Paul McCartney admits seeing Linda McCartney in ‘Man on the Run’ made him “very emotional”
Paul McCartney has opened up about how seeing Linda McCartney scenes in Man on the Run made him “very emotional”.
The new documentary, directed by Morgan Neville, explores how McCartney, with the help of Linda and Wings, built himself back up during the 1970s following the collapse of The Beatles, which also took a huge personal toll on the musical great.
Additionally, the film, which is set to arrive on Prime Video on February 25th, contains photographs shot by Linda, as well as archive interview footage with her.
Speaking during a Q&A session in London on February 18th, McCartney opened up about the aspects of the film that touched him the most, sharing (per Uncut), “I think all the stuff with the kids and Linda, you know, is lovely to see. I mean, obviously the Linda stuff was very emotional, because she looks so beautiful… she’s so cool. So that comes over.”
He also recalled of Linda, “If there were ideas that were a little bit crazy, I’d say, ‘Should I do that? Could I do that?’ And she’d say, ‘It’s allowed.’ And it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s brilliant.’ It’s a great philosophy in life: ‘It’s allowed.’”
Paul and Linda married in 1969, sharing four children and remaining together until she sadly died of cancer in 1998. It was recently confirmed that Linda will be depicted by Saoirse Ronan in Sam Mendes’ upcoming set of biopics on the Fab Four, which are currently in production.
Elsewhere during the Q&A, McCartney lovingly said of his tight bond with his Fab Four bandmates, powerfully stating, “I loved [John], you know, I loved all the guys in The Beatles. We had so much in common, and we were like a little magical foursome. I try and think of how else it could have been, just with me, John, George and Ringo, it was a magic grouping. And we did OK.”
Meanwhile, during an interview on Radio X, director Neville explained the deliberate choice for present-day McCartney to be only heard in Man on the Run rather than seen, which was a conscious decision that had the full support of The Beatles legend.
He revealed, “I mean, from the beginning I thought first of all it is way more intimate to have just two of you sitting there talking than having cameras in his face. And I knew I needed to get him to a certain place. But also, when you don’t have 80-year-old people talking about 50years ago, it becomes a present-tense story. You’re just kind of in it and you’re not looking back on it.”
Neville continued, “And Paul said at one point, ‘Thank God we are doing it this way because I don’t want to be an old person in a young person’s story.’ And I thought that was so spot on.”
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