Interview: Kingsley Ben-Adir on playing Malcolm X in "One Night in Miami"

by Murtada Elfadl

Kingsley Ben-Adir is having a breakthrough year. In fact that’s the award he won at the Gothams on the same day I talked to him over zoom. He acknowledges that his performance in Regina King’s One Night in Miami is one that brought him more attention than any previous role. You may remember him as Zoë Kravitz’s ex- boyfriend in the short-lived Hulu series High Fidelity or from the Netflix series The OA. But it’s his performance as Malcolm X that’s being talked about this season for a possible best actor nomination at the Oscars.

One Night in Miami, adapted by Kemp Powers from his play, imagines a historic night in which four Black icons Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) before he changed his name to Muhammed Ali, Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.),  Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Malcom X (Ben-Adir), come together in a Miami motel room in 1964 and debate their roles as leaders and celebrities at that moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X is the one who set up the meeting and the one who has an agenda that becomes apparent as the night goes on. He’s at the center of the film giving Ben-Adir a marvelous opportunity to showcase his talent.

[The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]

Murtada Elfadl: This film lives and dies by the interplay between the four actors. Can you talk about your relationship on set with Aldis, Leslie and Eli? There is passion to the performances and I think you're feeding off of each other. 

KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR: I think Regina very carefully hand-picked each of us. I chemistry tested with Leslie before I was cast...

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Review: One Night in Miami

by Matt St Clair

Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami is a wonderful departure from the traditional biopic formula. Instead of focusing on key events from the lives of the famous, One Night in Miami  gives us a fictionalized, night-long conversation four iconic men might have been having at that exact moment in history. The titular night is February 25th, 1964, just after Cassius Clay’s boxing match with Sonny Liston and just before the famous athlete changed his name to Muhammad Ali.   

Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), musician Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and former NFL player Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) gather together in a motel room to discuss the weight they carry as celebrities to help create social change through the Civil Rights Movement. Thanks to the lead actors, along with genius writing by Kemp Powers who adapted his own  play for the screen, we’re able to get a glimpse of the real people behind the iconic personas...

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Link Bonanza

• The Guardian interviews Anya Taylor-Joy on her passion for acting, Emma, and The Queens Gambit
• AV Club Oscar Isaac to play Solid Snake in the film adaptation of video game Metal Gear Solid
• Atlantic a wonderful interview with David Fincher about grievances with Hollywood, the death of midbudget movies, and Mank

After the jump our streaming future, Catherine O'Hara, rising Egyptian cinema, MTV Movie Awards, new Christmas albums, and more...

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Review: "Hamilton"

by Eric Blume

Disney+ made a shrewd and smart move by releasing the filmed-stage movie musical Hamilton over the July 4 weekend, at a time when the country really needs it.  The themes and ideas of this Pulitzer Prize-winning theater phenomenon from five years ago seem even more relevant and powerful than they did upon arrival, and the movie version, which debuted this weekend, is a stage capture of the principal original Broadway cast, edited together from three live performances filmed in June 2016.  

Filmed versions of staged material always have their limitations:  one can never capture the visceral pump of energy that’s happening in the Richard Rodgers Theater before and during a performance of this show in particular.  As such, the Hamilton movie ultimately succeeds best in preserving an unbeatable group of actors in the biggest show of this century, exactly as the original creators intended it to play...

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Yes No Maybe So: "Harriet"

by Nathaniel R

Good grief but a lot of trailers have been premiering in the past few days. It's getting very difficult to keep up but we'll keep trying. Today we need to discuss the forthcoming biopic of American icon Harriet Tubman, Harriet, which hits movie theaters on November 1st and is clearly hoping for a successful Oscar bound run...

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