A fatal flaw in the new Beatles films? Casting big stars

Telegraph

03-04-2025

Earlier this week, the world's worst secret was finally revealed. Sam Mendes's new quartet of Beatles films will feature Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan as John, Paul, George and Ringo respectively. All four actors are star names – and thus the buzz has been considerable.
This is a canny move on the part of Sony Pictures. It is a tall order to get audiences to go and see four films in quick succession; indeed some people barely go to the cinema that much in a year. Thus, a fan base which isn't just a Beatles fan base is assured.
And yet I see problems with casting such established name players, and not simply because of their ages. Mescal, playing Paul, is 29 – McCartney had already written Hey Jude, Blackbird and A Day in the Life by that age. The fact is that it would have been wonderful to have some unknowns in the lead roles: think of the casting of Aaron Taylor Johnson in Nowhere Boy, and the fresh revelatory performance as the young Lennon which set him on the path to superstardom.
Indeed cinema history is full of excellent acting debuts, when a director has taken a chance on someone, whom we then see blossom. Alan Rickman, a long-established stage actor, blew all other film baddies out of the water when he took on Bruce Willis in a dirty vest for the first Die Hard film, but it is unlikely that such a high-stakes role would have been given to an estimable thesp unknown to the majority of the public today.
The Beatles news raises the question of authenticity casting. On principle, I am against the idea that an actor should be cast because they have some personal connection to a role – that they have the 'lived experience' necessary for a particular performance. Acting is not, I think, about who you are, but about talent, and thus they should have the opportunity to play anyone. And yet I am slightly disappointed that not one of the actors is from Liverpool. I don't feel as if there should have been X Factor-style auditions in the Fab Four's hometown, but I think casting directors should have been scouring local theatres such as the Everyman for rough-hewn talent, finding a fledgling actor who brings the famous Liverpudlian grit and humour to one of the roles.
A quartet of complete unknowns would have been a potential headache, of course: four young shavers on a crash course to global fame, having to navigate intense scrutiny from both the media and the public. But a mixture of big names and smaller ones might have gone down rather well with the public.
One problem with casting big names in biopics is that they come with baggage and, to complicate things, they are playing megastars for whom the public have very strong pre-conceived notions. How easy will it be to buy into the idea of Barry Keoghan as lovable, easy-going Ringo, when several of his performances are already etched in the imagination; the abused, adorable Dominic in The Banshees of Inisherin or Oliver, the social-climbing psychopath with a taste for nudity in Saltburn.
It is true that some very famous actors have overcome this hurdle – and admirably so: Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland; Michael Douglas as Liberace; Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. Yet such films get an added thrill when you see a new face inhabiting Elvis (Austin Butler) or Amy Winehouse (Marisa Abela) or Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard); not simply because you somehow become more susceptible to the psychology of the character they are playing, but it feels like a really exciting discovery.
I do think there is a particular problem for casting in general at the moment. While stars have always been used as leverage for getting a project off the ground, it feels like things are getting worse. In an age where TV and film are both obsessed with intellectual property (in other words, things which come with a ready-made audience like Tolkien or Jilly Cooper), to the extent that a story by an unknown quantity can't get commissioned, so it is getting increasingly hard for unknown actors to 'sell' a show or a film.
Actually some casting directors are still imaginative – Nina Gold has clearly seen a lot of theatre, hence Star Wars spin off Andor boasting the involvement of such theatrical talents as Denise Gough, Kyle Soller and James McArdle. But you wonder how hard she has to fight for these actors, and whether less influential figures than Gold have to cave in to their bosses who are slaves to the algorithm.
The picture is complicated by social media. The Telegraph recently reported on the elemental force of Instagram when it comes to making or breaking careers. A healthy amount of followers on the photo and video-sharing app is going to be attractive to an executive team who need to make money: the problem is that often the best actors are shy, socially awkward, using their talent as a refuge to escape into another world. Thus, building a sort of pictorial brand is the last thing they want to do.
I will now hold my tongue until the Beatles films are out, and pass judgment on the performances of Mescal et al. At the very least they will be better than hologrammatic versions of the Fab Four – although I am sure that is not so very far away.