Director Sam Taylor-Johnson didn’t want to cast an Amy Winehouse impersonator in the lead role of Back to Black.

After the trailer was released, many social media users criticised the fact that Back to Black’s lead actress Marisa Abela does not look or sound enough like the late Rebab hitmaker.

However, Taylor-Johnson told BBC News on Monday that it was important for her to cast someone “who wasn’t going to impersonate Amy”.

She continued, “There were many brilliant impersonators and people that looked like her or sounded like her. But Marisa came in as herself, she was the only one in the audition process who didn’t try to look like her in any way, earrings, eyeliner or anything.”

The Nowhere Boy director originally thought Abela would lip-sync to the British singer’s recordings, but the Industry actress had singing lessons before filming and ended up using her own vocals throughout the film.

“What was important for me was that music was the medium which Amy wanted to tell her story, and if you sing in any way that resembles Amy’s style of singing, then you can tell each story as she would have wanted to tell it,” Abela explained.

“I was so excited by the idea of playing and getting in touch with Amy the girl, then Amy the singer. The woman before the icon.”

Both Taylor-Johnson and Abela hope the film serves as a celebration of Winehouse’s achievements.

“I hope she would watch it and feel proud of everything she created,” Abela said of the late music star, who died in 2011.

Back to Black will be released in U.K. cinemas on Friday.

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