Inside Marisa Abela’s ‘Back to Black’ Transformation: How Movement Coach Sara Green Helped Her ‘Inhabit’ Amy ...

How does an actor authentically and respectfully embody a legendary real-life singer on screen without it being seen as tribute act? And how do they do it when so much of that person’s life as a performer — a life that tragically ended not long ago — was played out in front of the cameras, across the media, in interviews and captured on phones?

This was the task given to Sara Green, the choreographer and movement coach who worked closely with “Back to Black” star Marisa Abela to help transform her into Amy Winehouse for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic, which releases in the U.K. on Friday with StudioCanal (and in the U.S. on May 17 with Focus Features). It was a task she admits, given the “plethora of footage” of the late music icon, was “quite daunting.”

Unsurprisingly, hours of hard work and research were essential, with Abela and Green...