Mia McKenna-Bruce, who is set to star in the upcoming Beatles biopics, has revealed she was not a fan of the band when she took the job.
In October, the BAFTA Rising Star-winning actor, best known for her lead role in the acclaimed indie drama How To Have Sex, was revealed to be playing Maureen Starkey, the wife of Ringo Starr, in the films.
In a new interview with Tatler (via the Independent), she confided that her knowledge of the Fab Four was severely limited at the time that she accepted the role.
“We sang ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’ at school, but it wasn’t my jam,” the 28-year-old said, before revealing that it was while she was on set with Martin Freeman for the upcoming Netflix series Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials that she was introduced to them more extensively.
“On Seven Dials, Martin Freeman was asking me to name all The Beatles – I didn’t know. Then he’d ask me, ‘what band was Mick Jagger in?’ I was like, ‘I have no idea, Martin’. Now I’m like, oh my god, The Beatles are underrated. This is good. It’s music I’d sit and listen to on the train,” she said.
Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall, American Beauty) is directing the four separate films, with each one set to focus on a different member of the band. The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event is currently slated for an April 2028 release.
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Earlier this year, it was confirmed that Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon and Paul Mescal will portray Paul McCartney, while Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan will play George Harrison and Ringo Starr respectively.
Sony Pictures later confirmed that four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Brooklyn) will play Linda McCartney in the films, a casting decision that had been widely rumoured. Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus, Film Club) will play George Harrison’s partner Pattie Boyd, while Anna Sawai (Shogun) will portray Yoko Ono.
David Morrissey will play McCartney’s father Jim, while Line Of Duty star Leanne Best – the niece of real-life original Beatles drummer Pete – will play Lennon’s Aunt Mimi and James Norton will be Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
Ringo met Maureen in 1962 when she was 16 and working as a hairdresser, and they were married from 1965 to 1975. Maureen passed away in 1994.
In May, Barry Keoghan discussed meeting Ringo prior to playing the drummer in the films. Describing his nerves at meeting the legend, the Irishman said: “When I was talking to him, I couldn’t look at him. I was nervous, like right now. But he’s like, ‘You can look at me,’” he recalled. “My job is to observe and kinda take in mannerisms and study him. I want to humanise him and bring feelings to it and not just sort of imitate.”
