When I meet actress Marisa Abela over Zoom, she’s a few minutes delayed and full of apologies. ‘I’m not really usually late at all,’ she says, sitting in her brightly tiled kitchen, sporting a brown polo-neck. All this arriving behind schedule . . . maybe she’s gone all rock’n’roll, a hangover from playing Amy Winehouse in new biopic Back To Black? ‘It was the least rock’n’roll thing ever,’ she giggles. ‘My bus changed drivers. I’m like “this is so annoying!” because I like to plan things well.’

Her journey home aside, it feels as though the raven-haired actress has planned everything perfectly so far. She was still at drama school (the prestigious Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art) when she won the role of Yasmin in Industry, the sizzling BBC/HBO drama set in an investment bank. Later, Abela appeared opposite Sam Riley in romantic drama She Is Love before scooping up a small part in the biggest movie of last year, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. But now she takes the lead as Winehouse, the iconic singer whose life was tragically cut short in 2011. 

Playing someone as singular as Amy Winehouse naturally caused the proverbial butterflies to flutter. ‘I was definitely nervous,’ Abela admits. ‘But I would say that I felt those nerves through a more serious lens of responsibility.’ It’s just 13 years since the troubled Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning, a fate that already spawned one Oscar-winning documentary, Asif Kapadia’s Amy, which led the singer’s father Mitch to claim it was a ‘negative, spiteful and misleading’ portrayal of his daughter.

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh (the team that previously made the acclaimed Nowhere Boy about the young John Lennon), Back To Black is unlikely to stir up the same controversy. Mitch Winehouse (played in the film by Eddie Marsan) endorsed the project, claiming on Twitter that Abela was ‘great casting’.

The actress met him, though remains cryptic about their conversations. ‘I mean, obviously, anyone that knew Amy, personally, in that way, has massive insight,’ she says, evasively. Their film, meanwhile, comes with a mission statement. ‘I think it was important for us to get back to Amy being in control of her own narrative,’ Abela says. ‘I think for a long time, there have been a lot of people, a lot of men especially, that have been able to control the narrative around her life. And I’m not really sure how that’s happened as she was one of the most prolific female songwriters of her time. She was there telling us what was happening. So it was about putting the words back in her mouth.’

With the film steering audiences from the era when Winehouse brought out her debut album Frank (at which point the Camden-based singer was already becoming known as one of Britain’s biggest talents), it digs deep into her family but also her turbulent relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil (played here by Jack O’Connell). The man who became the love of her life, his presence inspired the music and songs for her best-selling 2006 follow-up album, Back To Black, which eventually won Winehouse five Grammy Awards.

‘What we wanted to do was show audiences where this album actually came from,’ says Abela. ‘And put Amy back in the centre of that story, really show people what her inspirations were and her point of view on life then. And a major inspiration for the album is Blake; it’s completely undeniable, and I think that her relationship with him can act as a metaphor for how she deals with the majority of relationships in her life. Amy is a zero or hundred person.’

Remarkably, Abela also belts out every song, going far beyond a mere impersonation of Winehouse’s rich voice. ‘I’d never sung professionally. I never had singing lessons in an intense way. I never trained as a singer . . . at RADA, you do a singing class a week. So it wasn’t like I’d never opened my mouth and hummed a tune before, but I had never pictured myself singing like this for a job. No . . . no way.’ Little wonder her director, Sam Taylor-Johnson, calls Abela a ‘force of nature’.

‘It was never a prerequisite that I had to sing,’ the actress adds. ‘There was the option of melding voices throughout. But I think the most important thing for me was that I was doing all of this work to capture her essence and her emotionality . . . I didn’t want to give that up at the last hurdle. This was her method of pouring her heart and soul out . . . to write this music and then to sing it herself. So I felt that it was only right that I gave as much as I could to that process.’

Now 27, the same age Winehouse was when she died, Abela superbly essays the singer’s demise, as drink, drugs and fame take hold. ‘Something that our film does, which I think is important, is it puts you in Amy’s shoes. The reality of the situation is that she’s a 22-year-old girl walking barefoot in Camden from the supermarket, with 12 or 13 fully grown men [the paparazzi] around her. I mean, it’s an unsafe situation and it’s scary. And in any other world, that would be considered harassment or stalking, but for some reason, it’s completely legal. And it still is. And I think that’s mental.’

Certainly, Abela’s own sedate upbringing feels far removed from the chaos of Winehouse’s life. Born in Brighton (her mother Caroline is an actress, her father Angelo a director), she was educated at the private Roedean School. Early on, she had thoughts of being a lawyer. ‘When I was doing my A-levels, the assumption was that I would study something academic. And I was really interested in history, especially civil rights. And that seemed to lend itself to studying the law and understanding the law.’ 

After attending open days at universities, she began to realise it wasn’t for her. Joining RADA ‘just felt a bit more right to me’, as if she’d found her tribe. Her instincts were right, and halfway through her final year she booked her role in Industry. ‘It was kind of insane. I went back to graduate and we were filming episode two. It’s hard for me to imagine my career without Industry. Season three is about to come out . . . it’s difficult to even put into words how grateful I am for it.’ 

Does she ever worry about becoming as famous as Winehouse? ‘It’s a very specific side of fame,’ she reasons. ‘I think it’s different for musicians . . . maybe they got you through a break-up or the loss of a family member or the happiest summer of your life. They were there with you. People have such an intense personal connection with musicians specifically that I don’t think they have with actors. Maybe I’m being naïve, but I think that someone can be in your favourite film, but the film is the thing that’s your favourite.’

Whether fame is heading her way or not, Abela has already caught Hollywood’s gaze. She’s just booked the Steven Soderbergh-directed Black Bag, from a script written by celebrated screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park), and starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. ‘It feels very different for me. I’m excited to do something new and challenging in a different way and learn from really incredible actors and creators that I admire.’ Can she say what it’s about? ‘I don’t think so,’ she chuckles. ‘It’s probably not worth the risk!’ So rock’n’roll . . .

Back To Black is in cinemas from Friday 12 April.