FEATURE:
Let's Get Together and Feel All Right
The Upcoming Biopic, Bob Marley: One Love
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THERE are going to be a fair few…
PHOTO CREDIT: Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley in Bob Marley: One Love/PHOTO CREDIT: Chiabella James/Paramount
music biopics this year. Among artists being immortalised on the big screen are Amy Winehouse. One of the problems with a music biopic – and the Back to Black film starring Marisa Abela – is the authenticity of the lead. It can be very hard and a real balance ensuring that the person playing an iconic artist is just right and embodies their look and spirit. When it comes to the new biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, it is understandable that there might be reservations about anyone playing the late Reggae godfather. Out on 14th February (appropriately!), there will be a lot of eyes on this biopic. One that many have longed to see. I think that it will be one of the best and well-received in modern times. I will look more about Bob Marley and his legacy. Firstly, there are a couple of interviews with the star of Bob Marley: One Love, Kingsley Ben-Adir. Entertainment Weekly spoke with the British actor back in December:
“By the time Ziggy Marley approached Kingsley Ben-Adir to play his late father in the upcoming biographical film Bob Marley: One Love, the actor had already portrayed the likes of Malcolm X and Barack Obama on screen. Having played those fabled figures, however, didn’t do much to quell his trepidation about stepping into the role of the reggae icon.
“There were a lot of reservations,” Ben-Adir, 37, tells EW over Zoom from his native U.K. “I was completely convinced that there’s no point in auditioning for this. I can’t sing. I can’t dance.” He later quips, “My question was if they'd been on a worldwide search and they said yes. And I said maybe they should go on another one.”
But the role kept coming back to him. Finally, he surrendered to assembling an audition tape, first spending a weekend studying Marley’s performances and becoming particularly “obsessed” with his 1977 performance of “War” at London’s Rainbow Theater. With a vote of confidence from Ziggy, who produced the biopic alongside mother Rita, sister Cedella, and wife Orly (an executive producer), his road to embodying the reggae pioneer and activist began.
Directed by King Richard’s Reinaldo Marcus Green, One Love offers an intimate portrait of Marley’s life and fame, tracing the assassination attempt against him in December 1976 to his historic performance at the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, Jamaica in April 1978, which sought to bridge unity amidst the volatile political crisis between the country’s two major political parties, Jamaica Labour Party and People's National Party. Lashana Lynch also stars as Marley’s wife, Rita.
Ben-Adir learned to sing and play guitar for the role, performing all of the songs with his own voice during filming. “Not necessarily well all of the time,” he notes. “I butchered a lot of people's ears for many days." The final cut blends his voice with Marley's archival recordings. "Bob’s not someone you can choreograph or copy," Ben-Adir continues. "His singing and dancing is from an internal experience, so you really have to find your own version of that for yourself”.
I will move onto an interview from The Guardian. In a very recent chat, we get to know how much being cast as Bob Marley means to Kingsley Ben-Adir. It is exciting that we get to see a music legend brought to the big screen! I still think that Bob Marley is underrated. An artist that is not as discussed and played as much as he should be. I hope that Bob Marley: One Love brings more people to the incredible and powerful music of Marley (and The Wailers):
“Where the range of Marley’s music suits his voice, he agreed to do a bit of singing in the movie. He thinks he managed those parts OK, without being any sort of natural: “Thanks God, I asked for a singing teacher.” To further aid his preparation, Ben-Adir flew to Kingston to spend time with Marley’s family and to consult with his surviving bandmates and collaborators. “Many of the people I spoke to in Jamaica were wary of me when I first sat down. And rightly so. ‘Who are you coming over here to do this? Who are you?’ I would tell them: ‘If I was you, I’d feel the same. But I want to try my best to represent this properly.’ I told them: ‘Listen, I’ve grown up with Jamaicans, believe me I’m not taking this lightly. I’ve agreed to do it, so I’m fucking going to try my best.’”
PHOTO CREDIT: Gavin Bond/The Observer
That question they put to Ben-Adir in Jamaica – “Who are you?’ – I end up putting to him again in the pub. More than the usual amount of mystery surrounds this guy. In the few interviews Ben-Adir has given in the past, he tends not to reveal much. Today, he chats fairly freely about his wife, with whom he practised his Bob Marley: One Love lines and from whom he pinched the pale red hat. But he is careful not to give her name or any identifying information. Google his name and you’ll likely come across a lingering question about his religious background. He has a Jewish surname. The Jewish Chronicle recently claimed Ben-Adir as Barbie’s “Jewish Ken”, though I can’t find a reliable record of him ever saying so. I inhabit a half-Jewish hinterland myself and because of this I feel (just about) comfortable asking Ben-Adir whether he identifies as a Jew.
Pleasant about it, but categoric, Ben-Adir avoids answering. “It’s about wanting the people who love you to feel safe,” he says, adding: “I definitely find it cringe when I read actors using the media as a space to vent their therapy.” However well-meaning a conversation with a journalist might be in the moment, he continues, the nuances of a person’s private life can easily get lost in translation when written down. Because of this, whenever he has a contractual obligation to promote a film or a TV programme, he tends to ask his publicists: what’s the minimum amount I can get away with before it starts to damage my reputation in the industry? “I feel nervous about people knowing stuff about me. I do feel frightened by the idea of celebrity and being recognised. I get the tube every day, I cycle everywhere. I live a normal life and I really, really like it.”
Ben-Adir acknowledges that, behind the scenes, some people involved with the movie have been nervous about this decision. “The family were asking for one thing, which was: ‘Keep it real, completely authentic, no white-washing.’ And then I’m reading [early] scripts where that wasn’t fully reflected.” Siding with the Marleys, Ben-Adir was among those who pushed for redrafts that made fuller use of patois, even if that risked limiting the movie’s commercial prospects. “I don’t know,” he says, thinking back on all of this from the pub, “maybe the financial stakes aren’t as important to me as to other people. I was always, like, ‘How cool would it be to have a foreign language movie, no subtitles?’ It gives this biopic its individuality.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Chiabella James
Ben-Adir tells an apt story about his favourite TV show, The Sopranos, episodes of which he frequently re-watches. In one episode, Tony Soprano stands on a mountaintop and yells out… something. The recorded dialogue isn’t clear. Soprano might be yelling, “I did it!” or the line might be, “I get it!” After years of wondering, Ben-Adir says, he finally put on subtitles the other day. He solved the mystery (“I get it!”), but surrendered forever a delicious ambiguity. It convinced him that in art “you don’t need to know everything straight away. You only need to feel it. I think I could watch a movie like City of God, no subtitles, and still be transfixed without knowing what they’re talking about. For my taste, anyway, I want to feel the essence of things, I want to feel these moments of authenticity, I’m happy to try to understand the story of a scene without necessarily understanding all of the words.”
At the pub, about to head off to that studio in town and record the final lines of Bob Marley: One Love, Ben-Adir warms up some more with that Marley dialogue he has by heart. He recites a rousing speech about Black suffering, then a religious tract. Every so often he throws in phrases – direct lifts from Marley’s recorded interviews – that nobody has ever been able to decipher, not Ben-Adir listening along in slow-mo nor the members of the Marley family he consulted for help. Marley spoke in patois, he spoke in English, and just sometimes he spoke a language that was entirely his own. Ben-Adir hopes all this makes the final cut of the biopic, because it was true to the bio”.
It is important that Bob Marley’s story is being brought to the screen. If anyone wants to get an impression of the influence of Bob Marley, then there are articles like this that chart his story and remarkable rise to prominence. In terms of civil rights and his messages of peace and unity. I am going to end in a minute. I want to source a great article from last year that charted the life and legacy of Jamaica’s beloved son. Music and messages that are as important and needed now more than ever:
“Birth of The Wailers
Bob Marley was born in the small country settlement of Nine Mile, in St Ann, Jamaica, on February 6, 1945. His father, Norval, originally from the UK, was absent, though he did send some money to Marley’s mother, Cedella. Norval died when Bob was ten; practically penniless, Cedella headed south for Jamaica’s capital, Kingston, ending up in Trenchtown, a slum district but a wellspring of sporting, political and cultural talent. The young Bob loved music, especially US musicians such as The Impressions, The Miracles, and The Moonglows. He had a decent voice and, in 1962, recorded some songs for Leslie Kong, owner of Beverley’s records in Kingston’s Federal studios. Three were released as singles on the fledgling Island label in the UK, credited to Robert Marley.
The singles flopped, but, undaunted, Bob formed a vocal group with fellow teenagers in the government yard in Trenchtown, Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh, plus a revolving cast that included Junior Braithwaite, Constantine “Vision” Walker, and female vocalists Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Walker also worked with The Soulettes, a vocal outfit whose leader, Rita Anderson, would become Bob’s wife and musical foil. Bob’s group’s name eventually settled as The Wailers. Under the tutelage of local star Joe Higgs, they absorbed the finer points of harmony singing, and he took them to Studio One in 1964, where they cut a series of ska hits, including “Simmer Down,” “It Hurts To Be Alone,” “Rude Boy,” “Put It On,” and “One Love,” most written by Bob, though the group’s lead vocalist role rotated. Often basing their harmonies on The Impressions, albeit with a Jamaican beat, they sang of love, folklore, and rude-boy antics. The Wailers were teen stars across the island, but received little renumeration.
IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Marley live at the Lyceum Ballroom, London in July 1975/PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Boot
Gritty and rebellious
Stripped to a core of Bob, Bunny and Peter, in 1966 the group formed their own record label, Wail ’N Soul ’M, partly funded by Bob’s stint on a Chrysler production line in the US. The Wailers’ company released a series of superb, often serious records in the rocksteady style, but only two sold strongly, the suggestive “Bend Down Low” and the romantic dance invitation, “Nice Time.” Any income was absorbed by studio and session charges, and pressing and distribution costs: the group remained, in the Jamaican word, sufferers. Bob’s interest in Rastafarianism was confirmed in April 1966, however, when his wife, Rita, witnessed the visit to Jamaica of the faith’s living God, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie Of Ethiopia. Bob was instructed in his new spirituality by Ras Mortimer Planno, the religious teacher who greeted HIM at the airport.
Bob returned to Beverley’s with The Wailers in 1969, but Leslie Kong’s successful upbeat sound did not suit the group. In 1970, a union with maverick producer Lee “Scratch” Perry proved more fitting. He identified a rebellious tendency in the group and encouraged it, revealing a swelling militancy across two albums, Soul Rebels and Soul Revolution. Scratch urged Bob to sing in a more emphatic manner and helped them sound more rootsy. Several songs that would fuel Bob’s mid-70s rise debuted under Scratch’s regime, including “Small Axe” and “Sun Is Shining.”
The Wailers left Scratch, taking Aston “Family Man” and Carlton Barrett, Perry’s bass and drums brothers, with them. They again focused on their own label, renamed Tuff Gong. Bob flew to Europe to write for US star Johnny Nash, then met Chris Blackwell, who asked The Wailers to create an album for his label, Island. Catch A Fire (1973), was gritty and rebellious, yet built to appeal to the era’s rock culture. A further album, Burnin’, was, naturally, just as hot. When Eric Clapton, regarded as the most serious rock musician of the era, had a US No.1 with Bob’s “I Shot The Sheriff” in 1974, Bob’s stock rose further. Live!, which found him and The Wailers in celebratory form at London’s Lyceum Theatre, delivered a major 1975 hit in “No Woman, No Cry.” But this Wailers was a backing band: Peter and Bunny had quit before 1974’s seminal Natty Dread album. Bob’s wife, Rita, and established reggae vocalists Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt handled the harmonies as The I-Threes.
One love
Island marketed Bob Marley & The Wailers like it promoted its rock acts. Bob’s dreadlocked image helped, and the seriousness of his message destroyed a lingering idea among some critics that reggae was trivial. In Jamaica, Bob was important enough to face a gunman’s assassination attempt in December 1976. The motive remains unclear, but one theory suggests political factionalism in Jamaica turned its fury on Bob when he agreed to appear at the Smile Jamaica concert organized by the Prime Minister. Bob, wounded in the arm and chest, played the gig just two days later.
Brave he may have been, but Bob was not reckless. He chose to recover somewhere safer, and flew to London. The move affected his music positively, resulting in the 1977 album Exodus, which enjoyed more than a year on the UK charts and carried the hits “Jamming,” “Waiting In Vain,” “Three Little Birds,” and “One Love”/”People Get Ready.” Time later named it the album of the 20th Century. Bob also cut the successful Kaya in the UK. In April 1978, he faced down danger to unite the leaders of Jamaica’s antagonistic parties at Kingston’s One Love Peace Concert, forcing the politicians to clasp hands while he sang “Jamming.” Bob’s will could not be denied.
Bob’s progress continued unabated, with the serious Survival and Uprising albums delivering contrasting classics, “Redemption Song” and the anthem-like “Zimbabwe,” the latter of which was written in 1979 and gloriously performed in Harare on 17 April 1980, at the African country’s independence celebrations. However, Bob was secretly seriously ill. He’d been diagnosed with cancer in 1977, and the disease became critical when he collapsed in Central Park, NYC, two days before his final gig, in Pittsburgh, on 23 September 1980.
Bob left Earth to do his work in the next realm on 11 May 1981. He was 36. Jamaica gave this child of the ghetto, a true believer in a religion the island’s middle-class rejected, a full state funeral. He had done more for the country and its sufferers than any number of official schemes.
In the decades that followed, Bob’s legacy has been carefully handled. For years, his music has never appeared on inappropriate compilations, and official collections, such as Rebel Music, Songs Of Freedom, and the perennially popular Legend, pay respectful tribute to his work and message. Some fans assume that Bob is still a physical presence, so eternally contemporary is his message of unity, spirituality, and freedom”.
I think that Bob Marley: One Love is going to receive huge reviews. As I opened by saying, it can be very hard getting a music biopic right. In terms of the tone and balance of the script or casting the right lead, there are a precious few that manage to please all fans and critics. There have been some successful biopics through the years, though few from the past decade or so that stand in the mind. I do feel that Bob Marley: One Love will be a huge success. With Kingsley Ben-Adir so committed about getting his portrayal right and spending time getting singing lessons and immersing himself in Bob Marley’s world and career, there is this authenticity and real passion behind the performance. It will highlight how important Bob Marley is. It is going to be brilliant seeing one of the most important artists ever brought to the screen. That peerless and unmistakable sound. If you are a fan of Bob Marley/Bob Marley and The Wailers or do not know much, it is well worth a trip seeing the upcoming biopic. Out in cinemas on 14th February, Bob Marley: One Love is going to be…
A huge success.