Billie Piper Says Classmate Amy Winehouse Was Bullied in School

Rania Aniftos
·2 min read
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Billie Piper is sharing what her childhood friend, the late Amy Winehouse, was like in school.

The Secret Diary of a Call Girl actress joined Jessie Ware’s Table Manners podcast this week, where she revealed that the beloved “Rehab” singer was “bullied” while the duo attended London’s Sylvia Young Theatre School.

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“She was always cheeky. She was always like that, you know. She would do abstract stuff, and I really loved it,” Piper recalled, adding, “She could do everything. Super clever, super bright, [she was] unlike any other girl at that school.”

However, Piper said that Winehouse’s time at school wasn’t “the easiest ride,” as “she got bullied quite a lot at school because she was doing her own thing, and she liked to push buttons, and do weird stuff.”

Winehouse, who died in 2011 at age 27, will be the subject of the upcoming biopic, Back to Black. The film will chronicle of the “You Know I’m No Good” singer’s rocket rise to fame and will feature Marisa Abela portraying the British icon.

A previously released trailer for the biopic features a rush of live performance footage, as well as glimpses of Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan) as proud father Mitch Winehouse and Jack O’Connell (Godless) as troubled husband Blake Fielder-Civil. It tracks Winehouse’s elation at her break-out success in the U.S., her wedding to Fielder-Civil — including her dream of being a mum someday — and the couple’s tumultuous, hot-and-cold relationship.

The Studio Canal film directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (A Million Little Pieces) and written by Matt Greenhalgh (Nowhere Boy) was made with the support of the Winehouse estate, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Publishing and will feature a number of the singer’s most beloved hits. The film is slated to hit theaters on May 17.

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