Paul Mescal is learning to play guitar left-handed for Paul McCartney role
Paul Mescal has shared an insight into his training to become Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’ upcoming biopics on The Beatles in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
Mescal has been in boot camp along with his co-stars Barry Keoghan, who will play Ringo Starr, Harris Dickinson, who will play John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn, who will play George Harrison.
The four films, which have been described by Sony as “the first binge-able theatrical experience”, are set to arrive in 2028.
Now, in the new interview with Rolling Stone, Mescal has revealed that he has met McCartney “a couple of times”, before adding, “I adore him. I think he changed the world.”
He then detailed what a typical day currently looks like while preparing to transform into McCartney, sharing, “Average day is: We get up, we go out to Bobbington — which is about an hour and a quarter drive — listening to the Beatles in the car.”
The Irish actor continued, “Then we go in, and we try to walk, talk, play, think like the Beatles. Then we get in the car, listen to the Beatles, and go home.”
To show that he is fully committed to the role, Mescal is even learning to play the guitar left-handed like McCartney. “It would just be crazy to not play it left-handed, you know?” he explained. Mescal continued, “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. And he’s the fucking coolest man on planet Earth, I think.”
In further preparation for the role, Mescal has been reading Ian Leslie’s John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, which he said “reframes this whole relationship for me” and labelled the musical marriage between Lennon and McCartney as “the greatest creative collaboration that we’ve maybe ever had as human beings.”
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