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To say that Kingsley Ben-Adir had a significant 2020 would be a bit of an understatement.
Ive got to say congrats on the Gotham Award.
How did that feel?
Where were you when you found out about that?Thank you.
I was in this hotel.
I was on my own.
Ive never been nominated for anything.
I really fucking did a great job of putting [awards] out of my mind.
Really?I didnt put it to the back of my mind.
I put itoutof my mind.
I was like, I didnt know you could get nominated for breakthrough work at 34.
[Laughs].So I felt like Id won when the nomination came through.
When they said my name, bro, I was drunk and I was completely in shock.
It was seven months of New York, and I loved [it].
And then I came back to London.
AndSoulmates,Love Life,The Comey Rule, andOne Night in Miami, all happened within three-and-a-half months.
Ive never worked that much.
Ive never done that many jobs in such a small chunk of time.
Then we went into the pandemic.
This is the first time Ive experienced having so many things come out at the same time.
But really and truly, all of those jobs were in support to working with Regina and playing Malcolm.
WhileOne Night in Miamiwas clearly adapted from a play, it still felt cinematic in nature and scope.
I really just jumped on the Malcolm train.
My job was to try and activate those scenes.
The rest is over to Regina and what she did.
Regina had just won anOscar for Best Supporting Actress inIf Beale Street Could Talkwhen you shot the movie.
I was looking at Regina today, and I was like,Oh my God.
It was an actor who cast me.Ive met hundreds of directors.
Ive got close to playing lead roles many times and not [gotten the role].
But it took an actress to [make it happen].
Thats my favorite scene, actually.Regina handled that.
We really prepared it in a completely different way.
Aldis and I just started running the lines very gently as they were setting up the cameras.
We were running them really quietly, really slowly.
And then something happened, and Regina saw it, and we just went in the other direction.
That direction just sent us off on this completely different emotional path.
With Regina we were allowed to play, and we were allowed to try things out.
She allowed us to really be free.
I love that scene in particular because it shows a softer side of Malcolm.
I feel like Im still processing the experience now as we talk.
You know, its not really complete until its out.
The experience of working with Regina and connecting with her and learning from her?
As awesome as you think it was, times it by 100, and its still nowhere near.
WhileOne Night in Miamiis a largely fictionalized story, the film is filled withinteresting pieces of real history.
I had no idea that Malcolm X enjoyed photography, or ofthe historic legacy of the Hampton House Motel.
I was figuring out and learning as I was reading that the Hampton really existed.
For anyone who has the bullshit notion that Martin Luther King was good and Malcolm X was bad …
The reason why Malcolm is such a goddamn hero is because he felt the fear and still faced it.
This is a fucking revolutionary were talking about.
The film takes place a year before Malcolm X was assassinated.
Did that impact your performance in any way?Only in the moment on the roof.
[Another] was that his 12-year relationship with the Nation of Islam was coming to an end.
His father figure/mentor, Elijah Muhammad, their relationship was crumbling.
His life was in danger.
His wife and his childrens lives were also in danger.
Yeah, the stakes were pretty mad.
The responsibility for me was in the preparation and turning up for him.
As a storyteller, as an actor, the political act is in the choices.
As in: What the fuck you do when you come on to set?
I went fully in, you know.
Can you talk to me a little bit about the preparation?
I read thatyou spent three days alone in your room preparing for Malcolm.That bullshit.
So for Malcolm, they wanted the tape in 24 hours.
And I said, I simply cant prepare 15, 20 pages in 24 hours.
That was for the audition.
I came in very last minute.
And literally [Regina King] had a few weeks to find her Malcolm.
I just did a deep dive in, and it was a bit of a whirlwind.
Like I had no set process.
The chemistry among you and Leslie Odom Jr., Aldis Hodge, and Eli Goree was so strong.
We didnt know one another at all.
We did a table read the night before, and we blocked one of the scenes.
We were rehearsing as we were going along.
I think the chemistry really was down to Regina.
Youve now played Barack Obama and Malcolm X.
There was a different pressure with [each].
With Malcolm, I wondered whether the community would accept seeing him in this way.
But Regina had her eyes on that.
And I trusted her completely.
With Barack, I felt like I didnt have time.
It felt like a whirlwind.
I hadnt said a word of [Barack] out loud.
To myself I had, but not in a room with other people.
So I think that was the most nervous Ive been, when I first got there.
This feels like my first job in so many ways.
I feel like the past 10 years have sort of come together on this.
Regina showed me a way to work, the way I want to work moving forward.
