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Earlier this week, model, photographer, and ex-wife of George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, appeared on the inaugural episode of Miss O’Dell: Abbey Road To Tulsa Time, a new podcast hosted by music industry icon Chris O’Dell, who worked with everyone from the Beatles to the Stones to Bob Dylan. Around the 33-minute mark, O’Dell asks Boyd about the ambitious Beatles biopic project from Sam Mendes that’s currently in the works. Aimee Lou Wood was cast to play Boyd in the upcoming film, which Boyd learned about not because Mendes, or anyone working on the project, reached out to her. And, she does not seem happy about it.
“Now, I might be completely wrong, but I would have thought it would be polite to mention it to me or let me know that they got someone who’s going to be playing me. Don’t you think they’d let me know? Well, I haven’t been contacted by anyone,” she said. “I could have really told them great stories. But I don’t think they want to know. I think they want to create something that’s completely different, like a different story.”
Boyd added that the forthcoming biopics seem to have “nothing to do with the truth. Nothing to do with what really happened because they don’t want to talk to anyone who was there.” Instead, it’s “the filmmaker’s creation of what they think happened.”
I mean, she has a point here. It would make sense that someone would reach out to her, not only to get her perspective, but also because Wood is literally portraying her in the film. In an interview from this March, Wood gave some vague quotes about how intimidating this biopic project is. “I am going to have to really prep, and I am going to have to really be detailed about that, because she is someone who is so recognisable, and obviously not do an impression,” she said.
Well, duh. And again, I am confused about why not actually contacting Boyd would be part of the prep. But hey, I know nada about this Hollywood business stuff. Maybe Wood is just too intimidated to reach out. “I have to be specific whilst also being free, so I think that’s a good muscle to flex, but it scares me.”
Despite all this, Boyd brushes aside the impoliteness of the creative approach. She’s not going to dwell on it. “I’m going to be a very good girl and not get grumpy and growly,” she said. Although she did throw some funny shade at Mendes, the award-winning filmmaker behind American Beauty, 1917, and the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre. “Somebody said he was famous. Apparently he’s famous, this man,” she said. I will be adding that to my quote bank.
In other Beatles/Beatles biopic news, Paul McCartney is putting out a short film for his forthcoming new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Directed by Charlotte Wells with creative direction by David Lane, the film features an intimate conversation between Paul McCartney and Paul Mescal in which McCartney reflects on the memories, relationships, and creative process behind his upcoming album, while Mescal — who will portray him in The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event — guides the discussion through stories tied to several tracks from the record. It will exclusively premiere on Amazon Live and Amazon Music tomorrow, May 25 at 8AM PT.
