Bob Marley biopic ‘One Love’ dials down the legend but amplifies human connection

Kingsley Ben-Adir, the British actor who plays Bob Marley, tells a story about a legend that was something that he and Marley's family wanted "to turn the volume down on."

Biopics often put the spotlight on larger-than-life icons. But for Kingsley Ben-Adir, the British actor who plays Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley in a new movie out Wednesday, telling a sweeping story about a legend was something that he — and Marley’s family — wanted “to turn the volume down on.”

“We were trying to find a bit of Bob’s spirit as a human being,” he said in a video interview with NBC News. “That was my instruction from the family and the intention of the movie that’s produced by them.”

Kingsley explained that beyond the legend that captured the imagination of Marley’s fellow Jamaicans — and fans all over the world — they wanted viewers to connect on a deeper human level.

Anna-Sharé Blake plays Judy Mowatt, Lashana Lynch is Rita Marley, and Naomi Cowan plays Marcia Griffiths in the movie about Marley's life.Chiabella James / Paramount Pictures“There’s something about his lifelong journey to spread peace, or find peace for himself, that I feel is very, very universal,” he said. “We’re all on our own journeys trying to feel connected to something.”Kingsley said Marley was able to transmit this profound yearning for a higher sense of connection through the “feeling of his music.”

“Bob Marley: One Love” hits movie theaters nationwide one week after what would have been the reggae star’s 79th birthday. Marley died in 1981, just 36 years old, from a melanoma on his big toenail. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/bob-marley-biopic-one-love-kingsley-benadir-rcna138599

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