The actress sat down with ET to talk about her breakout role in the Winehouse biopic.
Marisa Abela is opening up about how she got into character to play Amy Winehouse in Back to Black.
The 27-year-old actress recently sat down with ET's Nischelle Turner on the top of a double-decker bus in London to discuss the upcoming biopic and how she transformed everything from her voice to her body in order to portray the "Rehab" singer.
"I mean, like any of the other transformations, like the physical or the vocal," she said of how she approached losing weight for the gig. "It was necessary. I think for me, it was a part of her life, this addiction and her struggles and an eating disorder. Which are very real for a lot of people."
Winehouse died in July 2011 at the age of 27 and her cause of death was ruled to be alcohol poisoning. The singer's brother, Alex, has claimed in the past that he believes her struggles with bulimia also contributed to her death.
In 2013, he spoke with The Guardian about his sister's death and shared his suspicion that the eating disorder was just as much to blame as Winehouse's struggles with alcoholism.
"She suffered from bulimia very badly. That's not, like, a revelation – you knew just by looking at her… She would have died eventually, the way she was going, but what really killed her was the bulimia," he said.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, bulimia nervosa is categorized as consistent binging and purging of food in order to lose or maintain weight. The condition can be deadly if left untreated.
For Abela, it was as important to portray Winehouse's physical attributes -- as well as her struggle with alcoholism, drug abuse and an eating disorder -- as it was to master her voice.
"It was who she was and having less of yourself, physically, makes a real difference of how you interact with the world and how the world interacts with you," Abela said. "I felt it was very important for me to stay true to her physical journey."
While her physical transformation was paramount, the ability to sing like the six-time GRAMMY Award winner was at the top of Abela's priority list. In fact, she told ET that the cast and crew did not know until later on in the filming process whether or not they would be mixing her own voice with Winehouse's, which made it all the more stressful.
"I think it was really important for me to learn to sing like Amy as well as I possibly could," the actress -- who was born in Brighton, England -- shared. "It was never like a for sure, that they were definitely going to use my voice and my voice only, but I was like, 'Why not train as hard as I can to make this at least like look and feel [real].'"
She added, "I wanted to feel like her when I was singing."
Ultimately, director Sam Taylor-Johnson decided to keep Abela's voice in, which could be heard in the first trailer that was dropped back in January, as well as in a clip that was later released of the actress singing Winehouse's "Stronger Than Me."
Watch the trailer for Back to Black in the player below:
As for what she will take away from the role, the alum of HBO's Industry says that Winehouse has taught her so much about the world and herself, as well as how to approach life in general.
"The lessons I learned from her will always be with me, for sure, like any experience in life," she said. "I learned so many amazing things from her like how to be unafraid and brave and be yourself."
Back to Black opens in theaters on May 17.
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