I'm worried Amy Winehouse biopic will have sinister impact, says singer's pal

WITH her signature black beehive piled high and a heavy flick of eyeliner, Marisa Abela seems to embody the spirit of Amy Winehouse.

Filming scenes for the upcoming biopic Back To Black, the actress bears an uncanny resemblance to the late singer.

But now Amy’s former best friend has slammed Marisa for portraying a “caricature” of his pal.

Hairdresser Alex Foden, 40, told The Sun on Sunday: “Everything I have seen from the film set so far has filled me with dread.

“They haven’t got the beehive right — and I should know as I was her hairdresser — and the main actress doesn’t look ­anything like Amy.

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“She thinks she can pull it off by messing up her hair and ­carrying a packet of fags, but that is a caricature of my friend.

Named after her hit 2006 album, the movie is set to be released next year.

Award-winning singer Amy was just 27 when she was found unresponsive by her bodyguard at her home in Camden, North London, one Saturday afternoon in July 2011 after what was described as a “few days of moderate drinking”.

An inquest heard she was more than five times the legal drink-drive limit and two empty vodka bottles were on the floor beside her bed. 

Recording a verdict of ­misadventure, the coroner found she died from alcohol poisoning.

Alex has disputed claims that Amy had completely kicked her addiction to drugs before her death, pointing to the star's shambolic performance in Serbian capital Belgrade the month before her death.

He said: "I spoke to Amy over Skype just before she died and she sounded like she was high.

"You only have to look at the video of her last concert in Serbia to see she was using.

"I had never seen her in such a state. She was constantly scratching herself, like you do when you're on drugs.

"I kept warning people that she was going to die but no one would listen to me."

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Amy's family heavily dispute Alex's theory and say it is a matter of medical record that she did not use drugs for two years.

Fans are also in uproar about the new biopic, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, who was also behind the camera for Fifty Shades Of Grey.

Filming started in London last month.

Recent photos from the set show actress Marisa depicting the troubled singer at her worst, with her hair net frequently exposed as she staggers about in public.

Other images show actor Jack O’Connell — who plays Amy’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil — being arrested.

Blake was jailed for 27 months in 2008 for assaulting a bar owner and obstructing justice.

A series of Amy fans have posted their objections online, with gripes about Marisa, 25 — who rose to prominence in BBC drama Industry — looking like a walking “Amy Winehouse Halloween costume”.

One complaint got 34,000 likes and 3,500 quote responses on Twitter.

Alex’s dispute is more ­personal, as he was Amy’s close friend for seven years, having met her in 2004 when she was an emerging artist on the London jazz scene.

He said of the set pictures: “In every one I’ve seen from the film set ­Marisa always has a box of cigarettes in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

"And that wasn’t Amy.

“Most of the clothes Marisa is ­wearing are too baggy and look like cheap rip-offs of her actual wardrobe.

“Amy bought most of her clothes at a vintage store in Camden and she followed ‘chav’ rules, so she would never mix Nike with Adidas.

“I’m also worried this film is going to glamorise drugs and some of Amy’s fans are real sickos who will use drugs to feel close to her.”

Alex created Amy’s famous beehive haircut as a joke while shooting the music video for her Back To Black album, which became the biggest selling in UK history.

The look stuck and Amy paid Alex a £1,000-a-day retainer to maintain it.

He said: “I first met Amy when she came to my house on Broadway Market in Hackney so I could do her hair extensions.

“She would binge-drink now and again, but she was not drinking all day, every day and there is no way she was swigging from a bottle of wine in the street back then, as they are showing in the movie.

“A good film would tell the real story, the truth, about her life."

Alex claims it was Amy’s ex-husband Blake, now 40, who got them both hooked on hard drugs.

Now sober and following a Narcotics Anonymous program, Alex recalls: “When Amy met Blake she thought that people that did Class As were d***heads and she had no idea he was using.

"When she found his drugs paraphernalia hidden in her bathroom she kicked him out of her house.

“But three weeks after Amy started doing it, I was doing it too.

"One night Blake offered me crack and eventually I said, ‘OK, just give me a bit’.”

Alex quickly spiralled into a world of drug abuse along with his pal Amy — but he insists they tried to support each other.

He said: “Amy spent ­thousands of pounds sending me to rehab and I did my best to convince her to do the same."

Actress Marisa has a Jewish background like Amy but had a privileged childhood in East Sussex, which fans have argued makes her more suited to playing spoiled Yasmin in TV’s Industry, about City bankers.

Alex said: “I’ve blocked Marisa on Instagram because I’ve had enough.

“She hasn’t made any effort to ­consult me or Amy’s friends — not the ones I know, at least — and if I was her I would have done my research.”

Despite the heartache of Amy’s final days, Alex still holds happy memories of his time with his friend.

He said: “Amy was the biggest genius.

"She wrote Back To Black, the whole album, in ten hours sitting on the toilet.

"We were best friends because we had the same sense of humour.

"We both had very dark pasts and we’d been through a lot.

“Amy always hung around with the underdog.

"You had to be unpopular if she was going to be your friend.

“And she liked to stick up for everyone. She was like the matriarch.

“I am lucky because, even though she is gone, I still get to hear her music, which means I get to hear her voice.

"Some people lose a loved one then wish they had kept more voice notes, but I get to hear Amy sing and that comforts me.”

A spokesman for Amy’s estate said: “The estate and family have given over £5million to charity since 2011 and one third of the estate’s proceeds from the film are already pledged to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.”