Paul McCartney has thrown his full support behind the upcoming Beatles biopics, but said that there is one small issue that made him reach out to the director and urge him “don’t do this”.
The films in question are the four-movie biopic series currently being worked on by Sam Mendes, slated for a simultaneous release in April 2028. They will star Paul Mescal as McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
Each of the four films will tell the story of the band from a different member’s point of view, and mark the first scripted Beatles movies made with the full approval of Apple Corps and the surviving band members, as well as access to the group’s music rights.
The supporting cast also includes Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono, Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey, and Paul McCartney has already given the project his seal of approval. He also said he was pleased that Mescal will be portraying him, describing the actor as “very cute” before the pair sat down together for an interview earlier this year.
In a recent interview, however, he has said that there is one issue he has with the biopics, and it even led to him sending a text to Mendez which read “don’t do this!”.
Speaking to Amy Poehler as part of her Good Hang podcast, McCartney said that he saw a still from the films, taken as the cast were spotted filming the creation of the iconic ‘Abbey Road‘ album cover in London, and noticed that the actor playing him is shorter than the actor portraying John Lennon.
He insisted that all four members are about the same height, but “Guess what? [Mescal looks] smaller than the guy who plays John!”
“I don’t know how Sam’s going to deal with it… but [Mendes] he sent me a still from the filming they’re doing, crossing the Abbey Road crossing, and the Paul character is markedly smaller.”
While Poehler suggested it could be simply because Macca chose to go barefooted when photographed for the ‘Abbey Road’ cover, McCartney went on to share that he texted Mendes in frustration and wrote: “Don’t do this!”, to which the director reassured him: “It’s OK, it’s just the stride pattern”.
He also revealed that the director went on to share another photo of the cast “where they were equal” in height to reassure the musician, and that he had the same issue with his depiction in the 2009 drama Nowhere Boy.
Only time will tell if the four actors are the same height in the films, and McCartney’s comments come after Mescal recently said that filming would occupy him for much of 2026.
Jane Asher, who dated McCartney from 1963 until 1968, has revealed that she has no plans to watch the films, and earlier this year Pattie Boyd said nobody involved with the films had contacted her about her portrayal, saying: “I could have really told them great stories.”
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