In the much-anticipated biopic “One Love,” English actor Kingsley Ben-Adir plays the late Jamaican Reggae sensation Bob Marley. Ben-Adir responded to citicism by some Jamaicans who believe that the role would have better suited a native from the island.
The actor stated, “Without the support of Bob’s family, I wouldn’t have gone near it.”
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He continued, “It’s not my job to explain why I was cast, but in my mind, all I know is that Rei [director Reinaldo Marcus Green] and [Marley’s] family made their decision, and I felt love, and I felt trust, and that allowed me to think, ‘Right, I’m going to go fully 100 percent on this.’”
In a recent interview, Ben-Adir shared his thoughts with “Rolling Stone UK” for writer Nick Reilly’s digital cover profile piece for the music magazine.
Ben-Adir clarified that he needed to fully immerse himself in the original dialect of the island in order to comprehend and successfully speak the Jamaican patois for his role.
He explained, “Patois is not a dialect, it’s a different language entirely, and it was about making sure that everyone understood that. This is a foreign language film with no subtitles, so this challenge proved massively important.”
He added, “We needed to stay true to Bob and the culture because that language is the emotional through-line of the story for a universal audience.”
In addition to receiving rare archival footage of Bob from Cedella Marley, which he meticulously transcribed, the Englishman—who was born in North London—who was in Jamaica to attend the world premiere of “One Love” at Carib cinema in Kingston recently claimed to have benefited from dialect advice from Jamaican performers and actors who play The Wailers in the biopic.
The producers of the movie decided to keep well-liked local broadcaster Fae Ellington on as Ben-dialect Adir’s instructor.
Upon arriving in Jamaica to begin filming, he told ‘Rolling Stone UK’, “I saw pictures of Bob on every road. There were statues of him everywhere, and the significance of this man to that culture is just unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
“So that meant there was a huge feeling of respect and pressure, and I knew I couldn’t do it unless we represented the language and culture to the fullest.”
“I’d been prepping on my own for seven or eight months, but suddenly the descendants of The Wailers were playing! Suddenly, there was this community, and they were so supportive of me and there to help. There were always people to bounce off.”
“Neville Garrick, Bob’s best mate who died recently, he’d be there, and he’d just say ‘Nah, Bob would do this like that!’ I was grateful there was a real understanding that I wasn’t just trying to do an impersonation. There were flashes of Bob’s spirit, but it’s Bob through me. This is my interpretation of who he was,” the actor noted.
Prior to the film’s production, Ben-Adir revealed that he had a meeting with Brian Robbins, the president and CEO of Paramount Pictures:
“I said to him, ‘When you say go, I’m going to go, just so you know. When I go, there will be emails, and there will be ideas, and I’m going to be non-stop in my research.’
“They were suddenly like, ‘All right, this guy is crazy enough to do it.’”
The actor informed Reilly of Rolling Stone that the Marley family supported his decision to pursue this artistic endeavor and that his role in “One Love” is not intended to be a carbon duplicate of Bob.
“As we went along, we understood that this wasn’t and should never be an imitation of Bob or an attempt to mimic him. It was a communal effort to get underneath the man and show a side to him that’s more human, to look at some of the struggles and some of the pressures he was under at the time. And I was like, ‘Well, I’m an actor and I can do that.’”
After spending hours watching YouTube beginner lessons and mastering the instrument, Ben-Adir said he refined Bob’s signature on-stage moves in an unusual way.
“I was trying to understand Bob’s dancing because you can’t choreograph him; he was so kind of wild and free and instinctive. But when I used technology to isolate instruments, you could realize that Bob was following the conducting of the drum.”
The actor remarked, “The reason he dances differently in every song is because the drums are different in every song. I would just rehearse playing the drum beat and the lyrics, and it started to make sense. He’s completely telling the drummer what to do through his movements, and I thought that was quite astonishing. He was leading the band through his movements.”
Ben-Adir’s co-star, Jamaican-British actor Lashana Lynch, who plays Bob’s wife Rita in the movie, was extremely complimentary of his performance in an interview with “Rolling Stone UK.”
“He doesn’t know this, but thinking on Kingsley’s commitment to Bob and my culture actually makes me emotional.”
The co-actor expresses care for Ben-Adir on set, “I hadn’t worked with an actor who lives, eats, breathes, and takes such delicate care when protecting the human they are portraying. In many moments, I became Rita off the back of my want for protecting Kingsley on set. He gives an unbelievable amount to his craft, so part of my job was to ensure this man was protected at all costs. Seeing him draw sweat from embodying Bob energetically was like nothing I’d ever seen. In return, I’ll applaud him forever.”
On February 14, “Bob Marley: One Love” will debut in theaters throughout the world.
