DIRECTOR OF the Bob Marley: One Love film, Reinaldo Marcus Green, told Lifestyle there was no easy way to deliver one of the most awaited movies in history. “All of it was hard.”
Green said, however, as big a task as it was, taking on the project of a lifetime was a no-brainer, for, if not him, then who?
“From the first meeting I had, Ziggy Marley was on the call, so I knew that I had the support of the family. I knew I had his off-spring saying we want you to direct this movie, and that was a big vote of confidence for me.”
He added: “I also knew that I wasn’t a biopic genre guy, musical biopics were not the thing that I was setting out to make. “And so this felt like an opportunity to do something different and about somebody I thought was a superhero.
“I loved Bob.I didn’t want to mess with Bob. Don’t mess with Bob basically. But then I thought, well, if I don’t do it, then who else?”
Starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob and Lashana Lynch as Rita Marley, Bob Marley: One Love celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations. The responsibility to deliver this in authentic a way as possible, was huge.
“I knew that they had tried to make the movie for 25-30 years, so, for whatever reason, the universe said, now’s the time,” says Green when reflecting on him being chosen to direct it. He says there were a multitude of elements that had to be right. One of the most significant for him, however, was language.
“I think the language is super important,” he explained.
“I didn’t want to make Cool Runnings, as much as I love that film.
“When you see Bob, he speaks in a certain way, he has a very specific way of talking.
“I knew I was making a studio movie, so I was thinking we may have to subtitle it, but that’s the route we are going to go because you can’t water that down.
“You can’t make every word be understood because even when I watch Bob, I don’t understand everything but I understand everything.
“So if you could do it cinematically, if you could do it with emotion, then you don’t care about the words that you miss.
“So the template was, if you understand every third word, then you get it. If you understand every fourth word, then you’re lost.
“And we lived in that for a while until we hit the sweet spot. There was a sweet spot of language in this film because it’s lyrical, it’s poetic and you can’t force that.”
Ben-Adir told Lifestyle it was a real moment when it was confirmed he would be playing the role of the Jamaican icon and legend. Throwing himself into the deep-end in order to ensure he executed correctly, he admitted the journey revealed there was so much about Bob people didn’t know. There was so much people never, ever saw.
“I guess the surreal moment was when I got the call saying the family has seen the tape and they want you to fly over because they want to talk to you,” said Ben-Adir.
“That was the moment when I went; oooof, what?
“But after that, as soon as I touched down with Ziggy, it was work. He needed to get to know me and I needed to understand what their intention was. We needed to come to some sort of agreement and the agreement from the beginning with Ziggy and the family was the way Bob talks, that’s how we’re going to do it.
“We had to make sure that the authenticity of that was not tampered with, so once I knew we were all on that page, it really just became all about the work and how much time we have and what can I realistically do to try and represent this properly.”
There will be no shortage of people that have their view on this movie, Bob was THAT artist. He belonged to everyone.
It’s what made the telling of this narrative, which focuses on and captures a snapshot of a pivotal time in history, so challenging.
As well as staying true to Bob’s life mission to convey his spiritual message through the music, Green says the process of getting the film right went beyond just highlighting Bob’s message of love, unity and Rastafari, people needed to see the consummate, driven professional he was.
“Bob demanded excellence,”
Green enthused. “In every department. Whether we were shooting an insert of a 400-500 person crowd scene, it was all taken with that high level of intensity. That was what this movie was. It just demanded it. It was challenging in that way.”
He added: “I think everybody I met, whether it was the drivers or the Grip Truck, people were like, ‘Bob, that’s our guy. We like King Richard but come on, this is different.
“There was always that feeling; don’t mess about. I think we all felt it. The cast felt it, everybody felt it. But equally, everyone wanted to support the film to make it successful.
“So, I never felt like I didn’t have support and I didn’t have to look too far, the family was there every step of the way, which was amazing and made everything richer in that way. I felt like I had Bob on set in a lot of ways.
“They walked the same, the cadence, you can see those little details when they came out.”
Produced in partnership with the Marley family, Bob Marley: One Love is in cinemas February 14.
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If only England’s African-Caribbean heritage men, women, and youth, had endeavoured to bring to life some of the justice, some of the righteousness, some of the ethics associated with Bob Marley’s music, and with serious Rastafarians.
Then the influence of England’s African-Caribbean heritage people would have been sufficient to put a just, and human face on Western Caucasian Capitalism.
We could have prevented the injustice against the Congo’s child coltan “miners;” who are swindled from receiving the high market value for this rare earth mineral, they risk their life, and health collecting.
Instead, our most successful men and women only want a middle-class Caucasian lifestyle; whilst emulating all the characteristics of the wealthy oppressors; dressing in branded clothes, having the right postcode, and eating in the right restaurants.