Bob Marley one love: the actor made one promise before accepting the role!

What is it about? Bob Marley: One Love celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations with his message of love and unity.

For the first time on the big screen, discover the powerful story of Bob Marley, his resilience in the face of adversity, the path that led him to revolutionary music.

The lesser known side of Bob Marley

“Everybody I’ve ever met has a Bob Marley story.”Reynaldo Marcus Green explains. “He had this power. He was everybody’s best friend, you know? ‘I saw him live…’ People think they know Bob Marley, they have a version of him in their minds because we’re all connected to his music.”

With Bob Marley: One Love, the director claims to show a side of the artist that few know: “We’re going to give everyone what they haven’t seen, what they haven’t found on Google, based on real conversations, from the inside.”.

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becomes Bob Marley

Finding an interpreter for Bob Marley was a long and difficult process. Finally, Ziggy Marley (one of the children of the reggae legend) found it in Kingsley Ben-Adir, who can be seen in the Netflix series The OA, One Night in Miami and Barbie. The actor emphasizes that he would not have agreed to participate in the film if Bob Marley’s family had not been involved.

Although he’s already played real-life characters like Malcolm, he jokes to Entertainment Weekly: “I asked them if they did castings around the world and they said yes. I said maybe they should do another one.”.

But soon Marley, an obsessed actor, did not stop analyzing the singer’s performances, and Ziggy Marley’s self-confidence forced him to accept the role. Falling into the shoes of a musician required an unprecedented intensity of work for Kingsley Ben-Adir. He had to learn to play the guitar, sing and talk like Bob Marley:

“It took me a long time to understand everything Bob was saying. He was a poet through communication. We got Bob to flow organically after over a year of preparation.”. She also lost weight so that her figure matched that of the artist.

1976-1978 years: a decisive period

The team decided to focus on a specific period of Bob Marley’s life, namely the years 1976-1978. On December 3, 1976, seven gunmen broke into Bob Marley’s residence at 56 Hope Road, Kingston, shooting dead the singer, his wife Rita, his manager Don Taylor, and band assistant Louis Griffiths. Rita was hit in the head, Bob in the chest and arm. Miraculously, everyone survived.

Even more improbably, two days later, Marley took the stage at the Smile Jamaica concert in her hometown and performed one of the acts before going into exile in London to record an album she said could be released. His message of peace and unity whenever possible.

On June 3, 1977, Exodus was released, which included the tracks Jamming, Three Little Birds and the medley One Love / People Get Ready. In 1999, Time magazine named it the best album of the 20th century.

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The real voice of Bob Marley

Very early on, the production chose to film the concert sequences using the original tracks. “We felt people wanted to hear Bob’s voice in the movie.”, explains John Warhurst, production music supervisor and head of music post-editing. So the actors lip synced.

However, it is Kingsley Ben-Adri that we hear in the sequence where Nesta performs a song of redemption for her children around the fire. The actor confides: “We didn’t plan on me actually playing and singing. But I wanted to sing so I could feel and feel what Bob felt. And when mixing it, Stephen and Ziggy Marley decided to keep my voice.”

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The involvement of the Marley family

The director emphasizes the authenticity of his film, which is a direct result of the involvement of Bob Marley’s family, who not only gave their blessing to the project. Indeed, among the producers of the feature film we find two children of the singer, Ziggy and Cedella Marley, as well as his widow, Rita Marley.

Cedella Marley, who was 13 when her father died, explains: “If Dad was here, he’d be the one telling the story. But he’s not here, so we’re telling it on his behalf. But even on set, it felt like he was always the one telling the story through all the actors.”

A Bob Marley biopic project was shelved for years and saw the light of day several times before being shelved. Beyond authenticity, the Marlies’ inclusion was a practical asset to the production, which could access unreleased archives.

Besides, Bob Marley’s family wasn’t the only one involved in the film. Other children of Jamaican musicians participated. Thus, Aston Barrett Jr., son of Family Man, bassist for The Wailers, plays his on-screen father, while guitarist Marvin Junior’s son also plays his own father.