TV

‘Roots’ star’s DNA revelation

British-born actor Malachi Kirby is largely unknown in the US.

That’s about to change.

Kirby, 26, stars as Kunta Kinte in “Roots,” a four-part reboot of the landmark ABC miniseries premiering Monday night on History. Like its predecessor, “Roots” is based on Alex Haley’s sprawling novel chronicling his ancestor Kunta Kinte’s journey from West African warrior to being sold into slavery in 1760s Virginia. Kirby’s co-stars include Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anika Noni Rose and Mekhi Phifer.

The soft-spoken Kirby, who’s appeared on the British TV series “EastEnders” and “Doctor Who,” spoke to The Post about the role of Kunta Kinte — what it means to him and how it inspired his own investigation into his family’s history.

LeVar Burton, who originated the role of Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries, told me you were chosen after an “exhaustive” search.

When the audition came around for me, I was scared, to be honest. The weight of responsibility in telling such a story, let alone trying to recreate LeVar’s performance — which for me could never be touched — were shoes I felt were far too big for me to fill. I went to the first audition and it was the worst audition I ever had — everything went wrong. I got there a half-hour late — and I’m never late — and the actual lines I learned went completely out the window, like I was illiterate. My accent [as Kunta Kinte] was all over the place and I apologized several times to the casting director for the shambles of my “performance.” Five long months went past … and my agent called me and said, “You must have done something good because they want to see you again.” I was like, “What? Are they desperate?” I still had a lot of doubts about the project — why it needed to be done again, how it was different from the original. The idea of a remake scared me based on every other remake I’ve seen.

Malachi Kirby and LeVar Burton (left). Burton (right) as Kunta Kinte in the original “Roots” miniseries, which aired on ABC in 1977.Casey Crafford; Everett Collection

What changed your attitude in that regard?

I sat down with the producer, Mark Wolper. His dad, David, produced the first “Roots,” and I asked him, “Why are you making this again?” He told me he knows it needs to be done because his then-16-year-old son watched the original “Roots” and his words were: “I get why this is important to you, Dad, but it’s like your music — it doesn’t speak to me.” At that point, Mark realized that possibly a whole generation of kids his son’s age have the same response. And they wouldn’t watch the old “Roots” for the same reasons: There are no actors they recognize, the picture quality seems outdated … he also told me that it’s not a remake, but a “retelling” of the story with a lot more historical facts.

Reading the script made me realize that the story is not about slavery, necessarily, but about family and the strength of the human spirit and Kunta Kinte’s resilience. He never actually becomes a slave, for me — he remains a Mandinka warrior and … is able to pass that down to his children. There are so many people today who don’t have that integrity, who don’t know who they are or where they came from. I took a DNA test a few days ago and it was really eye-opening.

Tell me about your DNA test.

I was born in London as a second-generation Jamaican and I always believed … that I would have ancestry from West Africa. There was something that drew me to that area, but I had nothing to back that. The DNA testing people sent me a bottle, I spat in it and they told me where I come from: I’m 75 percent West African, which didn’t surprise me and gives me confidence now. I also found out that I’m 21 percent Asian, which was interesting, and I’m 1.8 percent European. I hope to do more research to find out specifically where in West Africa I came from.

Did you watch the original “Roots” miniseries?

I was definitely familiar with the original story. My mom came to me about three years ago and gave me the [“Roots”] DVD and I basically watched the whole series that same day, straight through. It had a profound impact on me. I think, at the time, it was the first visual production I’d seen depicting that form of slavery. This was way before “12 Years a Slave”; I knew about slavery but had never watched anything depicting that.

I made a conscious decision not to watch the original [“Roots”] again before doing this series, but to come to the story the way [LeVar Burton] did — with his own understanding, intuition and artistry.

Did you learn about the slave trade in America in school?

No. Any kind of history that reflected anyone that looks like me I pretty much had to find out for myself. We studied English kings and queens, and may have touched on the Nazis and Jews — that particular time — but as far as history about African people, that was never mentioned.