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Bob Marley: One Love made its debut as part of the 2024 movie schedule this past weekend, and it seems to have connected with audiences. The Marley-centric flick won the box office over Sony’s Madame Web in tremendous fashion. Much of the praise for it has gone to its star, Kingsley Ben-Adir, who played the beloved Jamaican singer and sported some fake dreads while doing so. Now, the leading man has provided details on what went into crafting his faux locks for the feature.
The Secret Invasion alum was a guest on The Breakfast Club, where the host commended the production for giving the actor convincing dreads in the film. That’s because usually, when they’re done in movies, they “look so stupid.” On that note, Kingsley Ben-Adir responded by laying out the process of making the hair piece look authentic:
They were prepping that [the dreads] from the same time I started prepping. Morris, he’s a dread specialist, and you know, it’s not even 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 by hand and he put them in sacred boxes, stored them. And then re-did, put new dreads in their hair to suit the characters from the time.
As the actor explained, wearing dreadlocks is not simply a choice of hairstyle for many Rastafarians, but a symbol of letting go of material possessions and worldly vanity. All in all, it sounds like he received a carefully created wig that emulated Bob Marley’s dreads (since the A-lister doesn’t normally rock the style himself). On the other hand, other members of the cast who hail from Jamaica actually had their personal dreads carefully combed out and saved before being replaced with dreads that went with the era presented in Bob Marley: One Love (which has received mixed reviews). Kingsley Ben-Adir continued during the show, which was shared on YouTube:
Then when the film was done, he got their dreads and put them back in. But for a lot of them it was really emotional. And they were doing it because they love Bob and they’re connected to Bob. A lot of the guys who were playing the band members were the children of the actual band members. They’re all Rasta. They took out their hair for the film and put it back.
One Love’s “dread specialist” took special care when it came to portraying hairdos in the biopic and respecting those who already had dreadlocks in the film. During the Barbie cast member’s appearance on the radio show, he also shared that spoke with Bob Marley’s son, Ziggy, very early on about how he would portray the late musician while wearing the dreads.
Kingsley Ben-Adir is a British actor who was born and raised in London, England with maternal grandparents hailing from Trinidad and Tobago. Given that he had to nail down the dialect, he also had Jamaican linguists on set, who helped write his dialogue. He also asked for a singing teacher and consulted the “No Woman, No Cry” singer’s surviving bandmates and collaborators while in the process of prepping for the role.
The film opened on Valentine’s Day alongside Madame Web, and crushed at the box office through President’s Day weekend. The movie has already racked up over $81 million worldwide. Amid the box office success, Ziggy Marley shared his favorite memory of his late father, which involved a trip to Zimbabwe. Despite the mixed reactions from critics, including CinemaBlend’s own Bob Marley: One Love review, it’s been given much more positive praise from moviegoers, which likely contributed to the movie’s “A” rating on Cinemascore.
If the details on the dreads are any indication, this production was a true collaboration. Still, Kingsley Ben-Adir deserves plenty of credit for playing the role with grace and proudly wearing the wig. You can check out Bob Marley: One Love in theaters now.