Billie Piper and Amy Winehouse both went to a prestigious school for the arts, but bullying was common there as well.
The Sylvia Young Theatre School in London has produced some of the biggest artists in the UK, including musicians Dua Lipa and Rita Ora and actors Daniel Kaluuya and Nicholas Hoult.
Two of the school’s most recognisable alumni are pop star and actress Billie, and legendary musician Winehouse.
Winehouse died in 2011 aged just 27 after struggling with addiction issues for years, and left an incredible impact and legacy.
A biopic on the late star, — already proving controversial before its release — is to hit cinemas later this month, and it’s got Doctor Who icon Billiereflecting on the time they spent together in school, where Billie had attended since she was 12 years old.
And she revealed that Winehouse’s quirks and stand-out personality that helped make her such a beloved star in fact caused her to be bullied as a teenager.
Talking on podcast Table Manners with Jessie Ware, Billie admitted Winehouse ‘got bullied quite a lot at school because she was doing her own thing’.
She said the late star ‘like to push buttons, and do weird stuff. I had a lot of space for that, but not many of the girls did,’ adding that school ‘wasn’t the easiest ride’ for Winehouse.
Billie remembered Winehouse in school as ‘always cheeky… she would do abstract stuff, and I really loved it.’
Billie went on: ‘She could do everything. Super clever, super bright, [she was] unlike any other girl at that school.’
Winehouse shot to fame in the late noughties, becoming an overnight sensation with tracks like Valerie and Rehab, and was an international star by the time of her death.
Biopic Back To Black, set to release on April 12, is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and will see the legendary musician played by actress Marisa Abela.
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Critics have been vocal on social media since the film was announced, some claiming Marisa isn’t the right person for the role and doesn’t look enough like Winehouse, while others voiced concerns about how the late star will be portrayed.
However Mark Ronson, who famously worked closely with Winehouse in her career, insisted the film caught Winehouse’s humour ‘really well’.
He continued, according to the Mail Online: ‘‘I think she just had this whip-smart razor sense of humour which is one of her many gifts and they got that very nice in the film. I’m looking forward to seeing it.’
During Winehouse’s all too brief career, Winehouse released two Platinum-selling albums, with the second of those, Back to Black, eventually going 14x Platinum.
She also received an impressive six Grammy Awards, such as best new artist, record of the year, and song of the year.
