Thursday 15 February 2024 Leeds Girls鈥� High School alumna Thelma Ruby (OG39) has scored a role in the hotly-anticipated Amy Winehouse film Back to Black, due to be released in the UK on 12 April 2024. Chapel Allerton-born Thelma, who trained as an actress in New York, has chalked up too many theatre, film and TV appearances to name, including Coronation Street, Z Cars and co-starring in Cabaret with Dame Judi Dench in London鈥檚 West End. And although her 99th birthday is approaching in March 2024, she shows no sign of slowing down. 鈥淚n the film, I play Amy鈥檚 great-aunt Rene – the sister of her beloved grandmother, played by Lesley Manville,鈥� explains Thelma. 鈥淚 had such a wonderful time making it – everyone was so kind and welcoming.鈥� Temperatures plummeted when the cast were required to film a funeral scene outside a London crematorium. 鈥淚t was a freezing cold January day,鈥� says Thelma. 鈥淎nd every time there was a break in filming, the dear man playing Amy鈥檚 father – Eddie Marsan – would shout out 鈥楪et a seat for Thelma!鈥� He even took his big coat off and put it around me. The whole crew were very sweet – they gave us thermals and hot drinks, everything they could do to keep us warm!鈥� Thelma and Winehouse both have Jewish heritage, and Thelma recalls a Friday night Shabbat scene where Amy and her extended family gather to break bread and share wine. 鈥淭here was a rabbi on set to guide us and he asked if anyone knew the prayer. Well of course, I did – and so I said the prayer and they did a close-up of my hands lighting the candles.鈥� Of Marisa Abela, who plays Winehouse, Thelma has nothing but praise: 鈥淪he鈥檚 a wonderful girl, and she does all her own singing,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 was in another family scene with her where she sings Fly Me to the Moon with her father – just terrific!鈥� But Thelma admits she wasn鈥檛 a huge Amy Winehouse fan before filming. 鈥淚鈥檓 afraid my interest in popular music ended in the Irving Berlin era,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut nevertheless, I think it鈥檚 going to be a very good film.鈥� Thelma left Leeds Girls鈥� High School in 1939 as war broke out, moving to the United States with her mother. 鈥淚 lost touch with school, but when I was back in London I needed a dentist. A friend recommended one and, when I went, I found out she was from Leeds. I said, 鈥業鈥檓 from Leeds and my father was a dentist! Which school did you go to?鈥� When she said Leeds Girls鈥� we both started singing the school song in Latin!鈥� Thelma鈥檚 first starring role was at age 5, playing The Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe in a school performance. 鈥淢y aunt told me afterwards that the curtains got stuck and so I stepped forward and started to tug at them. I said to the audience 鈥榊ou thought you were going to see me put my children to bed, didn鈥檛 you? But you鈥檙e not!鈥� They all fell about laughing!鈥� Thelma has some more performances coming up in her 100th year and is already making plans for her milestone birthday in 2025. 鈥淚鈥檓 very able, feeling fine and very much enjoying life,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 a very, very lucky woman.鈥� Back to Black is released in the UK on 12 April 2024. Alumni
