‘Again to Black’ Director on Why She Met Amy Winehouse’s ‘Grieving Dad and mom’ (Unique)

Sam Taylor-Johnson is recounting assembly with Amy Winehouse’s mother and father.

On the New York Metropolis premiere of the brand new Winehouse-centric biopic Again to Black on Tuesday, Might 14, Taylor-Johnson, 57, tells PEOPLE that she met with the late singer’s mother and father, Mitch and Janice, “extra out of respect” to the her household than out of a necessity to get their approval for the movie.

“I used to be making a film about their daughter, and I felt prefer it was necessary to listen to them and listen to their tales,” the director says. “Among the issues that Janice, her mother, stated actually helped information me.”

Winehouse’s life and loss of life — the singer died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at age 27 — have been beforehand coated within the Oscar-winning 2015 documentary Amy, which Mitch voiced displeasure with, The Guardian reported on the time.

“The documentary was massively profitable and Asif did a superb job, however I felt like once I sat with every of them individually, I used to be actually met with two deeply grieving mother and father,” Taylor-Johnson tells PEOPLE of Winehouse’s mother and father. “So I needed to be respectful of that and in addition to watch out round that when it comes to my questioning and delicate.”

“However they have been very open about sharing tales. And Janice, I met at house and he or she would simply sit and inform me very gently, would simply quietly regale tales — very often I would heard them earlier than and a few issues she advised me I would by no means heard earlier than, and so they positively characteristic within the film,” she provides. “So it was fairly a tremendous useful resource to have.”

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Again to Black stars Marisa Abela (Trade) as Winehouse; Jack O’Connell costars within the film as her ex-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, with Lesley Manville and Eddie Marsan rounding out the biopic’s solid. “Instructed by way of Amy’s eyes and impressed by her deeply private lyrics, the movie explores and embraces the numerous layers of the enduring artist and the tumultuous love story on the heart of probably the most legendary albums of all time,” reads an official synopsis for the film.

Again to Black‘s N.Y.C. premiere came visiting a month after the film’s world premiere in London on April 8. On the carpet in N.Y.C., Abela, 27, tells PEOPLE that portraying Winehouse required a nuance between “an actual depth” she held reverse “this actually, actually uncooked vulnerability.”

“Once you play somebody that’s as iconic as Amy, it is necessary to recollect to be from the within out. What’s Amy’s perspective on the world, slightly than the world’s view of Amy Winehouse,” she says. “So I feel it was actually simply attempting to get inside her. My purpose is that individuals actually really feel Amy within the room after they come and watch this film.”

Again to Black is in theaters on Friday, Might 17.