Ziggy Marley has stepped forward to address rumors there is a fallout between him and some of his brothers, including Damian Marley, over the newly premiered Bob Marley: One Love biopic.
The movie, which premiered on Valentine’s Day (February 14), saw a record Box Office turn with the biggest Valentine’s Day debut and topped the US Box Office with a $51 million haul in the final tally. The film’s success has so far silenced a lot of critics, some of whom thought that a Jamaican or one of the Marley brothers should’ve played the role of Bob.
The producers, which include Ziggy and Cedella Marley, ultimately chose British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir for the role of Bob after being impressed by his audition. We should also point out that none of the Marley brothers auditioned for Bob Marley’s role.
Ziggy Marley and Kingsley Ben Adir at One Love Premiere / cred: Jason Koerner for Paramount
Some folks also created an uproar over the omission of Cindy Breakspeare from the final cut, which stirs rumors that Ziggy Marley, one of the executive producers of the movie, had a rift with his brother Damian’ Jr Gong’ Marley. To make matters worse, Jr Gong was not present at any of the film’s premieres in Jamaica or overseas. He has also not promoted the movie on any of his social media accounts.
Ziggy Marley did an interview with Irie FM’s EBUZZ, where he addressed the rumors of a rift with his brothers and other criticisms surrounding the biopic.
“Me talk to them today, me talk to them everyday,” Ziggy said. “Listen we a family we don’t play round we don’t play those games.”
“Everybody have them thing weh them a do Stephen [Marley] deh pon tour, Damian deh pon tour but them know say we represent so you know when you see the family, we united,” he added.
Ziggy Marley added that he is not afraid of any criticisms from viewers of the movie and admitted that some of them may be accurate. Nevertheless, he pointed out the overwhelmingly positive reviews the film received from viewers, which is a strong rebuke to critics like Rotten Tomato, who scored it low.
“Mi love everyone, mi is a man weh love people. Mi love everyone, even when yuh talk negative. Mi nah fight nobody. Mi nuh come fi fight people,” Ziggy continues. “Some a dem might a tell di truth to. A likkle truth inna di ting weh dem a critique. A nuh nutting. Mi nuh mine because yuh can have constructive criticism.”
Bob Marley: One Love is already one of the biggest musical biopics in history and is chasing down frontrunner Bohemian Rapsody as the biggest music biopic of all time at the Box Office.
