Bob Marley: One Love star Kingsley Ben-Adir has revealed that people often send him gifts because they think he’s Ben Kingsley.
In a new interview with NME, Ben-Adir was asked if he’s ever mistakenly received anything intended for the Oscar-winning actor due to them having similar names.
“Every other time I check into a hotel there’s flowers and cards and gifts, because they think Ben Kingsley’s coming,” said Ben-Adir, laughing. “And I don’t tell anyone. I just keep them.
“The first job I did, often I’ll go down to the car and the driver will go, ‘Oh my god, I thought Ben Kingsley was coming down here’, because they get the names mixed up. So Ben Kingsley has been a part of my journey up until now and still is. I don’t know when it will end.”
It comes after The White Lotus star Tom Hollander recently revealed that he once received Tom Holland’s “astonishing” pay cheques for The Avengers after the accountant got their names mixed up.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ben-Adir debunked reports that he originally turned down his lead role in the upcoming biopic Bob Marley: One Love, saying instead that he wanted to make everyone on the production aware that he was nothing like the reggae icon.
“When the audition came through, my feeling was… does everyone know that I can’t sing and I can’t dance, and physically I’m very different to Bob?’ My feeling was, do they know? I don’t waste my time or their time.”
He continued: “I’m watching Bob at the Rainbow Theatre in ’77 and I’m going, ‘This is the most magnetic thing I’ve ever seen.’ I don’t understand what’s going on but I can’t stop watching him, and it felt really dangerous. I’ve played icons and stuff, but I’ve never played an artist. And Bob was an artist first.
“This is a man who was a genius when it came to what he did. His music had transcended in culture; his music will love on. So I never, ever would have said no [to the role], I just wanted to make sure that people knew I was coming in at a very basic level.”
Back in November, Barbie director Greta Gerwig suggested that Ben-Adir should be cast as the next James Bond, saying the actor “can do anything”.
Bob Marley: One Love’ is in cinemas from February 14.
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