All Is By My Side
In this biopic directed by John Ridley, Benjamin plays Jimi Hendrix, a sensitive young musician who grows from a backup guitarist playing New York’s Cheetah club to making a mark in London’s music scene as rock legend. Co-starring Imogen Poots, Hayley Atwell.
I didn’t know anything about Hendrix until I was older, in my 20s, but that’s kind of just me being an artist myself and wanting to know people doing the same thing that I’d done. I think any African-American kid who picks up a guitar, they’re going to look back in history and see who was playing. Jimi will always come up. That was how I got into his music and of course after that, reading bios and watching documentaries and that kind of stuff. I think a lot of artists have things in common, but Jimi is one of the standouts.