By Asif Lakhani
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
For a man who’s made his career as one half of Atlanta’s dynamic rap duo Outkast, portraying the namesake in the film “Jimi: All Is by My Side,” out Friday, was actually not the easiest thing for Andre “3000” Benjamin to do.
“I didn’t know at the time if, you know, I was the perfect person for it,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was too old (or) if even physically I could do it.”
Enter the Jimi Hendrix film’s director, John Ridley, and things changed. Earlier this year, Ridley received a best writing/adapted screenplay Oscar for best picture winner “12 Years a Slave.” “(John’s) persistence and him believing in it gave me the drive to do it,” Benjamin said in a phone interview last weekend from Los Angeles.
The film allowed Benjamin to focus on something instead of negative things, he said. Benjamin noted in a recent New York Times interview that working on the movie helped get him out of a rut.
"The one thing about Hendrix, his career wasn't long," he said. (Hendrix died at age 27 in 1970.) The abbreviated history meant Benjamin had to take liberties to give the audience his Hendrix, which is how Ridley suggested he approach the portrayal.
The on-screen merger between Benjamin and Hendrix feels authentic because there are similarities between them.
For one, their eclectic fashion styles could be featured in a magazine installment of “Who Wore It Better?”
Also, “Anytime an African-American tries to do something outside of the genre that most African-Americans are into, it can be perceived as some kind of influence,” Benjamin said, acknowledging Hendrix’s big influence on Outkast’s early years.
Benjamin revealed that he worked with a voice coach to play the role of Hendrix accurately, and that he’s fundamentally different from Hendrix in that his dominant hand is the right, while Hendrix played with his left.
That was the “hardest part of the movie,” Benjamin said.
Does he still play the guitar?
“I don’t waste my time to try to do any Hendrix songs justice, but I do get enjoyment out of (playing the guitar),” he said.
During his experience playing Hendrix, Benjamin learned that the legendary guitarist had skin issues that made him self-conscious and superstitious.
As a result, Hendrix had blacked-out windows in his home because he thought it would help his condition, and he also carried skin cream in his guitar case.
“During the whole time of me making and preparing for the role, I would chew a lot of gum,” Benjamin said, since he noticed Hendrix doing it in archival video footage. The conclusion Benjamin draws is it was probably the cool, new thing to do during Hendrix’s time.
From a musician’s perspective, Benjamin also learned about the improvement and pioneering of sound that Hendrix had worked on with electrical engineer Roger Mayer, who was conducting sonar research for the British Admiralty.
“A lot of Hendrix’s sound and some of the pedals that he had … were actually military genius stuff” unavailable to anyone anywhere else, Benjamin said.
Benjamin praises Hendrix for being a “feel artist.”
“Most guitar players that play guitar they look like they have something strapped on to them. You know they’re doing a task, like some kind of instrument for working.” On Hendrix, it looked like the guitar was a part of him, Benjamin said.
“His feel was like no other.”
Benjamin hasn’t heard from Hendrix’s family or friends about the portrayal, but he did speak to legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck about the movie and Hendrix in Detroit. Beck was thrilled by their encounter and has many Hendrix stories, Benjamin said. He even told Benjamin “you kind of move like (Hendrix).”
Despite Benjamin working with a voice coach, the film isn’t filled with dialogue in every scene, which commands the viewer’s attention. It really does feel like a film driven by the music instead of a movie about a rock star. Still, the documentary-style film focuses squarely on Benjamin as Hendrix, and the performance feels real.
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