Amy Winehouse's Ex-Husband Is 'Very Misunderstood,' Says “Back to Black” Star Jack O'Connell (Exclusive)

O'Connell met the late musician's ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil while preparing to play him in the Amy Winehouse biopic

Amy Winehouse's ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil is not the villain people believe he is, says Jack O'Connell.

While speaking to PEOPLE at the Back to Black New York City premiere on Tuesday, May 14, O'Connell, 33, discussed taking on the role of Fielder-Civil, 42, in the upcoming Winehouse biopic — and the idea that he enabled the singer's addictive traits ahead of her July 2011 death at age 27.

"I think he got a terrible, both of them got a terrible time with the tabloid press," O'Connell tells PEOPLE of Fielder-Civil and Winehouse, who were married between 2007 and 2009.

This led to the public getting the "worst version" of their lives, adds O'Connell, adding that the couple "had their whole lives just spread out for everyone's consumption."

"I think he's definitely very misunderstood and very far removed from the person that I met," continues O'Connell. "It was important for me to do some justice to that."

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Despite this, the Ferrari star says that having met Fielder-Civil he knows he also has some regrets when it comes to Winehouse.

"I think he's just very honest about his fallibility and I think that's his strength and he’s a very endearingly honest person, O'Connell tells PEOPLE. "But anytime he spoke about Amy, he just lit up, started glowing, and that told me that whatever was happening between them was very genuine. So that was wildly informative."

O'Connell adds that Fielder-Civil was "very open" and "very available" when it came to meeting up and helping the actor prepare for the role of playing him. "He was constantly ready to chat and talk more throughout the whole shooting process," the actor tells PEOPLE, adding that he gave him "a playlist of tunes" to listen to, so that he could get into the couple's mindset.

Related: Remembering Amy Winehouse's Life in Photos

Back to Black director Sam Taylor-Johnson and cast members Marisa Abela and Lesley Manville were among the stars attending the AMC Lincoln Square event following its April 8 world premiere in London.

The "never-before-seen glimpse" into the British Grammy winner's "early rise to fame and the release of her groundbreaking studio album, Back to Black,” per its official synopsis, is “told from Amy’s perspective.”

Related: Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Sam Taylor-Johnson's Relationship Timeline

Written by Matt Greenhalgh and costarring Eddie Marsan, Bronson Webb, Ansu Kabia and Harley Bird, Back to Black is “an unapologetic look at the woman behind the phenomenon and the relationship that inspired one of the most legendary albums of all time," the synopsis concludes.

Starring as Winehouse in the film and singing her songs is Industry star Abela, 27.

Related: Amy Winehouse's Ex-Husband Blake Fielder-Civil Says He Made 'Mistakes' but Didn't Cause Her Death

“It doesn't feel like it's me singing,” Abela told PEOPLE of playing Winehouse at the London premiere. “When you inhabit a character, you do what it is that you need to do… That's my job as an actor, to inhabit her in every corner of her life and to be able to tell the story at every single moment of her life."

Back to Black is in theaters on Friday, May 17. 

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