From 'Barbie' to Bob Marley: Kingsley Ben-Adir shines 'One Love'

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When originally invited to audition, Kingsley Ben-Adir wasn't sure he could play Bob Marley. He could not sing, he could not dance, they say that the two are not alike.

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But after portraying the likes of Malcolm X and Barack Obama, the late singer's family are adamant the British actor wants to see the music icon in an upcoming biopic. Bob Marley: One Love.

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“At first I thought it was wrong, and of course agents and studios have their reasons for what they want you to do,” Ben-Adir, 37, told Postmedia in a video call from London.

But the family, led by Marley's son Ziggy, who is making a biopic alongside his mother Rita, sister Cedella and Oscar winner Brad Pitt, persevered. They did not want Ben-Adir to be like a father; they wanted him to touch his father's spirit.

“I had to try to find Bob's humanity,” says Ben-Adir.

This was when he was working for Greta Gerwig Barbiein which he played one of the many Kens who trained for the role.
“I got it when I attended a concert Barbie and I started preparing when we were free,” he says.

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A project that is not a cradle to the grave, One love In the late 1970s, Marley zeroed in on a small part of his life when he tried to organize the “One Love” peace concert to unite his warring homeland, Jamaica. As he rose to worldwide musical fame, we see how despite a failed assassination attempt in 1976, his message of love and unity triumphed over the forces trying to keep Jamaicans divided.

Director King Richard's Reinaldo Marcus Green, begins to write films Exodus from Egypt (widely considered one of the best albums of the 20th century).

“This is the Bob Marley that most people don't know about,” Green says. “We're giving everybody something they haven't seen, something they can't Google.”

“This movie is a true representation of Jamaica and Bob and his music,” adds Ziggy.

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During his time in Barbieland, Ben-Adir “read all the books and studied all the music” inspired by the reggae icon and activist, who died of melanoma in May 1981 at the age of 36.

But in addition to delving deep into the history books, Ben-Adir was able to uncover Marley's essence by leaning on those closest to him.

“It involved spending a lot of time with Bob's family and getting to know them and learning about Bob through them and through his friends and people he grew up with and people he worked with,” he says. “Finding Bob was only possible because I spent time with people who knew him and were with him during the film.”

Ben-Adir learned to play the guitar for the role and worked with a dialect coach to master the singer's Jamaican Patois, but he says capturing Marley's spirit was a “community effort.” Playing Marley was not something he would copy; should have come from inside.

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“Usually when you're playing a character, you think to yourself, 'This is mine and I'm going to figure out how to do it.' But it was the other way around,” says Ben-Adir. “It was (a role) where I didn't have all the answers … I had to figure it out by listening to Bob, his kids, and all the people who represented the culture around me.”

A few months after filming returned to the film, Ben-Adir describes the experience of filming One love transformative in his acting career.

“His music speaks for itself. It plays everywhere and it has become a part of our lives. I can't remember when I first heard of Bob; it's always been there,” Ben-Adir says. “But getting to know Bob as a father and as a person … the process was extraordinary.”

The best feeling of all was that Marley's family believed in her wholeheartedly.

“You feel lucky to have that kind of trust. To know that my family thinks I can do it is overwhelming,” she says. “It gave me a lot of confidence. We all agreed … it was about doing everything we could and working as hard as we could to give Bob the best possible representation.”

Bob Marley: One Love It will be shown in cinemas on February 14.

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