During the filming of a scene Bob Marley: One LoveKingsley Ben-Adir Suddenly he heard: “Cut!” Ziggy Marley, one of the reggae legend’s sons, was present on the set, in Jamaica, and had something to say. He explained to the actor that his father would never have walked that way. “He was climbing a ladder and I told him, ‘Listen, when Bob goes up, he takes two steps at a time.’” Months later, in New York, Ben-Adir recreates that movement, raising his knees almost to his chin. “Everyone showed me how Bob would have done it,” he says. I had to be willing to do that kind of thing, repeating to myself: ‘This is useful to me, this is useful to me to find it.’”
Since the death of Bob Marley43 years ago, his family turned the legend into a highly profitable company, selling everything from marijuana to headphones. The only thing missing was the biopic, which according to Ziggy had already been discussed before, but perhaps it was too early for him and his family. “As mature human beings,” he says, “I think we were not up to the task then.” But around 2018, the family decided to take charge. “They always brought us proposals, but in this case we brought them. That was the big difference,” he explains.
On February 14 (the 15th in Argentina) it will be released Bob Marley: One Love, an unconventional biopic in the sense that it could confuse or please fans. Starting with the specific period of Marley’s life that he focuses on: from the assassination attempt in 1976 to his two years of exile in London, the recording of the album Exodus and his return to Jamaica in 1978 for a concert that would help ease political tensions in his country.
“I don’t think anyone would be interested in doing a story from the cradle to the grave,” says the director Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men, King Richard). “We felt like that window of time encapsulated a lot of Bob’s life. There was everything: political upheaval in Jamaica, a war, the assassination attempt. Bob was at the center of it all. He was not a global superstar, but Exodus put it on the map. “What doesn’t kill you, strengthens you.”
When he was approached for the role, Ben-Adir, who is British, thought he was not the right person. “It was practical reasoning,” says Ben-Adir, who is almost six feet tall. “Bob was five foot seven. I am a baritone and I don’t know how to sing or play the guitar. We have in common that we are children of a mixed couple.” But when he learned that Green would be the director and that the family would be involved in the production, he signed on. He then spent months learning to transform into as much Marley as possible. With the help of unpublished interviews provided by the family, the actor studied and transcribed the patois (Jamaican dialect) to avoid making obvious mistakes. “It might be convincing to anyone in America, but Jamaicans would notice,” he says. “They would catch every fucking word I say.”
During the musical scenes, what we hear is Marley’s original voice, but Ben-Adir took singing and guitar lessons to be able to do it too, although he is only heard in a few passages, such as the recreation of the zapada that would lead to Exodus. “You wouldn’t want to listen to me constantly
—he admits—. I destroyed a few ears for hours and hours.”
Green even called Rami Malek to ask him how he had approached Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. “He told me: ‘In that film I went for everything. And (Ben-Adir) should do it too. You’re going to find the balance later,’” Green remembers him responding. Ziggy Marley He says he is satisfied with the actor’s work. “He captured a truly human and moving depth. And he also touched on some funny points. He did it very well. Not like an imitation, in a stupid way. There are some scenes better than others, but overall he did it with art. He’s playing Bob, he’s not trying to be Bob. Nobody can be Bob. This is an artist doing his work.”
The soundtrack was a separate issue. The film recreates two fundamental concerts from those years: Smile Jamaica, from 1976, and One Love Peace Concert, from 1978. In what could be a controversial decision, Stephen, another son of Marley, who worked as a music supervisor, hired musicians young Jamaicans to re-record several songs from those shows. One of those musicians is Aston Barrett Jr., son of the Wailers’ bassist and leader of the current version of the band. “It was a long time ago,” Stephen says of the tapes of those concerts. “We would have had to play those tapes too much for them to sound good in the theater.”
Aston Barrett Jr. alongside Ben-Adir, like the Wailers in their prime. (Photo: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Getty Images)
With Ziggy as producer in Jamaica and London, One Love It was more supervised than most biopics. Neville Garrickartistic director of the label Tuff Gong and confidant of Marley, who died last November, also participated in the project. “We bring the culture and authenticity,” says Ziggy.
Like Ben-Adir in the stairs scene, different actors in the cast regularly received corrections about the clothes and hats they should wear. “There were little details like ‘She would never have worn the shirt like that’ or ‘Where’s the bracelet she always had?’” he says. Lashana Lynchwhich interprets the Rita Marley, Bob’s wife. “Her bracelet was very important to her, and I realized she didn’t have it in one scene and I thought, ‘God, I have to remember to always have it.’ Every day was something new.”
During a scene in which Bob is seen getting off a plane and getting into a limousine, Green was told something was wrong. “They told me that Bob would never have sat in the back seat to be taken,” recalls the director. “His brothers are the same. “If there is room up front, Bob will sit next to the driver.”
To Sevana, the Jamaican singer and actress who plays Judy Mowatt (member of the trio I Threes), they indicated at times that he was not sounding like Mowatt. Lynch says everyone took this kind of thing well. “Personally, I accepted his instructions because I thought: ‘If these were my parents and two strangers came to try to emulate them, I would want to watch everything they do, to take care of them.’ I don’t have a legendary family. They Yes”.
To get a little closer to Bob, Ben-Adir had to wear a subtle prosthetic nose. According to Ziggy, his mother was not involved in the project, but she occasionally contributed some observations. “She could say ‘Oh, she doesn’t look like Bob,’” Ziggy says with a laugh. He was complaining a little about that in one scene. He knows Bob, of course. But he trusts me.”
Lynch had his own doubts about the project. “Because she was the wife and she was the mother, there is a danger of reducing Mrs. Marley to just those roles in her life,” says Lynch, who is British of Jamaican descent. “But she was so much more, and she represented so much more to Bob. She was determined that she would be what she needed to be in the film.”
This care was evident in one of the most dramatic scenes of the film: a discussion between Marley and Rita in which she expresses her frustration at seeing that fame was going to her head covered in dreadlocks. “We worked for months and months,” says Ben-Adir about that passage, which lasts just minutes. “That scene was rewritten and rewritten,” he explains. “It was a deep discussion between Lashana, Ziggy, the family and me. There are dialogues in there that are so deeply personal to the family. It was quite a decision, for them, how far they wanted to show.” Green expands: “I would also be very jealous if a movie was made about my dad. But caring for Ziggy involved telling the truth. Rita would get angry and slap Bob. It was good for us to be able to see that. And it’s not like Ziggy said, ‘Let’s just pretend that never happened.'”
From that part and the rest of the film, Ziggy Marley He says he is at peace. “You have to tell the truth in these complicated times.” The lessons learned became evident months later, when the team met again in London to reshoot some scenes and Marley watched Ben-Adir climb the subway stairs two steps at a time. “He remembered, two years later, what we said. Which is very good,” he says approvingly.