The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Kingsley Ben-Adir Speaks On Bob Marley's Legacy, Fight For Peace, Love Story With Rita + More

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

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Hi, I'm Dani Shapiro, host of the hit podcast, Family Secrets. How would you feel if when you met your biological father for the first time, he didn't even say hello? And what if your past itself was the secret, and the time had suddenly come to share that past with your child? These are just a few of the powerful and profound questions we'll be asking on our 11th season of Family Secrets. Listen to season 11 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all.

Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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It was a big deal. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman, and the Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state.

Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom.

Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up. It's in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy.

We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Man. Kingsley Ben-Adir. Did I say that right? Yes, sir. Yes, he's playing Bob Marley in the new movie, Bob Marley, One Love Story, which comes out Valentine's Day.

Welcome. Nice to be here. How you feeling? I feel all right, man. I had a good, nice weekend of sleeping. Oh, yeah? So I feel back. Oh, you went to football?

We went to the basketball. I watched some football yesterday. Oh, yeah? Oh, God. Well, I was listening to it on my phone. Did you like the halftime? Oh, the football. Yeah.

You think I'm talking soccer, bro? American football. Oh, last night. No, I tuned in on my phone just to see Usher I watched a little bit of the game But I don't really know American football That's how I am with soccer Big deal here

It's big But I see Usher, it was madness I forgot he had so many hits It just went on and on And on And then I was back to when I was 8 And I was back to when and on and then i was back to my like when i was eight and i was back to when i was 11 then i was back to when i was 16 i was like wow yeah he was in full swing that's right he was he didn't look like an older guy who was coming back he looked like

it was like he never left like to me the super bowl is a celebration yeah you know a celebration of his his his, his career. Huge catalog. That's beautiful to have a 30-year catalog and be able to go do that on that stage. Especially after the residency last year. He has a residency in Vegas. He's on the stage every week. Because back home,

he was a part of my childhood, my teens and my 20s. And then I feel like he's disappeared a bit. There were so many other people that came and then he yeah so it was saturated but where your locks at where they're gone they're in a they're in a cupboard somewhere put them in a box okay locked them up whoever did that did a great job absolutely usually used to people with dreadlocks and they look so stupid the fake dreadlocks morris morris and

carla man they put they put they were they were prepping that from the same time when i started prepping so it was like morris is a he's a dread specialist and you know it's not even just the hair he did for me he took all them boys who came from jamaica they're all rasta so he took out their dreads you know by hand and he put them in like sacred boxes stored them and then redid that put new dreads in their hair um what to like suit the characters from the time and then when the film was done he got their dreads and he put them back in wow but for a lot of them it was it was really emotional and they was doing it for bob because they love bob and they're all connected to bob you know a lot of them a lot of the guys who are playing the band members are the children of the actual band members.

So they're all rusting. They took out their hair for the film and then they put it back. It was a lot, you know. What do you mean took the hair out? What do you mean took it out? So Sheldon came with his own dreads. Real, real hair. Real dreads.

And then Morris took them out. Cut them out. Like picked them out and left hair there and then re-put dreads yeah yeah and then morris took them out cut them out like picked them out and left hair there and then we put dreads in and then at the end of the film he's taken out them dreads and then put their original dreads back in so yeah the whole dreads thing was like that was one of the first conversations i had with ziggy was like yo authenticity of of how Bob speaks you know has to be at the forefront of this I can't get involved and he was the same you know and and and also the hair I was like it's not I ain't got nothing to do with it but just make sure that if you need to put 10 million into the hair then that's what we need to do so you know it was um

yeah the hair and the hair and the the bob talk was it was tough i'm a little slow kingsley how the hell do you put the hair back in i don't know i ain't got a clue it's all especially youtube tutorials on how to put some we are not going to say it'll grow back like regular hair because they had they would have to cut it out here you have to cut it out and then no back in no no no no so locks you you comb them out yeah like you can comb them in the box yeah you cut it out and then no no no no no so locks you you'd comb them out yeah like you can call it yeah you comb them out and then you people make the locks that i had like last week the girl made them without a real hair these are faux locks so these from amazon like 99s okay

but you know i didn't know i didn't know that i didn't know it was a thing and i i met them once their new hair had been put in. So I only knew them with that hair. I only realized when I see them after that they had different dreads. But, yeah, it was a whole – I don't know how we found him, Morris, because he's like – he's a one of a kind, you know, that was in the industry. You know, he came and he – and then he ended up just taking care of a lot of stuff. You know, he was on set with us every day.

I know he's working with Lashana now on all of our work. Well, salute to Mars. The British accent isn't that much different from the Jamaican accent, though, now that I'm hearing you talk right now. Is it because he spent so much time in London? I don't know. I disagree. I feel like, you know, the black community in London, anyway,

was, you know, it's a huge caribbean culture and i feel like a lot of jamaican dialect has seeped into the london culture so you know the way we grew up talking was half cockney half jamaican that's kind of what the slang is in the uk um but the the patois really for me is a different language. You know, I tell you what, we could be in here with two guys from Jamaica who are like from somewhere. I don't know. And they could talk for five, 10 minutes and we wouldn't have a clue what they're saying. And I found myself in that situation a bunch of times. And I was like, well, this is a whole thing.

This is not something where I can just take nine months and learn Jamaican. It just was never going to be one of those ones. So we had a whole operation in place. We had nine specialists on set. We had Jamaican linguists from the university. They wrote my script and the way that I talk in a in a phonetic language made by Frederick Cassidy and so it really it really did you know like there's parts like I had I took months to kind of translate everything Bob was saying so they thought

was many in time into this film yeah I was misinterpreting things Bob was saying do you know I mean it's like interpret misinterpreting things he was saying I wasn't just not understanding there was things that I thought I understood and then actually I get Jamaican to come around to my house and I was misinterpreting things he was saying. I wasn't just not understanding. There was things that I thought I understood. And then actually, I get a Jamaican to come around to my house and help me translate. And he's going, no, no, no, he's saying something else. Give us an example. In our farm where.

Bob would say this thing where he's saying, in our farm where, in our farm where, you know. And he's saying, in a form where. So it was just a connecting sentence. But little things like that in the middle of conversations throw you, you know, and like, I mean, in a form where, you know, it's just like, it's just an expression that he, and Bob talked the way that Bob talked, you know what I mean? So it's, I still don't know what that means. And you said it three times in a form where.

So would it be like from a standpoint of. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Right. Exactly. And I was like, without Jamaicans, there's no way that I was going to be able to translate something. I mean, and the list goes on. I mean, I had hundreds of pages of Bob talk where I'm like, I don't know what I don't know what he's saying. So would you say that was the most complicated part of the role?

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Obviously, the music I'm starting from scratch but with the music i'm i was always like i just get as far as i can get to you know and then you can do things with the camera and there's going to be a lot of support there but i guess with the with the patois there was a moment where i thought oh let me see how far i can get with this and then a few months in i was i was emailing tough gongan we need a lot of help like i'm not going to be able to just come in and willy-nilly patois it's not it's not it's not one of them things there and i'm like

just because i've grown up with jamaicans just because you know it don't mean anything really like the language you could spend 10 years trying to prep Bob and still have a way to go. And Bob's coming from, he was born in the country, grew up in Trenchtown and then traveled. So there's the patois, but then there's how Bob talked and how Bob talked, no one talked like him. So yeah, it was a journey, but there wasn't a day on set

where I wasn't surrounded by people who knew so i felt i felt good like we were never going to move on unless it was right so and that was the one thing i felt like i can fully take care of i can't take care of like looking exactly like bob bob's five seven i'm six two you know there's so many physical differences between us and he's a genius he's a musical genius so like but his voice and how he spoke and the authenticity of that as like the whole culture's in the way that bob talks like the way that he speaks has to be reflected there's no there can be no dumbing down of it like there's no whitewashing it you know and then let's let's let's do it how Bob talks

and then afterwards when you use it in post production you can figure out how much people understand and how much they don't what made you audition for this

at first I thought at first I was I thought it must have been a mistake of some sort you know just one of them auditions where I'm like

I'm mixed so I guess everyone mixed is auditioning for this and i was silly and so i must have passed on it just thinking it was like a general you know hundreds of us doing it and then it just started coming back that the marley family were involved which i didn't know and then i heard that ray had done king richard and i saw an early cut of it and i was like oh if the family are involved in this there's nothing to lose you know let me let me throw something out there

and then at least we can have a conversation if they want but nothing to lose and I know addition and Ziggy wanted to meet me so really it was it was really spending time with the family and understanding that they wanted to do a kind of tribute to their dad you know it was a kind of love letter to their dad and they wanted to share with the fans tribute to their dad, you know, it was a kind of love letter to their dad. And they wanted to share with the fans aside to Bob that people don't necessarily know, which is that he was a human being, you know, which was that he was a guy who went through a lot and man struggled. And so, yeah, I think they talk about his revolution and that revolution a lot,

but you don't get to see what fueled him being a revolutionary. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah.. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. And that he, and that at this time with the film set, like he was just going for a lot, you know. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders. And I think, yeah, it was really the family, like the family's involvement and an understanding that authenticity was really most important for them

and for the studio and for me so you know i was just being in service to them the kids though didn't weren't upset about you playing the father like none of them wanted to play the role no they picked you no i think skip i think skip auditioned to play the younger Bob and it didn't work out um to find Bob it's the thing about casting you know so many stories and people's feelings you know get hurt and stuff but when you're when you're when you're on the inside you're like oh it's not the conspiracy that everyone thinks you know all Ziggy and that they want to play their dad. And they're older. They needed to find someone to play Bob between 33 and 36 years old. And that's pretty, you know, it can be tricky. But no, I don't know.

Ziggy and the family, they approved it. So I was like, all right, cool. That's what you lot want. And, you know, I'm here to help. Did you ever want to quit, because you said it was difficult with the hair, difficult with the patois, did you ever say,

you know what, maybe the same for me? Yeah, I did. At what point? Very close to filming, but then I was like, if I pull out of this,

you know, it's not just me, it's all the money that's gone into pre-production, and it's like, if you want to work again, I wouldn't advise doing that, but have i did have a moment you know a couple of weeks a couple of weeks before we started i was just like boy there's a mountain to climb you know and all of the music and and the stems were coming in and songs were changing and i was like yeah just one day at a time it's

just one day at a time and and really really what happened was we got to set and Neville Garrix there who was Bob's like close close friend who was with Bob the whole time you know the whole time Bob was creating Exodus and touring Exodus Neville was with him Neville was in the room with bob writing down the songs when bob was composing them and neville was on stage all of them concerts and neville was with me every day on set so i felt like if neville didn't like something he's gonna tell me straight and he did a lot of times yeah so i just always felt if satan's not right we've got the time to like stop and figure it out and And really, it's only just a tribute to Bob to try and find a little bit of his spirit and his essence. I feel like everyone involved knows that you can't copy Bob and you can't be Bob.

He's kind of too big in a way. So it was just there was an understanding that this is just an interpretation of, you know, his vulnerability and his feeling and some of what he might have been going through at that time and, you know, just to celebrate him a little bit. How much hair did you need? Because you got a lot of hair. Yeah, you was bald? Underneath the fingers.

You got a lot of hair, Kingsley Paul. I got a big head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you need a lot of hair? He back on your head. I'm just saying. Jesus. I got a big head.

Yeah. Yeah. They used to call me big head at school. Yeah. Yeah. But what, so what do you mean? I don't know. I'm being a little, your head was just scratching me, so I had to say something.

But listen, let me tell you something. I'm happy that this movie is coming out on Valentine's Day because it's not just a story about Bob. It's a love story between Bob and Rita, man. Like, that's what I liked about it. How did you feel about that yeah i didn't really know i mean that sort of evolved as we were shooting yeah um lashana lashana and i we were working seven months leading up to filming and i guess that's the thing with films you shoot three and a half four hours and then they cut it down to two so all the things that

stay in and don't stay in and how they kind of tweak it and and kind of make it is you know it's over to them after you after you rap but it is it is it's it's a it's a love story between them and but more that kind of unconditional love when you've known someone for that long and you've shared all that experience and the love that is expressed when you're not talking you know and and when there's no words um but yeah it is that and she was his motivation a lot because i mean one thing i didn't even know i can't be giving the movie away because it's a biopic but when i didn't know she got shot at the house too yeah they shot in the head yeah i didn't realize that till the movies i dread the the bullet got lodged in one of the dreads yeah how mad is that man they really went in and shot up that place you know they really all nearly died

and that was what was really for me when i was reading the script i was like how mad is it that out of that trauma of that event you know within a few months bob's created one of the greatest albums of all time and there's a connection between that there's a connection between that that the significance of that trauma and then the intensity of creativity and then coming to london and a kind of exile and then just going in and then all the all the surviving band members who i spoke to who we've sadly lost you know since we started filming neville and tyrone they all said i was like what was it like working with bob at that time and it was like it was intense it was intense like he wasn't playing you know he wasn't messing around

and so yeah that i i found that interesting that like bro they all nearly died and then within you know 12 weeks 14 weeks they were up and running and touring um but that's kind of that was bob's five you know he worked he was a worker man. He was up Before the Sun we went to Bob only growing up as a kid Did you know all the music and know everything about him was a lot of this you learned as filming like I learned everything about Bob For the first time I felt I felt like I knew him just because I've always known him known the music I don't even know when I I don't even know when I really first heard Bob because Bob's just always been in the house and not in all carnival was a big thing growing up and I was getting carnival from when I

was like three three four years old but once I started checking in I was like well I really don't know anything about this guy other than that I knew he's halfway you know like his he's mixed and he's mixed that was it yeah like i didn't really understand like he's really from the ghetto like he really grew up in trench town and yeah there's a lot of sides to bob um so i said i found out everything for the first time through his friends and through his family i spent a lot of time with people who grew up with bob before he was famous which was some of my most interesting conversations. You know, Lego.

I spent time with him on Orange Street and in his studio just talking about the old town. But watching them remember Bob, watching them remember him with such funness and sadness and love, you know, it's really just trying to get the information I'm trying to get from them. It's like, what was Bob like when he was on his own what was bob like when he was just like feeling down like what was bob like when he was having a rough day like the idea of him as an icon and all of that that's they're the sound bites everyone wants to tell you they want to tell you all the fun bits that you've seen and you've seen them in the documentary saying it but trying to understand just like his like like his humanity a little bit you can lock into the role yeah just so i can connect him as a human being and not like a a hero yeah like that's a given you know that's a given um did you do all of the singing and the

movie i sung everything i sung everything on set yeah yeah yeah which it was never the plan for me to sing in the film we're're always going to use Bob's stems because people want to listen to Bob. They don't want to listen to me. And no one can sing like Bob. You can't sing like Bob because he's singing from such... It's so rough, but it's so from here that it's actually his commitment to what he's saying

that creates that energy, as well as his tone and all of those things so you can't really copy it as beautifully as all his sons can sing no one can actually get his match so and he was an ordained messenger like i feel like he was divinely appointed to be a messenger that's what his name meant right like nested a messenger yeah and bob felt like he was in service you know he felt like he was he was in service to his majesty you know so he's singing he's singing for his life in a way you know it's it's about yeah it's about spreading the message and all of his songs you know when you clock all it when i started translating the lyrics of all of his songs i was like

right god is really in all of this absolutely all of his music jamming like all of them songs he's talking about god you know it's um really fascinating um but yeah i sung i sung i sung everything because like emotionally speaking in the face if you're not singing i don't think i didn't feel like i could pretend but also that bob woke up every day and and wrote songs i felt was like if i was playing a footballer and i never kicked the ball so i just wanted to learn to just understand what the feeling with the instrument is and the feeling of just the feeling of it you know um and then in the room we did some acoustic stuff and ziggy was supposed to come and dub it and he left my voice so there's a bit of me singing in the film which was never

planned but I had months of singing lessons so I'm glad. I was going to ask you what level of expertise was your voice on before this? Not great. At least you can admit that. Not great at all. You've got to look after your instrument man.

Those singers they've got to look after their voices. Steaming and all of that stuff what was your conversation with uh with rita like because she's the ep of the film right ria rita lashana spent most time with ria okay um i see i see her the other day at the premiere in um jamaica and i just went over to her and i kissed her hand and stuff and then she just she rubbed her hand up the back of my head and then slapped me on the back of the head. How big are her hands? I don't know what that meant, but I was like,

I think she was coming in on my bald head. Or maybe my big head. Yeah. No, but Rita's cool. I didn't spend too much. I was mainly with Ziggy, and Deshauna spent a lot of time with Sadella and Rita. And I spent time with Rohan and Steven

and a lot of Bob's friends and people who worked with him but yeah obviously our first thing is don't look nothing like Bob I think you did a great job as Bob Marley right personally but I feel like there's something the movie didn't capture and I think it was the urgency

of the moment meaning the concert because there was so much leading up to it like they people didn't want him to do it he got shot rita got shot dan got shot it was kind of like it was kind of anticlimactic in the movie right in the first concert first concert first concert yeah i mean all i can say is like what we're saying before we shoot i shot four hours and 20 minutes four and a half hours of movie you know i i i created maybe like seven eight nine different concert things there's five or six songs that are not in the film there are deleted scenes there's all of that going on so like when it comes down to the cut i'm not in the edit you know like i can't my job is to come in as an actor and understand what bob psychology is from a human standpoint

so i can play bob in any film in fact i told them when i first started this i read it once and i was like i don't need to read this i need just need six months with me and bob you know so i need to get ready so i can play bob in any film in in any scene. You send me any scene and I'll tell you how to interpret Bob within that scene. And really, as an actor, you've got to give up that need to control everything because you can't. There's just too many departments. It's like there's costume, there's hair, there's light and there's props. And then you start becoming an expert in the world that you're supposed to. You start noticing things around you. And there's a moment where you go like,

and I'm bad for it, you know, I want to do everyone's job for them. And, like, that's something I have to figure out. And I just go, I'm just an actor. My job's to come in and play the damn scene, and that's it. And try and elevate in the best way that I can. So, yeah, I hear you, I hear you. But, you know, I'm not an editor. And it felt like, you know, even though it shows the rise of Bob Marley

in a lot of ways, Bob Marley was on the run. Like, he had to get out of Jamaica. He couldn't deal with the trauma that was there anymore. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? 100%.

And for me, the movie was, for me, it was about trauma and safety you know when i'm as an actor you're reading satin trying to go where's this what's the subtext here like if they're and and and ziggy and the family again to me we want to make satin deep so i'm going well if you want to make satin deep then i need to understand bob's trauma because that's all that that's all it means deep means just like connecting to the root and so understanding bob's experience as a child and the manifestation of that in behavior so like like what does it mean to do that what does it mean when you don't trust people when you've grown up do you know i'm saying when you've't trust people. Do you know what I'm saying?

When you've grown up in the street, so that's, I'm trying to clock Bob in those terms and then trying to see how it connects into the music. He doesn't sing with his eyes open ever. Really, he's always closed. What does that mean?

They're the things I'm thinking. Like, you can stand on stage, he sings from here. And so there's something about all of that but safety really to me i was like what does it mean to not feel safe you know what does it mean to what does it mean to nearly die and what does it mean and then and that and that needs to come through everything so y'all this is quest love and i'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records.

It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nemany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all.

Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. hip-hop. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it.

And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to historical records on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities,

athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist who studies human behavior. On my podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, I marry science and storytelling to better understand how to navigate the big changes in our lives. It was like a slow nightmare, you know, because every day you think, oh, surely tomorrow I'll be better. And I would dream of being better. At night, I would dream that my face was quote unquote normal or back to the way it was. And I'd wake up and there'd be no

change. I also speak with scientists about how we'd wake up and there'd be no change. I also speak with scientists about how we can be more resilient in the face of change. You can think of the adolescent brain as like the social R&D engine of our culture. That they're something that looks like risky and idiotic to us is maybe their way of creatively trying to solve the problem of having social success and fewer of the things that bring you social failure. Listen to A Slight Change of Plans on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher. That's right. We're going to discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and

brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people to hopefully create better allies. Think of it as a black show for non-black people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. Exactly. Whether you're black, Asian, white, Latinx, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, you name it. If you stand with us, then we stand with you. Let's discuss the stories and conduct the interviews that will help us create a more empathetic, accountable and equitable America. You are all our brothers and sisters, and we're inviting you to join us for Civic Cipher each and every Saturday with myself, Ramses Jha, Q Ward,

and some of the greatest minds in America. Listen to Civic Cipher every Saturday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Marie. And I'm Sydney. And we're Mess. Well, not a mess, but on our podcast called Mess, we celebrate all things messy.

But the gag is not everything is a mess. Sometimes it's just living. Yeah. Things like J-Lo on her third divorce. Living. Girls trip to Miami. Mess. Ozempic.

Messy, skinny living. Restaurant stealing a birthday cake. Mess. Wait, what flavor was the cake though? Okay. That's a good question. Hooking up with someone in accounting and then getting a cake. Mess. Wait, what flavor was the cake, though? Okay, that's a good question. Hooking up with someone in accounting and then getting a promotion. Living.

Breaking up with your girlfriend while on Instagram Live. Living. It's kind of mess. Yeah. Well, you get it. Got it? Live, love, mess.

Listen to Mess with Sydney Washington and Marie Faustin on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bob's relationship to safety. We all want to feel safe as well. Like on a human level, I feel like we're all on some sort of journey towards wanting to feel connected, loved, together, seen, seen appreciated and i was like bob must

have felt those things too so peace love and unity spreading it to the world but like where was bob at with those things in himself where was bob at with his inner peace where was bob at with his with his sense of unity within himself how safe safe did he feel? Because out of trauma can come mad creativity. And we'll all pick up on the magnetism of it. You know, we'll all pick up on the energy of that vibration. Because that trauma mixed with all of that talent, bosh, it's going to come with some energy. And that's what we see in love, you know?

So I don't know what I'm talking about now. I love it. so I don't know what I'm talking about now I can't remember but I imagine that it's it's probably almost impossible to capture all of that in one movie anyway it's like you know the things that you're talking about you know leading up to him being what made him a revolutionist you know what I'm saying it's probably

like that would be part two and part three there's 20 films you can make about Bob you can make Zimbabwe you know you could could do concrete jungle i want to go straight to the end you know you could do the whole africa story yeah i wanted to hear more about it because he wanted to be an african yeah yeah and i and i feel like a lot of people everyone's going to come in with their own expectation of what they want to see because everyone has their own idea of who Bob Marley is to them. And, and trust me,

I'm that guy. Like I'm the worst critic when it comes to these things. I'll be the first person to say like, why is this English guy playing Bob? That's me when I'm at home. So I get it. I fully, fully get it.

But this is a project made by the family. Everything went through them. And this is their project made by the family everything went through them and this is their tribute to their father and this is what they want the world to know about their dad i shot everything and i had every difficult conversation i needed to have with them about everything to the point where i wasn't always popular popular among to the family everyone because i'm coming in i want to... I'm trying to get into Bob's... I have the responsibility of playing him

and wanting to truthfully get into his headspace. So I have to ask all the questions, you know? And when I'm working, it's like there's never a moment like, we got it, and now we can all just have a good time on set. It's a constant investigation to the last day. If something doesn't feel right on set we stop we stop and if no one knows the answer let's listen to bob so the one thing i could take full control of is how bob talks and no one listened to him

more than me i listened to bob every day for nine months and s they'll have sent me files that only the family got where Bob's having conversation people that no one's heard before so I know how I know what Bob's spiritual emotional point of view is because I'm hearing him say it so if I see a scene and I'm like Bob would Bob needs to be saying this now as it relates to God as it relates to god as it relates to spirituality so for me sometimes you know my job is just the character you know it's the character um which was executed very well thank you so much i appreciate you these past couple years you played like different characters though you you played uh barack obama you uh you played malcolm x in one night in miami

basketball ken in a barbie movie basketball ken yeah and bob marley how mentally is that like how how is that mentally to switch like that i don't find i don't find the switch in i feel like no yeah for me it's just more it's a it's a preparation thing and then five minutes before action i just need to concentrate and make sure i've done my homework and i know what i'm doing you know i mean i i don't feel it's um yeah you want to be able to i think as well just coming up as a as a working actor you have to be ready when you need to be ready so there's not that luxury of of like i'm doing this role and now i've got six months to prepare on my own it's like someone's dropped

out you got two weeks to prep one night in miami so you just have to get ready you know it's like you finish secret invasion on the 12th of March. You're starting Barbie on Monday. So you just, you know what I mean? You've got to stay. Thank you, bro. Yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed that. I enjoyed playing that role because the reason why I took it,

it wasn't because the writing was great at all. It has nothing to do with the writing. They just sent me two little teaser scenes, one with Samuel at the end and one with Ben Mendelsohn. And I was like, raw, this guy really wants everyone to burn you know there's no i feel like he's gone in his mind he's gone like power hungry power hungry but also just like he's only gonna feel i don't think he feels anything other than when he sees other people experiencing the pain that he feels subconsciously or not so like he only feels alive when i see you in as much pain as i feel in myself

and i was like i don't i've never been offered that kind of role so i just have to take it regardless of what show it is or you know what, what it's in. But it's fun. It's fun to play that because you just got a bag of secrets, a bag of dark secrets. What about the backlash that comes with being a British actor, getting to play American icons like President Obama, like Malcolm X, even playing, you know, a Jamaican icon like Bob Marley? People do not like that.

People feel like y'all stealing all the roles from American actors. Yeah, I know. I hear it. I hear it. I hear it. I feel like when you each casting situation is different. So when it comes to

opportunity, the first question is, has everyone had an opportunity to audition has everyone who should had an opportunity to put their foot in the door where they get to put best self forward and then what only like and where it just depends on the casting is that each situation is different. So some people can't get their first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth choice all busy, not available. Seventh choice would be amazing. He's not finishing the job till February.

When these films go, when they get that green light, there's a moment where they're trying to make it now. They're not waiting for anyone. So it really becomes about availability. I will always make, I told, I said, when they came to me with Bob, I was like, have you been on a worldwide search? Yes, we have. Go on another one.

Really make sure, you know, when it came. Why would you say that? Like, make sure it's not me. Well, yeah, because you, there's the thing. You want to make sure. Why would you say that? Make sure it's not me. Well, yeah, because you want to make sure you're the best person. Yeah, exactly. You want to make sure I'm the best person. Because I've been in that situation before. I couldn't get an audition for any of those London things like Kid Old Hood or Top Boy or any of that.

The casting directors at home, they would never see me for that role because they see me like the Bridgeton guy whereas i'm like no no no that's how i grew up i just went to a drama school that knocked my accent out of me for eight years and i've just had to try and find it back some bullshit english institution that told us that we couldn't talk the way that we were supposed to talk so it really really depends on the the car i think to talk about this as a whole becomes really difficult i can only talk for the specific examples of the castings that i've been in and i'll tell you straight andre holland dropped out of one night in miami and regina had two weeks to cast it and then there was three of us and then the guy who i was up against he didn't have the experience to hold the film in the way that i did because of his age he would have been a 27 year old malcolm

and it didn't make sense they did not want to put me in that role it was just because the film is about to go they need to get it going you know and i and really i can talk for bob and i can talk for that and that's it you know like so my i just gotta make sure that when i'm going in for something that my thing is who who have you seen why are you coming to me you know and i think the family came to me because our first conversation was about the emotional vulnerability of bob that's it that's it no mimicry no impersonation no trying to like be him or copy him this is a this is a this is a love letter to your father so i'm gonna try and tap into his feeling a little bit and that's it just

a little bit of his essence and i'm done it's okay to say you good it's okay to say i'm better than everybody else it's okay to say i get these roles because i'm a great i don't think that's true i don't think that's true okay i like i don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. Okay. Like, I don't think that's true. I just don't. I don't. Well, at least I don't see it like that. Because you're only as good as the work you put in on the day. You're two seconds away from being really, really bad if you switch off.

And that's the way that I go at everything at everything is starting again you know it's not like i went into barbie with the same energy i went into bob because it's about the work and it's about the craft that's just me maybe i need to chill out a little bit but i feel like a critic of yourself like you could seem to be even like you know hard on yourself about things you ever give yourself bad reviews yeah yeah no i'm learning i'm learning to be much kinder okay because it's you know you can just get tiring for yourself but yeah yeah i know i feel like um yeah i feel like it's the work and it's the experience you know for me it's about the experience of the shoot you know who who's what, the experience of making Bob was two years getting to know him

with his friends and family. Before filming. Yeah, and even up until now. Just spending time with the people who loved him, or love him, and knew him. Well, you did the work. Yeah. So, like, what a joy, you know?

Like, regardless of the film and whatever happens with it for me that's two years of my life that's my life with them you know and i'll cherish that two years so for me as well with work it's as much about the experience as well it's like when i see that secret invasion thing i was like yo this is 10 days with samuel jackson on set i'm taking the job just for that because i just want to be around him for 10 days. And it ended up being three, four months. And then I get to learn from him. What did he teach you?

What was the lesson that he taught you? Pro. Pro. Great cursor, too. Fantastic cursor. He loves cursing. And funny. And funny.

But when he's on the floor know when we started doing some of those scenes when he gets excited and wants to turn it on it becomes really exciting because you're like sam can do it you know he's one of the greats and um i don't know i don't know how to summarize or word what i got from him but it was definitely like you know i really really enjoyed being around him and ben mendelsohn as well those two were the reasons why i took the job i was like i'm definitely gonna be able to learn something from these guys you know um and sam sam's very kind like very very kind he's got so much time for like young people around he has a heightened awareness of like i mean he's been famous for how long man he

can't go anywhere but he still makes the time for everyone and he said sam likes to do one take or two takes you know one and done sometimes i need eight or nine and he's there he's there you take as much time as you need i'm right here and it'd be on his feet every time and i love that because a lot of actors will go back to their trailer they go home and they'll get their stand in to come in and act with you Sam did not leave me once I'm very patient. Yeah so I really appreciated that and just funny, funny. Did Ziggy

really remember a lot of stuff because he was young then like the scene I'm thinking about in particular was the shooting that happened you know, the drive by, he remembered that? They've got yeah, Ziggy's got yeah ziggy's got memories yeah ziggy's got memories and that bit at the airport at the end somehow when his dad come back i didn't understand that ziggy made it to the airport and no one knew how he got there

at like nine years old he heard his dad was coming and he found himself like running in the crowd running in the crowd and no one knows how he got there he can't remember how he got there but he was there so i was about getting that moment in but no that really happened like bob bob saw him in the yeah yeah yeah i believe so but the the the that's why a lot of my conversations with neville and with tyrone and with lego like the guys who are bob's age who remembering him like i would remember my pal you know they were really the stories about bob's personality and his feeling around the time you know all my information came through them as it related to that um you read all the books and then it's like there's nothing

you can find in these books really apart from timelines you know um but lego and and lenny lenny dread there's a guy called lenny dread who came over from st kits when he was like 16 17 and he camped outside bob's mom's house in miami because he had a vision that he wanted to work for bob one day so he just went and stayed outside the house for weeks and bob was on tour and then bob came back one day and he told bob that he had a dream that he wanted to work for a man still works in the house for weeks and bob was on tour and then bob came back one day and he told bob that he had a dream that he wanted to work for a man still works in the house today wow and i spent three hours with him in bob's mom house and he took me into you know bob's room at the time so they would have had all family birthdays and everything like that and i had a four-hour conversation with him where he was telling me like what bob was like and his energy and i'd be one everyone and then those would have things that I think I absorbed in some way

you know from from those guys um yeah Lenny Dredd and Desi and Lego was great what about when uh Bob was dealing with you know the cancer that ultimately took his life in the movie it's played in like a really nonchalant way you Yo, you is telling the movie, yo. It's a real biopic. People don't know the story of Jeff, though. What are you talking about? Bob Marley's the icon. But some people don't know the story of Jeff.

No, you don't know the story of Jeff. And if I don't know the story of Jeff, I gotta watch the movie. It's Bob Marley. Come on. Yeah, I don't think that. I don't give too much away because everybody knows that. Thank you. No, you're good. But the nonchalantness of it of it all it also reminded me of just being a man and

how a lot of men don't want to go to well yeah it wasn't written like that okay and that's what i'm saying about acting process for me i was like when you're from the ghetto like that and i've grown up with guys like that and i have a bit of it in myself whereas to me it was like well what happened was that he didn't check it for a number of years and the line really is them can't ask kill me so if you understand the language of that scene it like it we we readjusted it to to make sense for bob's mentality at that moment you know i think the the next diagnosis in new york three years later was slightly different and they wanted to impose the script i originally read sort of imposed 1981 on 1977 i was like where was bob actually at in 77 which is that he was on job he was working he didn't have time for that

and listen I shot that film with Ziggy and it was a mad day because suddenly I'm in this doctor's office and I was like raw this actually happened you know and his son's looking at me

you know and I had to take a couple of moments because there were versions of the scene where i did crack and i would call ziggy over and i'd say ziggy i don't know if these are my tears or your dad's tears but if they're not i don't know you know if i'm crying for him i'm crying i don't i don't want to you can't just put bob marley in a film and have him cry down the film you know it's not that bob's not that he's not an american dad he had very very specific political spiritual religious beliefs and it's the only thing he talks about from 1969 the first interview i heard all the way through bob saying the same thing alice Selassie, a god. So,

Bob's tears, I'd ask people. There's not many reports. So it's not about an Oscar moment. It's like the truth is, it's not. So I said to Ziggy, you make this call when you get to the edit, but I'm going to give you a few different versions of this.

And I love what they did up in the room when he's just there and you can't even see his face but you just hear it. And then he cracks on, bosh, back to the work. So that to me felt true to Bob. That felt true to that. It felt true to the guy I know from the ghetto. So the emotions aren't really coming from the audience, pretty much. The tears really come from the viewers.

We cry for him, yeah. As I was crying for him on the day. Because his son's looking at me and I'm like, yeah, that must have been, what must that have been like for him? Wow. Like the loneliness of that moment. I'm going raw. Like everything's coming in. And that's why you see me looking up

like that because when I don't want to cry you know it's that I don't want you to see me cry I gotta hurry up and watch it you know you send me the movie

you gotta send me the movie send me the movie so I and watch it. You know? You gotta hurry up. You sent me the movie before. You gotta send me the movie. Send me the movie so I can watch it. Well, the movie comes out this Wednesday. It looked like a globe was spinning. Talk about your head again.

My head, my head, my head. This Wednesday. Bringing me back to my childhood. I was like, bro, my head used to get terrorized in school. I used to get terrorized. Me and another guy.

He had a bean head and I had a meat head. And there's some other... Kids are mean, huh? Kids are mean. You're probably the meanest cause you imagine going to school with him he does that in the dope

this is like all my boys when they come out they're just terrorizing all day they're just terror but have you seen it have you seen it I ain't got a haircut

I would think I saw your head when you came out there it's a little peanut Jesus Christ it ain't little it's a lot of dimension to it I got nub head but no the movie is really good man I think you did a great job Jesus Christ It ain't little A lot of dimension to it

I got nub head But no the movie Is really good man I think you did a Great job as Bob I don't have anything To reference it to You know what I mean

Cause I didn't grow up In the era of Bob Marley Yeah no no I feel like you There's an essence You captured for sure Thank you bro I appreciate it

Absolutely I appreciate it And everybody go out And check it out It comes out this Valentine's Day A perfect Valentine's Day Thing to do. It is.

It's a love story, man. Between Rita and Bob. It really is. And Kingsley, we appreciate you for joining us. It's so nice to be here, man. I'm a big fan of this show. I've been watching you on YouTube all the time. So I'm happy to be here.

Thank you. One more question. Hands on with Brad Pitt with all of this? Because I know Plan B was a production company. That's Brad's production company. No, DD and Jeremy are around. Brad's always busy filming, huh? Got you, got you.

But he's the overseer. Oh, don't say that. No, no, no. The overseer of his company. Yeah, I still don't like that. The overseer. Well, you don't like that. You're like overseer like the white man's overseer.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't mean that. Yeah. Brad's company is with Didi and Jeremy. Yeah. But Didi and Jeremy were with us. Gotcha. Brad oversees them.

There you go. You know what I'm saying? Okay. But, like, he's one of many executive producers on this. The overseer of this project is Toph Gong and the family. Gotcha. You know what I mean? Brad and Didi and Jeremy, they come with a hell of a lot of experience, you know, as

it relates to these movies and the pre-production and the making of it and the coming out of it so yeah there's yeah I hope they do more stories I really do I hope Tough Gong does more stories about that era yeah yeah there's a lot there's a lot there you know we'll see well salute to the family and we appreciate

you for joining us can't leave that out there thank you guys it's the Breakfast Club good morning wake that ass up. It's in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Hi, I'm Dani Shapiro, host of the hit podcast, Family Secrets. How would you feel if when you met your biological father for the first time, he didn't even say hello? And what if your past itself was the secret and the time had suddenly come to share

that past with your child? These are just a few of the powerful and profound questions we'll be asking on our 11th season of Family Secrets. Listen to season 11 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Get the kids in your life excited about history

by tuning in to Historical Records. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, 1974. George Foreman was champion of the world. Ali was smart and he was handsome. The story behind The Rumble in the Jungle is like a Hollywood movie. But that is only half the story.

There's also James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, Miriam Akiba. All the biggest black artists on the planet. Together in Africa. It was a big deal. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman, and the Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show, Civic Cipher.

That's right. We discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other. and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other. So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home, and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story,

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