McCartney says Mescal looks too short in Beatles films
Paul McCartney thinks the actor playing him in Sam Mendes's Beatles films is too short.
He told the "Good Hang" podcast that Paul Mescal, who plays McCartney, looks smaller than Harris Dickinson, who plays John Lennon, according to Variety. He was not happy.
Mendes had sent McCartney a still from filming of the cast crossing the Abbey Road crossing in London, the zebra crossing pictured on the Beatles' 1969 album cover, according to Variety. In the image, the McCartney figure is markedly smaller, McCartney said. His reply came by text. "Sam! Smaller? Don't do this! You said you wouldn't do it," he said he wrote, as reported by Variety.
McCartney said the real Beatles were all the same height, except Ringo Starr, who was a bit smaller, according to Variety. The published heights tell a different story. Mescal is listed as five feet 11 inches tall and Dickinson as six feet two inches tall, according to The Independent. That is a gap of three inches.
He has made this complaint before. McCartney said he spoke to Sam Taylor-Johnson, director of 2009's "Nowhere Boy," a drama about Lennon's teenage years, after that film showed McCartney as smaller than Lennon, as reported by Variety.
Mendes is directing four films under the official title "The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event," according to Variety. The cast is Mescal as McCartney, Dickinson as Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Starr, according to Variety. The cast also includes Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono, according to Variety. The series is made for Sony Pictures, according to Variety. Mendes was in the middle of shooting the project in February 2026, according to Variety.
All four films are scheduled for theatrical release, meaning cinemas, in April 2028, according to Variety.
For fans, this means the whole story arrives at once. Four films in one month is a crowded calendar. It leaves little space between each part.
What makes this stand out is the fact-checker. Few films about real people get height notes from the person being played. McCartney saw the Abbey Road photo and sent his verdict straight to the director.
