A BIOPIC. INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR KEVIN MACDONALD, DIRECTOR OF «MARLEY»

• And what was it like to take a Project like this? About someone so popular?

• Oh, it was a huge privilege to get to make this film. And obviously things, a lot things have been made before and written before about Bob, but I felt was that nobody had ever done anything which was really about the man, which ever really was honest about who he was and where that inspiration to make the music came from, and what the music was really kind of about, what it was really saying. And also, there’s a way in which we hear Marley around us all the time now. You go to a restaurant, it’s playing. It’s in the toilets, it’s in an elevator, and it’s in a supermarket.

You kind of become a bit deaf of it, you don’t really listen to it anymore, because it’s just there. So in a way I wanted people to, sort of, listen to the music afresh. Once you’ve, once you sort of understand the man, I think then you hear the music in a different way. That’s certainly my idea.

• What is there in Marley’s life story that recommended itself to you?

• Well, it’s a, it’s a fascinating story. I mean, that’s what it is. Most of us go to the movies to see a great story. His life story to me is in itself extraordinary even if you didn’t know this music. I mean, everyone knows his music. I don’t think probably there’s a person alive who hasn’t heard a Bob Marley song. The story of the rags to riches tale in Jamaica, the dealing with the racial issues that he had to deal with growing up. Dealing with the violence of Jamaica, the gangsters of Jamaica. Touring the world. It’s an amazing tale. But obviously this film is made for the people who have heard Bob Marley and who want to know more about him and understand who the man is. As I say, it’s a film about the man.

• Why is Bob Marley so special? What was it about him that touched people?

• Well, I think what people love about Bob is, first and foremost, you know, he’s a very attractive, gorgeous-looking guy and that doesn’t hurt. But, more significantly, he has a message which he really means. He’s really sincere, in what he says in his lyrics. And he actually, is trying to communicate some sort of religious perspective on life, some of philosophical perspective on life, which is offering solace to people who are feeling miserable, people who are going through difficult time, who are political oppressed or whatever. And because you know that he’s been through a tough time in his life, because he’s lived through terrible poverty, because he’s had to struggle, you believe him when he says the things that he says in his songs. When he says everything’s going to be all right, you know that there’s somebody talking who has been through tough times and who has seen that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

So that, I think, is one of the reasons why he appeals to people who feel like, you know, they’re not understood. Who feel like they’re oppressed. And he is, I think, probably, numerically the most listened artist in the world. I would think. Because not only he is listened to in the western world, so to speak, but he’s listened to in Latin America, he’s huge.  In Indonesia, he’s huge. In India and Tibet. Because his message is universal. And the message of freedom and of tolerance and of overcoming the tribulations of your life is something that we can all, at one stage or another in our lives, relate to.

Transcription video by Y.Muriel

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