You know when someone asks your thoughts on something, like getting bangs or starting a podcast, and it sounds like they shouldn’t do it but you don’t have the heart to tell them? That’s how Paul McCartney felt when screenwriter Richard Curtis first approached him about the movie Yesterday, which posits a world in which the Beatles never existed. (We can’t blame him!) In a new interview with Billboard, McCartney says, “Richard Curtis, who [directed] Love Actually, wrote to me with the idea. And I thought, This is a terrible idea, but I couldn’t tell him so I said, ‘Well, that sounds interesting — good luck.’ I didn’t think anything more of it.†Then, when McCartney found out Danny Boyle was tied to the project, he thought, They must think they can pull it off.
Despite the fact that the movie wanted to erase him from history, Macca still saw it, inviting his wife, Nancy, on a date to a screening. “We got two tickets and walked in when the cinema went dark. Only a couple of people saw us,†he said. “We were in the back row, giggling away, especially at all the mentions of ‘Paul McCartney.’†And his review? “We loved it.†There you have it — put that quote in the “For Your Consideration†campaign! McCartney also told Billboard he’s working on a film project of his own, collaborating with a director to create “something†from the 58 hours of footage for the Beatles’ unreleased Let It Be film.