of the biopic for failing to consult them about the star’s life, claiming that executives working on Back To Black have not been in touch to ask about their memories of the late singer, raising fears that the film will be inaccurate.

Despite it being almost 12 years since Ms Winehouse was found unresponsive at her townhouse in Camden, North London, in July 2011, her grief-stricken friends still believe it is early for such a film to be made.

Sources on the set of Back To Black – directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and named after Ms Winehouse’s hit 2006 album – say that filming is due to last 10 weeks.

One insider said: ‘It all feels very fast, almost a bit smash and grab.’

Many have also doubted the film being made as a whole, accusing the project of ‘exploiting the singer’s legacy’ and ‘capitalising off her trauma’, with some calling for people to ‘just let her rest’.

‘There are certain times when I look at Marisa and I’m reminded of Amy, especially in the make-up and sometimes when she talks,’ Davis, (pictured centre)  says