Photo: Good Hang with Amy Poehler via YouTube

Not even the man who wrote “Yesterday” is immune to harboring a grudge or two when it comes to making sure people know how big and strong and tall he is. Paul McCartney let that be known while appearing on Good Hang With Amy Poehler, admitting that he feels Beatles biopics have slighted him with the actors cast to portray him, especially in comparison to John Lennon. It began with 2009’s Nowhere Boy, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster (a.k.a. the Love Actually cutie) as Macca. “You know I got a thing about that, do you? We were all the same height, and Ringo was a bit smaller,” he explained. “The John character, he’s bigger than me in the film. My character is kind of wimpy, smaller than John. John knocks me to the floor. It’s like, Sam, this is not true. She said, ‘This is a movie; it’s not a documentary.’ And I thought, Well, I don’t like that explanation. But I couldn’t do anything.” About Nowhere Boy’s narrative decisions, McCartney added, “There was I, the little Paul, and John the great big hero. And it’s like, no, that’s not true.” This opinion has now shifted to Sam Mendes’s quartet of Beatles biopics, in which McCartney is being portrayed by Paul Mescal.

“And guess what? He’s smaller than the guy who plays John,” he said of Mescal, who’s currently in production for the films. Like he did with Taylor-Johnson, McCartney contacted Mendes to give the director a piece of his mind. “I said, ‘Sam, I’ve got just one thing that I need to say to you.’ I don’t know how Sam is going to deal with it. He sent me a picture, a still, from the filming they were doing and they’re crossing the Abbey Road crossing. And the Paul character is markedly smaller. I texted him, ‘Sam! Smaller! Don’t do this. You said you wouldn’t do it!’ He said, ‘No, it’s okay, it’s just the stride pattern.’” Promo shots released from the four biopics indeed show Harris Dickinson, who won the Lennon role, with a good few inches over Mescal. If this happens a third time, expect a whack from Maxwell’s silver hammer.

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