Kingsley Ben-Adir on playing real-life legend Bob Marley

NME

'Bob Marley: One Love' star Kingsley Ben-Adir sits down with NME to tell us about his new biopic – and how he learned to play guitar and sing like Tuff Gong.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:12 Hi, I'm Alex from NME and today we're joined by the star of new Bob Marley biopic One Love,

00:17 it's Kingsley Benedet.

00:18 How you doing?

00:19 I'm good man, how you doing?

00:20 I read that you initially turned down the opportunity.

00:22 It's not true, yeah.

00:23 Okay.

00:24 It's not true.

00:25 Debunk that for us.

00:26 No, no.

00:27 When the audition came through, I was just, my feeling was, does everyone know that I

00:34 can't sing and I can't dance and physically I'm very different to Bob?

00:40 My feeling was, do they know?

00:42 Does everyone know this?

00:43 I don't want to waste my time or their time.

00:46 I'm watching Bob at the Rainbow Theater in '77 and I'm going, this is the most magnetic

00:52 thing I've ever seen.

00:53 I don't understand what's going on, but I can't stop watching him and it felt really

00:58 dangerous.

00:59 I've played people, I've played icons and stuff, but I've never played an artist.

01:04 Bob was an artist first.

01:05 In my view, it was like, he's a man who was a genius when it came to what he did.

01:11 His music has transcended the culture and we listen to Bob.

01:16 His music will live on.

01:18 So no, it was always, I never ever would have said no.

01:21 I just wanted to make sure that people knew where I was coming in at a very basic level.

01:28 I don't speak Jamaican Pato and there was just a lot to learn.

01:32 But now I spent time with Ziggy and the family and we were off.

01:37 What did you do in that audition tape?

01:38 Did they tell you what to do?

01:40 No, there were three scenes.

01:41 I picked one.

01:42 One was singing and playing the guitar.

01:43 I was like, I can't do that because they're just going to be like, no, we can't.

01:46 There was one scene, there's Bob in the studio.

01:48 He's in the studio and he's inspiring his band to pick up the energy.

01:54 I read it and I was like, I understand how to energize this.

01:59 I just shot that.

02:00 I just did one scene.

02:01 I was like, let me just do one scene.

02:04 Less is more.

02:05 I'm glad I did that because the other scene was a really emotional scene with Bob and

02:10 Rita and I was like, I haven't explored their relationship yet.

02:13 I don't want to guess.

02:14 I don't want to guess.

02:15 But in the studio, I kind of understood creatively where he might be.

02:19 Where were you when you heard that you got the role?

02:22 I don't remember where I was.

02:25 But I remember the test option deal.

02:28 So you get a certificate that says, sign this, you're signed up to play it and you can't

02:32 get out of it.

02:33 My agent put it in a frame.

02:36 Certificate makes it sound like something like a sports day.

02:38 Yeah, it was a contract.

02:40 You sign it and you go, now you're in.

02:43 They can sue you if you don't do it.

02:45 I know.

02:46 I was always going to.

02:47 I remember being with Ziggy for the first time and him saying, yeah man, we want you

02:54 to do it.

02:55 And that being very surreal.

02:56 Like to hear it from him and to see him as he was saying that, alright, cool.

03:01 And it's a huge responsibility but at the same time, it's a huge amount of trust that

03:05 they're putting in me.

03:06 And you mentioned that you spent time with Ziggy and the family.

03:25 Where was that?

03:26 What did you do together?

03:27 Did you just kind of stay in their house?

03:29 Yeah, yeah.

03:30 So much.

03:31 I was in Jamaica with Bob's friends and family.

03:33 I mean, Ziggy and I, me and his boys, we went to watch football and had food and spent a

03:40 few days with him near his home.

03:44 But spending time with Steven and Ryan in Miami, that was a trip.

03:48 I went to one of Bob's mum's house in Miami.

03:53 We went there and there was a guy called Lenny, Lenny Dredd, who came over from St. Kitts

04:00 I think when he was young.

04:02 He said he had a vision that he wanted to work with Bob and be around Bob.

04:05 So he got himself over and he just waited outside Bob's house for weeks.

04:09 And then he said, and Bob finally came back off tour and said, "What are you doing?"

04:12 He said, "I want to work with you."

04:13 And then he invited him in.

04:14 And he's been working at the house ever since.

04:16 So he was on tour when he was waiting outside his house?

04:18 I think, yeah, he told me he was there for weeks waiting for Bob to come back.

04:21 He'd be so annoyed, "Oh, he's not even there."

04:23 Yeah, and he came back and Lenny, he showed me around the house and I spent hours with

04:29 him one day and took me into Bob's room and outside and he had so many stories of remembering

04:34 being there with Bob and stuff like that.

04:35 So that's how I really found Bob, through his friends and family.

04:38 And you mentioned, obviously, you didn't play guitar or sing before getting the role.

04:42 Who taught you?

04:43 My singing teacher was Fiora.

04:46 Fiora Cutler.

04:48 I started on guitar with YouTube, just started teaching myself.

04:52 And then Ben Martinez came and fixed me up, you know, in the few months leading up to it.

04:58 What was the hardest part for you?

04:59 Was it like bar chords or like...

05:01 Yeah, the bar chords were tough.

05:02 There were so many different stages to it.

05:04 And, you know, I got as far as I could go.

05:08 And I was able to play acoustically in the film.

05:11 So at some stage you go, "I'm going to stop learning the guitar and I'm just going to

05:14 start learning Bob's songs."

05:15 And then Ben came in and went, "No, I'm just going to teach you guitar because once you

05:18 get this, you'll be able to jump into Bob's songs really easily."

05:21 So as a chamber, you know, you get really good in the bedroom and then you go stand

05:26 on a stage in front of a bunch of musicians and a crowd and suddenly it all disappears.

05:32 I'm so glad I did because I wanted to understand what it was that Bob did every day.

05:38 You know, it's like playing a footballer and not kicking a ball, you know.

05:42 I understood what that connection might feel like, to love your guitar, to like find safety

05:47 in music.

05:49 To find safety in music.

05:51 I kind of was like, "Oh, I've kind of done the same thing with acting in a way, in movies,

05:54 you know.

05:55 It's my safe space."

05:56 I think it makes me feel alive and motivated.

05:58 Obviously watching the film, you have to smoke a lot in quite a lot of the scenes and it

06:03 reminded me of an interview I read with Cillian Murphy where he was complaining afterwards.

06:08 He'd shot Oppenheimer and he's like, "Yeah, my next role, they're not going to be a smoker."

06:12 Smoking, yeah.

06:13 What is in those?

06:14 What kind of props are those?

06:15 It's a herbal tobacco or herbal leaf and they, yeah, after a morning of chuffing them, you're

06:25 like, "Oh."

06:26 It's really like, they're not nice, you know.

06:31 My last question, and my editor actually told me this, he's like, "I really want to know

06:34 this."

06:35 But we both read this story that went viral last week, which was about Tom Hollander receiving

06:41 one of Tom Holland's bonuses from Avengers via email by mistake.

06:47 Obviously your name's Kingsley Benedict.

06:50 I wondered whether you'd ever got anything like that from Ben Kingsley.

06:54 Every other time I check into a hotel, there's flowers and cards and gifts because they think

07:00 Ben Kingsley's coming and I don't tell anyone.

07:02 I just keep them.

07:04 The first job I did, often I'll go down to the car and the driver will go, "Oh my God,

07:11 I thought Ben Kingsley was coming down."

07:13 Because they get the names mixed up.

07:15 So Ben Kingsley, for some reason, has been a part of my journey up until now and still

07:19 is.

07:20 I don't know when it will end.

07:21 But yeah.

07:22 I think this film might do it.

07:24 Maybe.

07:25 Maybe.

07:26 But yeah.

07:27 No, free presents.

07:28 I get free presents.

07:29 Thanks so much for talking to me, Kingsley.

07:30 It's been a pleasure.

07:31 It's been nice to talk to you.

07:32 Pleasure.

07:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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