Kingsley Ben-Adir prepared for his upcoming portrayal of Bob Marley during downtime on the set of Barbie.

The Peaky Blinders actor, who played one of the Kens alongside Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu, set up an area behind the extravagant Barbie Land set so he could practise for Bob Marley: One Love whenever he wasn’t needed.

“I had just eight weeks to prepare so I bought a guitar and did loads of research. I set up my ‘Bob station’ just behind where Ryan Gosling yells out ‘Sublime,'” he revealed on The Graham Norton Show on Friday.

To prepare for his portrayal of the Jamaican reggae musician, the British actor also took singing lessons and reached out to Marley’s friends and family.

“The plan was always for it to be his voice, but I took singing lessons so I could understand him and what it is like to sing. By the time we got to the acoustic sessions parts of the songs are me and I wasn’t butchering them terribly!” he shared.

“I didn’t know much about his story, so I talked to a lot of his friends and family. He was such an icon and a hero, but I wanted to find out who he was as a man and as a father.”

The Secret Invasion star also admitted his first day of filming as Marley was terrifying, saying, “All those people were behind the camera. I was so scared.”

Bob Marley: One Love, which also stars Lashana Lynch and James Norton, opens in cinemas on 14 February.

The Graham Norton Show airs in the U.K. on Friday nights.

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