Recalling the Jan. 23 premiere of Bob Marley: One Love, Kingsley Ben-Adir talks about mingling with royalty. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Harry traveled to Kingston, Jamaica for the film’s international premiere, which took place at the reggae icon country of origin. The movie will be in theaters on February 14, 2024, for the world to see.
At the request of the couple’s friends, Brian Robbins, the president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, and his wife Tracy James, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex went to the event and spent time with the movie’s star after it debuted.
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Ben-Adir played Bob in the biopic Bob Marley: One Love told PEOPLE magazine, “We had a drink after, and we spent some time together.” He added, “Nice people. Harry’s funny, and Meghan was lovely. They were
Ben-Adir remarked, “It was really nice to meet them and spend time with them.” He added, “We spoke about music, we spoke about Bob, we spoke about the film, we spoke about life.”
According to a prominent magazine, Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, have long been admirers of Marley’s music and message. Bob Marley: One Love chronicles the life of the Jamaican artist whose songs promoted harmony and peace.
He finally passed away from cancer in 1981 at the age of 36, having escaped an attempted murder in 1976.
Ben-Adir, who previously starred as Malcolm X in One Night in Miami and as Barack Obama in 2020’s The Comey Rule, studied singing and guitar to be ready for the part. He also picked up Jamaican Patois and analyzed Marley’s accent.
In a recent interview with Paramount Ben-Adir noted, “I think I just had to get my head around what my feeling is when it comes to playing real-life characters, which is that it is about the essence of the person, not being an exact copy or trying to do a mimic.” He added, “But for some reason when it came to Bob, my instinct was I wanted to be and look as close as I could do him.”
“I think it was just something to obsess with that I didn’t have that much control over,” he added. “But if it was me looking in from outside, I would have been saying all the things everyone else was saying to me, like, ‘It doesn’t matter about this and this, it’s just about the essence, it’s just about the essence.’”
Ben-Adir tells PEOPLE that it was good to see the Bob Marley: One Love cast again at the Kingston premiere, following a period of intense labor on the movie.
“It was great to be with the band. It was great to be with all the cast and all of the people that I worked with. I haven’t seen them in so long,” he says.
