Bringing Bob Marley to Life

The director, stars, and Marley family discuss the making of the new biopic 'One Love'

- DAVID BROWNE

Filming a scene as the title mystic in Bob Marley: One Love, Kingsley Ben-Adir was striding across a room in Jamaica when he heard, "Cut!" Marley's son Ziggy, who was on set, had some input: He told the actor that his father wouldn't have walked that particular way. "He was going up the stairs," Marley says, "and I tell him, 'Listen! When Bob walks, he takes two steps at a time.""

Months later, in New York, Ben-Adir re-creates the revised move, his knees almost coming up to his chin. "Everyone was doing an example of how Bob would do it," he says. "I had to stay open to that and be like, "This stuff is helping me. It's helping me find him.' I had to stay fluid with that." Since Bob Marley's death 43 years ago, his family has turned his legend into a highly monetized estate, selling everything from weed to headphones.

The only thing missing was a biopic - which, according to Ziggy, had been broached in the past, but perhaps too soon for him and his family. "As human beings in our maturity," he says, "I don't think we were at the level yet to take this on." But starting in 2018, the family decided to take the reins. "They were bringing something to us, and in this case, we brought something to the studio," he says. "That is the big difference."