Ziggy Marley Pleased With Audience Reaction To ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Movie: “It Was Good”

Last evening’s premiere of the Bob Marley: One Love biopic at the Carib 5 Cinema in Kingston, has satisfied the expectations of executive producer Ziggy Marley.

Ziggy, lead actor Kingsley Ben Adir and singer Naomi Cowan, who played the role of Marcia Griffiths, were guests on TVJ’s Smile Jamaica this morning, said the film, whose premier saw Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and various government officials in attendance, appeared to have had the desired emotional effect on its viewers.

“For the first time sitting with the audience, it was good.  We laughed at the same jokes you know and we (were) emotional at the same point, so it was very, very good,” the Rebellion Rises singer told hosts Dahlia Harris and Simone Clarke Cooper.  

“The thing is that everybody think them know Bob you know, but them only know the side what them see through the public footage and the interviews and stuff.  But, there a side that we are discovering and exploring in the movie that is a much more personal side, much more emotional side a side, that is not tough as stone.   So vulnerable, questioning things and just trying to figure out him own life in this very tumultuous time period that he was going through.  So it is really emotional Human Side of Bob,” he added.

Bob Marley: One Love has been described as one of the most-anticipated films of 2024, and it was whilst pointing out the international interest in the film that Clarke Cooper made a revelation that pointed to the irony of how Bob was treated whilst alive versus the current situation.

“I remember Neville Willoughby telling me that Bob used to come here yeah and he couldn’t come inside.  Like he would stand at the window at RJR in the music library, because we just did not accept Rasta at that time.  And so when I look at what’s going on now I’m like my mind is blown,” she told Ziggy.

For his part, Ben Adir told the interviewers that when he got cast for the role, he immediately knew he had “a lot of work to do”, adding that during filming he received huge support from the Jamaicans who were involved in the production.  

“I had the family there; I had so many of Bob’s friends and people who knew him and grew up with him and so we just went straight in.  And yeah it was just a full immersion into the music; the guitar the singing the Patois, the language the culture, and you know I was very lucky.  It wouldn’t have been possible without Ziggy and the family and all of the Jamaican cast… when they came to London, they just lifted the whole thing and they lifted me.  There was just a huge amount of love you know, as I went from kind of studying on my own and wanting to be in service in the best way that I could…,” he said.

Cowan said that when she told the Queen of Reggae Marcia Griffiths that she would be playing her in the film, the Fire Burning singer immediately gave her blessings.

“When I told her I was going for it and when she knew that I got it… said ‘I’ve been praying for you’… And she said ‘Naomi I don’t have any daughters and I always said to your mom and dad and a my pickney dat’” she said.

“She’s so special and so strong…When I was interviewing her over time about different chapters and what was going on during the time it just empowered me even more to sink into who she was and I know I’ve changed as a result of studying her,” she added.