Best known for playing Amy Winehouse in the biopic Back to Black, Marisa Abela has carved out an award-winning career working across TV and film – and now, audiobooks. With her new Audible Original adaptation of Pride and Prejudice out, the actor dropped by to chat all things London.
Where was your first flat in London?
I grew up in Brighton, and my first experience of living in London was a three-bedroom flat in Willesden Green when I was studying drama at Rada. There were four of us so we used the living room as a bedroom. The three others were also Rada students, all in my year. We didn’t do that much work, if I’m honest, but we had a lot of fun.
Marisa Abela at the premiere of Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back To Black (Ian West/PA)
PA Wire
You’re not allowed to take a job when you’re at drama school. But at some point I had to do something for cash, so I would babysit at weekends and on Friday nights, for a really lovely family in Highgate that I met on a Facebook group. I still talk to them today. They’re kind of my London family. There was a long time where if I was locked out of my house or something, they’d be who I would ring. I came as a babysitter and I left as a child!
Where would you recommend for a first date?
I would suggest a bar. I think for a first date it’s like, we don’t need to eat. We can just have a vibe. There’s a place called 69 Colebrooke Row, or The Bar with No Name in Islington — there are two names for it — and I think the cocktails there are amazing. There’s also Sager + Wilde in Hackney. I think it’s fun to try lots of different things, so plenty of cocktails, nibbles, drinks. So there, or Bambi in London Fields.
Which shops do you rely on?
I go to a shop called Daytrip most days for my coffee and I would be very sad if that place didn’t exist. I love Pret — I think it’s amazing. My go-to order? I love the boiled egg in spinach. It’s such a good snack if you’re on the go. In terms of clothes, I love going to Marylebone and just strolling around.
They always have nice pop-ups around there. There’s a place called Da Luna that’s full of all these handmade silk dresses that I love. In Hackney there are loads of really great vintage shops, and I love a good market so Broadway Market on the weekend — that’s where I do most of my shopping.
What’s the best meal you’ve had?
In July last year I got engaged — on Primrose Hill — and my partner, actor Jamie Bogyo, planned a surprise dinner. We went to a place that is one of our favourite restaurants in London — Bocca di Lupo in Soho. I thought that it was just going to be the two of us but he booked out the entire private dining room downstairs and there were 40 of my friends and family there. We all had big bowls of pasta and calamari and sharing steaks and fish. It was a feast.
What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?
I would do something to fix the traffic on Euston Road. I don’t know what the hell is going on there, but that place is crazy. I’m the wrong side of Euston Road for Mayfair and west London, and if you’re filming it’s usually in the west. Pinewood Studios is very west. So I’m on the Euston Road twice a day, often at the worst time in the morning and in the evening and it’s hell.
What’s the best thing a cabbie has ever said to you?
The London cabbie I know best is Mitch Winehouse. It seems to me that a lot of people know Mitch in the cabbie world, so a lot of them want to talk to me about Amy and playing the daughter of a cabbie. Once they see me in the wing mirror and we’re talking, they’re like, “You played Amy Winehouse”, then it will be, “I know Mitch”, and I’ll hear some stories about Mitch or I’ll hear some stories about Amy.
Mitch and Amy Winehouse
PA
What’s your biggest extravagance?
I think if I was going to celebrate and really treat myself, my guilty pleasure is probably caviar. My favourite place to enjoy it is at Mount St Restaurant in Mayfair. So I would go there, buy a big tin of it with some champagne. That would be my biggest extravagance, but I’ve only ever done that twice in my life and that was when I was celebrating something pretty mega — the first time was a couple of days after I got engaged, with my family. Then the next time was when I won a Bafta.
Where do you let your hair down?
I do love a pub — especially the Alpaca and the Albion in Islington and the Devonshire in Soho — or if I want something more fancy like a hotel bar, the Connaught in Mayfair. But if I am really letting my hair down and dancing, I love Soho, just popping around Old Compton Street, living it large.
Who is the most iconic Londoner?
I guess it’s probably Amy. I mean, it would be insane if I said anything else.
Marisa Abela stars as Elizabeth Bennet in Audible Original’s audiobook adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, out now