“I will never forget it as long as I live. I got to play Blackbird with him”: Paul Mescal had to learn guitar left-handed to play Paul McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopic – but also got to jam with him
Mescal is set to star alongside Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison in the highly-anticipated four-part Beatles biopic

Paul McCartney is set to be played by another Paul in the upcoming Beatles four-part biopic, directed by Sam Mendes – and it's none other than the very-in-demand Paul Mescal, who recently starred in Gladiator II and Hamnet.
Yet, much like how Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro had to hone their guitar skills to play Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, respectively, Mescal has confirmed that he's well on his way to learning some Lennon–McCartney–penned classics on guitar. Not only that, he once got to jam with McCartney in preparation for the role.
“I think he has fundamentally and forever changed the world,” Mescals tells Rolling Stone, referring to Macca. “I will never forget it as long as I live. I got to play Blackbird with him.
“That's the coolest thing that my job has ever afforded me. I was kind of having an out-of-body experience. I was in drama school nine years ago and [now] I'm sat opposite Paul McCartney, and we're playing Blackbird.
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“To be sat in front of somebody playing one of the most famous, most covered songs of all time, but then to be sat in front of the person who... that came out of his mind. I was like, ‘I love my job.’
“I've been learning left-handed so it's been pretty intense,” Mescal confirms. “It was just a very special, special thing.”
Alongside Mescal, the other actors playing the Fab Four are Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, with four separate-yet-interconnected movies slated to represent the Beatles' story from each member's perspective.
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In more recent McCartney news, the story of his stolen Höfner 500/1 bass guitar, which went missing for 50 years, is set to be told in an all-new feature-length documentary.
Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she's not writing, you'll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.
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