Kingsley Ben-Adir Talks Extensive Prep to Play Bob Marley on the Awards Tour Podcast

This week on the Awards Tour podcast, our host, Jacqueline Coley, sits down with Kingsley Ben-Adir, the charismatic star of Paramount’s Bob Marley biopic Bob Marley: One Love. He and his co-star Lashana Lynch’s performance as the reggae icon and his wife Rita wowed critics and audiences. The film also found the British-born star stepping into the shoes of another icon after he burst onto the scene starring in Regina King’s directorial debut, One Night in Miami, playing activist Malcolm X.

After capping off an impressive year, starring in the MCU’s Secret Invasion alongside Samuel Jackson and stealing scenes in Greta Gerwig’s Academy Award-winning blockbuster Barbie, he finds himself in the audition room less and less, but still fondly reminisces on those days as a young actor. Recently, we got to chat with Ben-Adir about his roots in London Theater, how he approached and took the role of Bob Marley after careful consideration, and why he’s hoping to play a fictional character in the future after a run of roles based on real people.

Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: You took a bit of convincing with this one after you auditioned, as if you wanted to ensure they were sure.

Kingsley Ben-Adir: It was a discussion that went on over a period of months with [director Reinaldo Marcus Green], obviously, and then the family got involved. I sent an audition tape because everyone had to tape it, and there’s nothing to lose with a tape. It’s just a few days of prep, and it’s always good practice anyway. But I was told that the family had seen it and approved it really quite early on, and they wanted to meet and to discuss it. And I guess what I meant was knowing that the family was involved from the beginning was the thing that allowed me to feel like, “Oh, okay.” It felt like there was a real conversation to be had. And, because it’s Bob’s family, I just felt like I was just really interested in hearing where they were at and what they wanted to do.

Then the discussions began, and I ended up spending a bunch of time with Ziggy and Stephen, who met everyone. And then, yeah, you go, “I can’t walk away from this, Bob.” And they’re saying, “We want you to do it.” And I’m going, “Well, I don’t know how this is going to work, because Bob and I, we don’t have anything really that similar in terms of body size, in terms of voice tone, in terms of I’m not a musician — I don’t sing, I don’t.”

So, I guess the idea that it is about essence was something that I really had to meditate on, because otherwise, I would’ve just freaked out. I know that, objectively, when I’m looking at other people and when I’m looking at work, but when you are in it, you want to do things to feel more like him. And actually what that involved was just understanding his psychology, the story, the theme, and trying to build a version of Bob out of that story around that time. But yeah, the first time I met the family was… It was intense. It’s a big family.

(Photo by Chiabella James/©Paramount Pictures)