Page 531 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

8 April 2021

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