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Paul McCartney Reveals Big Issue With New Beatles Movies

The Beatles icon says he has a major concern about the film series’ casting.

Paul McCartney is worried about how accurately the upcoming four-part Beatles biopic portrays him.

The films—one for each member of the iconic British band—are set to release in April 2028. McCartney granted the biopic full music rights and has publicly supported it.

But the 84-year-old told Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast on Tuesday that he has “a thing” about his height.

McCartney is estimated to be about 5 feet 11 inches tall, about the same as former bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison, with Ringo Starr slightly shorter. But he said several adaptations have portrayed him as shorter than his former bandmates, such as 2009’s Nowhere Boy, where a taller Aaron Taylor-Johnson played Lennon and a 1-inch shorter Thomas Brodie-Sangster played McCartney.

This one appears to be following the same trend.

Actor Paul Mescal, who is playing McCartney in the new adaptation, has called McCartney an “extraordinary man” and someone he’s “always admired.”

“You could count on one hand how many people have influenced the world as much as he has,” Mescal said. “His relationship to his art is so inspiring to me.”

“And guess what? He’s smaller than the guy who plays John,” McCartney said on the podcast, prompting Poehler to burst into laughter.

He continued, saying he texted director Sam Mendes after seeing a still of the four actors crossing Abbey Road.

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“I said, ‘Sam, I’ve got just one thing that I need to say to you… Don’t do this! You said you wouldn’t do it,” McCartney jokingly yelled, recounting the messages on Good Hang.

Mescal is also 5 feet 11 inches tall, but Harris Dickinson, who portrays Lennon, is 6 feet 2 inches tall, making McCartney seem shorter once again.

When discussing Nowhere Boy, McCartney recalled also telling director Sam Taylor-Johnson about his qualms. But she told him that it was a movie, not a documentary.

“Bless her, because she’s still a good friend… I thought, ‘Hmm. Well, I don’t like that explanation,” McCartney said. “But I couldn’t do anything because by now she had made the film. There was I, little Paul. John, the great big hero. I was like, ‘No, it’s not true!’”

The living former Beatles members seem to have been heavily involved in decisions, as Starr, 84, said he met with Mendes and changed his portrayal in the script.

McCartney wrapped up his rant about his biggest biopic insecurity on Good Hang, suggesting stilts, but he still doesn’t know “how Sam’s going to deal with it.”

The Wings frontman then talked with Poehler about the playful, competitive nature of his close relationships with his former bandmates, as they grew up and went to school together before selling 600 million records worldwide and sparking the famous crazed fan phenomenon of “Beatlemania.”

“That’s what families do,” Poehler said. “Families tease, and they can come at each other in ways that other people can’t. And that always felt like the relationship you had and have with them still.”

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