Sam Taylor-Johnson on How the UK’s ‘Pained Emotional Attachment’ to Amy Winehouse Might Translate in America
It’s fitting that Sam Taylor-Johnson’s “Back to Black” opened in the United Kingdom before arriving on American shores later this month. After all, the Amy Winehouse biopic — which stars Marisa Abela as the tragic singer and songwriter — chronicles the rise and fall of one of the UK’s most recognizable (and ill-fated) superstars in recent memory. Soon, Taylor-Johnson will bring the film to America, where she’s already anticipating a different reaction.
Despite mixed reviews (the film currently holds a 37 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Metacritic has it at a slightly more positive 49 rating), the film’s UK (and also Irish) release in mid-April was successful. In its opening weekend, the film made $3.4 million at the box office, putting it at number one of the also-anticipated “Civil War.” The film has so far made over $16 million in its first weeks of release. When it finally lands stateside, it will face little similar competition with other openers, which include the comedy “Babes,” the kids fantasy “IF,” and the horror prequel “The Strangers: Chapter 1.”
During a recent interview with IndieWire (and more to come from that chat as we approach the film’s U.S. release date), we asked Taylor-Johnson about the differences between the UK and the U.S. when it comes to talking about and considering the film.
“I’ve done a couple of days of press junkets [in the U.S.], and it’s so interesting, because it’s completely different to the press junkets I had in the UK,” the filmmaker told IndieWire. “Because in the UK, interestingly, the sort of tabloids that really, I felt like, sort of tortured her are the ones saying ‘we have to protect her legacy.’ So that’s been interesting.”
It’s not just the tenure of those chats that Taylor-Johnson has noticed, but the content of them, too. “And all the conversations sort of in those junkets have been around, why make this film? Why da da da?” Taylor-Johnson said. “Whereas in the U.S., it’s much more of an excitement of, what do we get to see? What do we learn? And the music. So the conversations are very, very different.”
Taylor-Johnson’s film, understandably, doesn’t shy away from depicting Winehouse’s fraught relationship with the paparazzi and the famously poison-penned UK tabloid press. Even nearly 13 years since her death, Winehouse’s home country — and its citizens flocking to see the film — are still reckoning with her legacy. In America, the filmmaker finds, people are looking for something else.
“I think the UK has this real sort of almost pained emotional attachment to her story and her legacy, and the U.S., I feel like it’s, ‘Show me more, and bring me the music, and tell me the story,'” the filmmaker said.
Focus Features will release “Back to Black” in U.S. theaters on Friday, May 17.
