'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.
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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]