Jack O’Connell may be about to be seen on screen in the Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black,” but the actor has also stepped behind the camera to shoot a video for another U.K. music icon, Paul Weller.
The Brit — who stars as Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s feature alongside Marisa Abela as the late, legendary singer — has made his directorial debut with the music video for “Nothing,” a track set to be part of Weller’s new album “66,” releasing in May.
“It was a good stroke of fortune,” O’Connell tells Variety. “Paul’s been a mate for a while and he’s got a bunch of new music coming out. He asked me to be in [a video] and I said, ‘Can I direct it instead?’ He obliged. And now we’ve edited it and cut it together.”
The collaboration isn’t the first project linking O’Connell — best known for lead turns in films such as “’71’,” “Starred Up” and “Unbroken” and recently seen in “Ferrari” — and Weller, who rose to fame in the ’70s with the band the Jam and is often referred to as “The Modfather.” Early in his career, O’Connell starred in 2011 sports biopic “United,” for which Weller wrote the song “Devotion.”
“Nothing” isn’t the first the music video involving O’Connell, either, with the actor appearing in the video for “Blue Moon Rising,” the 2020 track from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
Following its world premiere in London’s Leicester Square on Monday night, “Back to Black” releases in the U.K. with StudioCanal on April 12 and in the U.S. on May 17 with Focus Features.