Mitch Winehouse Calls 'Amy' Documentary Makers "Disgusting" After Poor Portrayal in Film

Mitch told The Guardian that Amy and its director Asif Kapadia are "trying to portray me in the worst possible light."

"It was horrible," he said. "I told them that they were a disgrace. I said, 'You should be ashamed of yourselves. You had the opportunity to make a wonderful film and you've made this.'"

The controversy surrounding Mitch's portrayal in the film seems to center around Amy's high profile drug and alcohol abuse, which eventually ended her life at the age of 27. As Rolling Stone reports, Mitch says at one point in the documentary that Amy didn't need rehab. But, the old interview from 2005 is presented without context - Mitch later clarified that she didn't need rehab at that time.

"Amy had fallen. She was drunk and banged her head. She came to my house, and her manager came round and said, 'She's got to go to rehab.' But she wasn't drinking every day. She was like a lot of kids, going out binge-drinking," Mitch said.

Mitch was at first OK with the documentary, trusting Kapadia after watching his other documentary Senna.

"We thought we were in safe hands. The process started off OK - they asked how we would feel about Blake being in the film. I said, 'You can't have a film about Amy without Blake being in it.' What was he going to say? He has already said he was the one who caused Amy's addiction. But I thought it was nice that they asked me."

But after watching the film, the Winehouse family withdrew their endorsement of Amy.

The production company is defending itself, however. Telling The Guardian: "When we were approached to make the film, we came on board with the full backing of the Winehouse family and we approached the project with total objectivity, as with Senna. During the production process, we conducted in the region of 100 interviews with people who knew Amy Winehouse; friends, family, former partners and members of the music industry who worked with her. The story that the film tells is a reflection of our findings from these interviews."

Tags

Mitch Winehouse, Amy Winehouse