We're borrowing a C-suiter's office at Paramount's Times Square headquarters, and the thermostat is jacked diabolically high. The thirty-seven-year-old British actor is here to promote Bob Marley: One Love (out this Valentine's Day), and he's flown overseas for the first round of promotional duties. That's all to say: This could be a tedious work trip, but it's immediately clear that I'm talking with a man who has mastered the art of having fun on the job.
A brief history of that work: Ben-Adir grew up in London; conquered the local theater circuit (surprise: a lot of Shakespeare); and, in 2020, portrayed an anxious, tender Malcolm X in One Night in Miami. This past summer, he played one of the many Kens in Barbie. He didn't have a "job" the way Ryan Gosling's Ken did ("beach," as you will almost certainly recall). Instead, his Ken "just looks to Ken-Ryan to see what's good," Ben-Adir explains. Character development went like this: "I just thought he should always be holding something for him." Ben-Adir did his mandatory Marvel duty on last summer's Secret Invasion, as a sociopathic alien opposite Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury.
This story is from the March 2024 edition of Esquire US.
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This story is from the March 2024 edition of Esquire US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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