Sir Paul McCartney has revealed his one big issue with Sir Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles films: the height of the actor playing him. The four biopics, due in 2028, will each focus on a different Beatle in a cinematic crossover event, with Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan and Joseph Quinn cast as the music icons.
McCartney’s height concern
Speaking on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, Sir Paul insisted: ‘We were all the same height. Ringo was a bit smaller, and if you look at photos, we’re all the same height.’ He was unhappy that he keeps being portrayed as shorter than John Lennon, exclaiming: ‘Guess what? [Paul Mescal’s] smaller than the guy who plays John!’
Mescal, 30, is around 5ft 11, while Harris, 30, is 6ft 2 — over three inches taller than Lennon. Sir Paul said he told Mendes: ‘I’ve got just one thing I need to say to you. You know, Paul’s a bit smaller than me! So I don’t know how Sam’s going to deal with it.’
Director’s reassurance
He added that Mendes sent him a still from filming of the Abbey Road crossing, where ‘the Paul character is markedly smaller’. The 19-time Grammy winner begged the director not to make him shorter, pleading: ‘You said you wouldn’t do it!’ Amy joked that, due to Sir Paul’s bare feet in the iconic Abbey Road picture, they couldn’t even use ‘lifts’ to make him appear taller.
According to Sir Paul, Mendes — who directed Skyfall and American Beauty — reassured him they’d all be the same height after some photo editing.
Previous height issue
This isn’t the first time Sir Paul has been given a height disadvantage on screen. He reflected on 2009’s Nowhere Boy, the Lennon-inspired biopic directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, which starred a then 18-year-old Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lennon. Taylor-Johnson was taller than his co-star Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who played a ‘kind of wimpy’ Sir Paul, according to the singer. In one fabricated moment, Lennon knocks his ‘smaller’ pal to the floor.
Sir Paul recalled Taylor-Johnson’s explanation: ‘Her only explanation, bless her because she’s still a good friend, she said, “This is a movie. It’s not a documentary.” I thought, “Well, I don’t like that explanation.” But I couldn’t do anything because she [by then] she’d made the film.’ He added: ‘There was I, little Paul, you know? John, the great big hero and it’s like, “No! It’s not true!”‘
At least in the new films, he’ll still be taller than Sir Ringo, as actor Barry Keoghan is apparently 5ft 8.
