Paul McCartney has a height complaint about the Beatles movies, and he has already taken it to the director. Speaking on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast, the 84-year-old said he is troubled that Paul Mescal, who plays him in Sam Mendes’s four-film Beatles project, looks shorter than Harris Dickinson, who plays John Lennon. “We were all the same height,” McCartney said, adding that Ringo Starr stood a little shorter than the other three.
The worry sharpened in August, when the cast recreated the Abbey Road album cover during filming in London. Mendes sent McCartney a still from the shoot. McCartney said the character of Paul looked “markedly smaller” crossing the street. He fired off a text: “Sam! Smaller! Don’t do this! You said you wouldn’t do it.” Mendes replied that stride length caused the illusion and sent a second frame in which the actors stood level.
McCartney is not convinced. “I don’t know how Sam’s gonna deal with it,” he said. His objection comes from experience. He traced the grievance to the 2009 drama “Nowhere Boy,” which he felt cast his younger self as slight and meek beside a physically dominant Lennon. The director’s answer then, he recalled, was that the film was a movie, not a documentary. He said he disliked that explanation.
The exchange carries a note of humor and no sign of a feud. McCartney remains on friendly terms with the “Nowhere Boy” director and has been in contact with Mendes throughout production. Reports say Mescal also met McCartney while preparing for the role, and the actor plans to sing in the films.
Mendes directs all four installments through Neal Street Productions and Sony Pictures. Barry Keoghan plays Starr and Joseph Quinn plays George Harrison. The films are scheduled to arrive in April 2028. Mendes has not publicly answered McCartney’s remarks.
