Sam Mendes reveals the most agonising moment of shooting The Beatles biopics
Sam Mendes has revealed the most agonising moment he has experienced while shooting the Beatles biopics.
The filmmaker was having a candid conversation with fellow director Chloe Zhao after a screening of the latter’s latest movie Hamnet in London on February 15th, when they both opened up about the emotional costs of working behind the camera.
With Mendes currently in the midst of working on his epic The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event, which is set for release in 2028, he gave a rare insight into the working process of undertaking such a massive project.
Explaining how directors are unable to express their own emotions while shooting for scenes is ongoing, he said (via Variety): “You’re rolling a camera and there’s an actor giving something amazing, and you feel triumph and excitement and the heart starts to beat faster, or whatever it is, however you manifest your moment of creativity and discovery, but you can’t say anything because you’ll ruin it, you’ll fuck up the take.”
Revealing that he had experienced a moment like this recently while shooting the biopics for the Liverpudlian legends, Mendes remained scant on the specific details but added: “I found myself the other day, [going] “Aargh!” like this.”
He continued: “You can’t make any noise and only when your script supervisor sees you punch the air or slap the chair, like ‘Yeah!’ or whatever it is. But they’re pretty great moments, but it’s a very odd art, craft, whatever you want to call it, that won’t allow you to just shout.”
Ultimately revealing this as his biggest issue with directing, Mendes said there is “no outlet”, before adding, “You cannot shout. You know, the actor gets to shout. And I don’t mean like literally shout, I just mean express.”
Details on the films about the Fab Four are being kept strictly under wraps during the filming process, with Paul Mescal, who also starred in Hamnet but who is also due to appear as Paul McCartney in the upcoming project, saying he would prefer people to know “as little as possible” about the band before going in.
The cast for the films has recently been rounded out by four additional names. Harry Lawtey will star as original member Stuart Sutcliffe, while Farhan Akhtar will play Ravi Shankar, Lucy Boynton will play Jane Asher, and Morfydd Clark will portray John Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia Lennon.
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