Kingsley Ben-Adir.
Calling from his apartment in Kentish Town, 35-year-old actor Kingsley Ben-Adir briefly joins the Zoom call before hastily vanishing. ‘I’ll be with you in just one minute,’ he assures me, while I am left to gaze upon the piano in the background (he later tells me that ‘Chopsticks’ is the only tune he can muster). A true Brit, he returns to the Zoom call with a cup of tea.
Kingsley began his acting career in the world of theatre, gaining praise for his performance in Gillian Slovo’s critically acclaimed play The Riots in 2011 after graduating from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He has since appeared in seasons four and five of Peaky Blinders and more recently alongside Zoe Kravitz, playing her character’s love interest in High Fidelity.
And then came his biggest part to date. Tasked with playing Malcolm X in Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami, Kingsley explains, ‘there was so much work to do in 12 days. I had the whole script to learn off by heart.’ The entire film is set on one night: 25 February 1964, the night that Cassius Clay vanquished Sonny Liston for the title of boxing’s World Heavyweight Champion. Adapted from Kemp Powers’ play of the same name, One Night in Miami is a fictitious portrayal of four friends – Clay, Malcolm X, soul pioneer Sam Cooke and legendary American football player Jim Brown – as they celebrate the champion’s victory at the eminent Hampton House Motel in Miami
‘One of the first conversations that we had before I was cast was definitely that this is Malcolm X in a way that we haven’t seen him before,’ explains Kingsley. ’Regina’s sort of “mission statement” to all of us was that this is a love letter to the Black man and that was such a wonderful, guiding mantra for all of us coming in. There’s just something about that statement that made me go OK, cool. This is about love and friendship and connection and joy and seeing Black men in conversation in friendship in a way that’s positive. And I feel like that also sent me in the right direction in terms of my investigation of Malcolm. I was really sort of concentrating as much as I could on trying to figure out really who he was as a man outside of the media’s perspective, and what he was really going through at this time. He had a wife, he had children, you know? And I think Regina and I were both set on that. We connected on that idea and I think that's why she cast me.’
Kingsley had originally been set to audition for the part of Cassius Clay but felt that someone younger would be better suited to fulfil the role. ‘I convinced her that I felt pretty fearless about attempting to show Malcolm in a way that people might not necessarily be used to, or accept, or want to see, because I just thought that would be interesting. And Dick Gregory’s article really gave me such permission.’ Kingsley is referring to an article by the comedian and activist published by British GQ in 2015, which proved a major turning point in the actor’s research into Malcolm X. ‘[Gregory] said Malcolm was a dear, dear friend of his, a sweet and bashful man, kind and good-humoured, and if he was here now listening to us talk, he’d be so embarrassed; and that the lacerating demagogue that we all know, or we were so used to seeing, was really a character that he slipped in and out of, but wasn’t the sum total of who he was. And I was like, fucking hell man, that’s cool. So let’s go for this. Let’s really investigate the stakes of what it means to be the poster child for Black America and to really explore what it means to put your life on the line for your beliefs and for Black people and the cost of putting the fear of God in white America and demanding respect, not asking for it. Speaking your mind, standing up for yourself, talking the truth – what’s the cost of that? And the cost was huge. It cost him his life and it cost him his safety and it cost him his peace of mind. A real fucking hero. And he was a hero because he was vulnerable. He was a hero because he must have felt scared and still fucking did it. That, to me, is a real hero.’
Writer Amelia White.
CREDIT: Kingsley Ben-Adir by Rafael Pavarotti, Katie Grand and Oliver Volquardsen wearing Jil Sander by Lucie and Luke Meier and Louis Vuitton
