McCartney says he matched Lennon for height and tells film-makers to get it right

Paul McCartney insists he stood eye to eye with John Lennon and George Harrison, and he wants the films about them to show it.

He set out his version on Good Hang with Amy Poehler, in the episode titled 'Paul McCartney | Good Hang with Amy Poehler' YouTube. McCartney said he, Lennon and Harrison were all the same height. Ringo Starr, the band's drummer, was a bit smaller.

He also gave the age order in plain terms. Harrison was about one and a half years younger than McCartney, and Lennon was one and a half years older, as reported by Billboard on 13 October 2026. It is a short claim with a long memory behind it. Same generation. Same eyeline, he suggested.

The point was not idle chat. McCartney said Sam Taylor-Johnson's 2009 film Nowhere Boy, a biopic about the teenage Lennon, a drama based on a real person's early life, showed Lennon as the bigger of the two. That included a moment where Lennon knocks McCartney to the floor. McCartney said that was not true.

He said he told Taylor-Johnson so directly at the time. Her answer, as he recalled it, was simple. It is a movie, not a documentary.

McCartney said the same worry has returned with Sam Mendes' upcoming four-part Beatles biopic series, a drama told across four films. Paul Mescal plays McCartney and Harris Dickinson plays Lennon, yet McCartney complained that the actor playing Lennon is taller. He said he contacted Mendes after seeing a still, a single released production image, recreating the Abbey Road crossing, in which the Paul figure looks markedly smaller.

What makes this stand out is how closely he is watching the detail. A casting photo was enough to prompt a call to the director.

Listeners can hear the full exchange in audio and video. Good Hang with Amy Poehler posts full video episodes to its official YouTube channel, with audio of the show available on Spotify. The show is built around long conversations with guests, and this edition stays in that form throughout.

Spotify's listing for the McCartney interview says it also touches on other ground entirely, including almost becoming a coil-winding king, being a self-described playaholic and whether McCartney has ever smoked. The height debate is only one part of a wider talk.