'He knew it better than I did': Paul McCartney lauds Paul Mescal's guitar ability ahead of actor playing Beatle in biopic
The Beatle was impressed by the guitar ability of the actor who will play him in four movies releasing next year
Paul McCartney has gushed about the guitar-playing ability of Paul Mescal ahead of the Irish actor portraying him in a series of films about The Beatles.
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McCartney met with Mescal and planned to teach him how to play left-handed, only to find out that he had already learned to play the seminal 1968 Beatles track, Blackbird.
Mescal will portray McCartney is a four-film event next year, with each focusing on a member of the Fab Four.
McCartney told broadcasters: “He came into this office and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll show him how to do Blackbird.’ So I picked up the guitar and started playing… and he played along exactly! I think he knew it better than I did!”.
“It was amazing how studied and how well-educated he was about me. So, yeah, I thought, OK, I’ll leave you to it,'” he added.
When asked whether he did give the Hamnet star advice on his vocals, the rock legend replied: “None! None!"
Earlier this year, Mescal gushed about the session.
He told reporters: “That is the coolest thing my job has ever afforded me. I was kind of having an out-of-body experience, being like, ‘I was in drama school nine years ago and now I’m sat opposite Paul McCartney and we’re playing Blackbird,'” he said.
“I was like, ‘I love my job.'”
“It would just be crazy to not play it left-handed, you know?” he explained. “You’re like, ‘Nah. I like (McCartney) a lot, but I don’t love him.’ That would be the messaging if I didn’t play left-handed.”
The four films will see Mescal star alongside Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison in a production directed by Sam Mendes.