Kingsley Ben-Adir had to put in a significant amount of effort and attention in order to depict the iconic musician Bob Marley in a manner that gave the impression of genuine authenticity.
Therefore, the actor, who was 37 years old at the time, was putting in so much effort that he was focusing on getting into character while he was still on the set of another production.
Ben-Adir recently gave an interview to Kevin Frazier of ET in London, where he was promoting his new biopic, Bob Marley: One Love. In the interview, Ben-Adir discussed how he prepared for the part while shooting his sequences in the Barbie movie.
When Ben-Adir reflected on the early stages of the development and preparation of One Love, he noted that he and the producers had reached a consensus that “authenticity and language and how Bob spoke [were] the most important thing, and [we’re] not white-washing anything.”
This meant that Ben-Adir took it upon himself to polish Marley’s musicianship, as well as his voice and cadence, and he did it by himself.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Ben-Adir said, referring to the experience of listening to Marley’s music and auditory recordings of him speaking. “Because it was an excuse to listen to Bob all the time.”
During the production of Barbie, in which Ben-Adir portrayed one of the many Kens with Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, and Scott Evans, Ben-Adir stated that he was even listening to Marley.
“I just wanted to get started because I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to be working on this for three and a half months, and I can’t afford to waste any seconds.'” I had to get started right now!'” As Ben-Adir told it. “In particular, with the guitar and the words, do you know what I mean? That is going to be a lengthy process, and you need to be sure that you have set the basic stages in place.
“On film sets, there’s a lot of time downtime… it just made sense to go and listen to Bob and try to understand the language and learn the guitar,” said the actor.
Ben-Adir confessed that he didn’t really discuss his experience with anybody, adding that “My process was private for as long as possible — until I needed help.” This was despite the fact that he practiced and worked to develop Marley’s voice in between filming sequences for Barbie.
Additionally, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, Anthony Welsh, Michael Gandolfini, Umi Myers, and Nadine Marshall are featured in the film One Love, which was directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and produced in collaboration with the Marley family.
Ziggy Marley, Bob Marley’s son, is serving as a producer on this project, which is one of the first authorized biopics of the groundbreaking artist. Other producers include Rita Marley, Cedella Marley, Robert Teitel, Brad Pitt, Jeremy Kleiner, and Dede Gardner, as well as executive producers Richard Hewitt, Orly Marley, and Matt Solodky. On February 14, Bob Marley: One Love will be released in cinemas.
