Shirtless Barry Keoghan and Paul Mescal Spotted Recreating Beatles Yacht Vacation While Filming Biopics

Keoghan plays Ringo Starr and Mescal stars as Paul McCartney in Sam Mednes' upcoming four-film project

NEED TO KNOW

• Barry Keoghan and Paul Mescal were spotted filming in character as Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney
• They appeared to be recreating a 1964 vacation the pair of Beatles once took to the U.S. Virgin Islands
• Sam Mendes is directing four separate biopics about each member of The Beatles, all of which are expected to premiere in 2028

Here comes the sun for the cast of Sam Mendes' series of biopics about The Beatles.

On Tuesday, June 9, Paul Mescal, who is playing Paul McCartney, was spotted filming aboard a yacht called Happy Days alongside Barry Keoghan, who is playing Ringo Starr.

While in costume as members of the Fab Four, Mescal, 30, wore a white and tan striped button-down short sleeve shirt paired with retro-inspired short-shorts, while Keoghan, 33, wore a striped polo with royal blue swimming trunks. The pair of actors later went shirtless as they soaked up the sun during the shoot.

The scene appears to recreate a real vacation McCartney, now 83, and Starr, now 85, took in May 1964, alongside their then-girlfriends, Jane Asher and Maureen Cox. The rock icons were spotted on a yacht near St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Lucy Boynton plays Asher in Mendes' project. Mia McKenna-Bruce plays Cox, whom Starr was married to from 1965 to 1975.

It was during the May 1964 vacation that McCartney penned the band's A Hard Day's Night hit "Things We Said Today."

“I remember writing ‘Things We Said Today’ in one of the cabins below deck one afternoon on my acoustic guitar,” McCartney recalled in his book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, according to Far Out Magazine.

"The thing I always loved and still love about writing a song is that, at the end of two or three hours, I have a newborn baby to show everyone," McCartney later wrote. "I want to show it to the world, and the world at that moment was the people on the boat.”

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In early 2024, Sony Pictures and Neal Street Productions confirmed that Mendes would helm four separate biopics about the legendary rock band The Beatles, giving each of its members their turn in the spotlight. The four-part project is expected to premiere in April 2028.

Mescal, who has met McCartney several times and said the musician received him with “great kindness and warmth,” will be doing his own singing in the film.

“I think it’s very much tied to the feeling that I got from playing Shakespeare,” Mescal told PEOPLE in January. “It’s like a wild privilege to get to play these creative forces and to get a peek behind the curtain.”

Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon, while Joseph Quinn will play George Harrison.

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