Reinaldo Marcus Green Shares How Bob Marley: One Love Honors The Legendary Musician’s Legacy

Bob Marley has left an indelible mark on the world with his music, and the message he conveyed with it is celebrated in Bob Marley: One Love, which is now out on digital platforms. Although he faced many obstacles in his life Marley grew into a reggae icon who hoped to spread a message of peace and love. Although his story has a tragic ending, Marley manages to share this message with the world and manages his own fears to do just that.

The passion that Reinaldo Marcus Green put into the movie shines through in every aspect, beginning with the casting. Kingsley Ben-Adir brings heart and light to his performance, embodying the spirit of Marley. The music of Bob Marley is the key to Bob Marley: One Love influencing every element of the movie as the heart of the story.

Screen Rant interviewed director Reinaldo Marcus Green about Bob Marley: One Love. He discussed bringing Bob Marley’s legacy and message to the big screen. Green also explained the casting process he underwent to find Ben-Adir and the importance of Bob Marley’s music throughout the movie.

“It Was An Honor To Even Come Close To Touching” Bob Marley’s Message In One Love

Screen Rant: Reinaldo, when we spoke last in London, I said that this was the perfect movie for the world, especially during this time period, and that still rings true. There’s so many themes that I feel like the world can use right now in this one film. But the first question I have for you is what inspired you to direct a film about Bob Marley, and what drew you personally to his story?

Reinaldo Marcus Green: Man, the music man, it is incredible. Bob’s message, remarkable. It was an honor to even come close to touching it. Yeah, it’s scary, it’s daunting, but they were going to make the movie, so I felt like I could do it some justice if I cast the right guy and help to bring the movie to help tell something authentic and try to anyway. And yeah, we were lucky to find Kingsley, who’s incredible in the film.

What he was able to do with Lashana and the rest of the cast was nothing short of remarkable. And yeah, just to have the gift of Bob’s music forever, it’s a forever movie. You think about that, it’s like I made something that will last forever, and not because of me, but because of Bob’s music. It’s amazing. It’s like you’re going to have something that will forever stand the test at the time. And it was a gift. It was a gift.

Now you had mentioned Kingsley, and he disappears into this role and he really brings the essence of Bob to life. And I mean, he learned his patois quite remarkably. I mean, it’s to the point where it sounds just like Bob Marley. Now casting the role of Bob Marley must’ve been a pivotal decision. What qualities were you looking for and how did you know you found the right Bob Marley in Kingsley?

Reinaldo Marcus Green: Number one is finding a great actor, but obviously we had to take it one step further and find someone that had the attributes that Bob had, some of them. He had to have a certain level of look to come close. He couldn’t be a complete mismatch. Kingsley is of Caribbean descent. He’s mixed race. He’s good-looking. And with dreads and some mild prosthetics, we were able to accent Kingsley’s look to create a version of Bob. So he had enough. Now, had he been completely dark skin, same actor, not possible. Bob was mixed race. It was important to have certain elements, and his race was important to this role. It was important that Bob had a white absentee father because that’s true.

And so we had to have certain levels that added to the authenticity of Bob’s story and Bob’s journey, and a great actor could help us get there. Rami Malek was amazing in Bohemian Rhapsody. He’s nowhere near the race of Freddie Mercury, so it doesn’t matter. A great actor will be able to do a lot. He also can’t sing a lick. I heard, I heard he’s not good. And he’s amazing. He won an Oscar being a terrible singer because he’s a great actor.

And so just knowing that we knew that I had Bob’s music, all I need is somebody to be a great actor to act the singing performances and the singing performances are actually not that many in our movie. The rest of the movie’s acting. And so I needed presence. I needed somebody with that charm, that fight, that revolutionary spirit and Kingsley had it. And yeah, we could offset the look.

We were never going to be exact or, but it was. But in the movement and the thing, you’re like, whoa. I thought that’s what they did so brilliantly in Elvis. I think Austin Butler is a better looking dude than, they just went north. They were like, you know what? We’ll get close. Let’s just find someone that’s better looking. It was great. It was amazing.

And it’s like, look, Kingsley is a pretty good-looking dude. Nobody’s going to be like, you know what? They found something. He’s handsome. Look at Kingsley. You’re like, man, he looks great. And he’s a phenomenal actor. So you forgive a lot. You forgive a lot. It’s the movie magic. You forgive because he has enough of the accent, not the actual accent. He has enough of the accents to create a character that’s in the essence of Bob Marley so that you feel like he can disappear. And that’s part of the magic trick is making him disappear, making it feel real. He does a remarkable job. And yeah, we couldn’t be more proud of him.

Bob Marley’s “Music Is The Backbone Of The Movie”

I couldn’t agree with you more. Now, Bob Marley was not just a musician, but a symbol of peace, love, and resistance. How did you capture those? Can you talk about capturing those themes with Kingsley Ben-Adir’s portrayal of the icon?

Reinaldo Marcus Green: Well, fortunately for us, we had Bob’s music, and that’s the script. Everything else was architecture. His music is the backbone of the movie, what he’s singing about is the story. It’s the journey that we’re on. It’s the journey he was on. And so we had this get out of jail free card. It’s like, you got Bob’s music, man. It’s amazing. And so I think it was dissecting those lyrics. I know for myself, as a fan of Bob, I was a fan like, I don’t know like, everybody else. I didn’t really know the music. I knew the music, but I didn’t know anything about the music. I just kind of knew the melodies and can sing along a little bit but I didn’t know what the dude was singing for.

This part of the process of the discovery of this movie was trying to understand what he was singing for, where he was singing from. And it was the same for Kingsley. It was trying to understand what this movie was about. What were we trying to say? What was the thesis of the film? And it’s different for everybody. For us, we had to have our own journey. For me, it was Redemption Song. How do we end the movie there?

What is he trying to redeem himself for? What’s the journey that Bob is on? Oh, he’s running from his absentee father. He’s running from the sins of his past. That’s an architecture for the film. That’s a way for me to depict these visions and tie it to the music so that we can connect emotionally to these scenes. And then being able to talk to the actors about that and that journey.

So the way Kingsley and I worked is like that through story, through storytelling, through cinematic storytelling. Yeah, look, I’m not LeBron. I can’t drop 70. That’s his job. But it’s my job to call the plays. It’s my job to make sure that the towels are there when he gets off and he’s sweating. It’s my job to wipe, that he doesn’t slip. It’s my job to make sure that he has somebody to pass to.

It’s my job to make sure that when he gets tired, someone takes and puts him down and someone else goes in so that we can get him for the fourth quarter. A lot of what I do is trying to be invisible, stay out of the way. But it’s a fine line between being invisible and being very visible. And whether it’s Bill Belichick or Pat Riley or whatever the analogy is, it’s when you’re a coach, you’re creating a culture for your cast and your crew to succeed. And it’s culture. It’s a winning culture.

And again, in film language, what does that mean to win? I don’t know, win or lose. Win or losing is making something that you could feel proud of. And I think we can all look back and say, man, we put our best foot forward. We could be proud of this film. Win, lose or draw, we left it all on the field. We all bled during the making of this movie. It was tough, but we could be proud of that. And thankfully for us, the movie’s performed, it’s over-performed and that’s been a blessing, but that’s like icing on the cake because it was really something that we could be proud of before the movie was ever released.

Absolutely and congratulations on all that success. Now, this isn’t just Bob Marley’s movie, but it’s also Bob and Rita’s love story. Rita Marley was Bob’s guiding light. Can you talk about what Lashana Lynch brought to the role of Rita Marley?

Reinaldo Marcus Green: Oh man. She brought a backbone. She brought a depth unlike any other. She’s a fantastic actress, really a force to be reckoned with. And I had seen, she was a little bit more recognizable. She had been in some bigger movies and had a slightly high profile at the time. And so I knew of her work and I knew what she was capable of. I was surprised that she wanted to do our movie because originally in the original versions of the script, it wasn’t a huge part.

And it was great to know that you’re like, wait, you’re going to get, I got two LeBrons? We better flush this out. We better figure this one out. And it was the best thing that could have happened to us because it forced us to put more Rita in the movie where she deserved to be. Her story deserved to be told. And quite frankly, it wasn’t told early. We didn’t have it in the script. It wasn’t reflected. And I’m very lucky that I came off of King Richard where the same thing happened. Aunjanue Ellis’s character was not there, and we saw what Aunjanue was able to do, and she elevated that film.

She elevated every scene that Will was in, and she brought Will his Oscar in a lot of ways, and I think similarly here now, I don’t know about awards or any of that stuff, but the elevation of having two actors go toe to toe, and be that connected is incredible. And when you find somebody like Lashana who’s like, I’m going to get it, Kingsley’s coming, the level is now, it’s high level chess match, and it’s beautiful. It’s beautiful to kind of see that.

About Bob Marley: One Love

Bob Marley: One Love celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. On the big screen for the first time, discover Bob’s powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music.

Check out our other Bob Marley: One Love interviews here:

• Kingsley Ben-Adir
• Lashana Lynch
• Reinaldo Marcus Green
• James Norton