George Harrison Was the Only Beatle Who Could Stomach Watching ‘A Hard Day’s Night’: ‘It Embarrasses Them’ 

After John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr found global success with their music, they decided to expand into film with A Hard Day’s Night. The film was The Beatles’ first time acting on camera, and they did it with varying degrees of success. While they had fun shooting the film, watching it was a different story. The band’s press officer, Derek Taylor, said all but Harrison left during the band’s viewing of the film.

The Beatles released their first film in 1964

In 1964, The Beatles decided to further capitalize on Beatlemania by releasing a movie. In it, the band played themselves. McCartney explained that they had fun doing it, but he didn’t think they were particularly good actors.

“The first film we ever made, and we’re having a good time,” said McCartney, per the book George Harrison on George Harrison. “We’re not very good actors, but we’re trying hard. That’s the most important thing, really — having a try, isn’t it?”

McCartney admitted that he didn’t take filming very seriously and often waited until the last minute to memorize his lines. 

“Well, actually, George, I’m a bit lazy about that,” said McCartney. “I normally learn them about 10 minutes before we do the scene, actually. I feel it gives an air of impromptu-ity.”

George Harrison was the only Beatle who could sit through ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

Though acting was a fun experience for the band, watching themselves on screen was torturous. 

“A Hard Day’s Night is doing very well and they’re making another,” Taylor told Gloria Steinem in a 1964 article for Cosmopolitan. “They’re very proud of their first film and the good reviews, but actually looking at it embarrasses them.”

Taylor said that Lennon was the first to walk away during the viewing. By the end, Harrison was the only one still watching. 

“The first time John saw it, he said, ‘I can’t stand this lot,’ and rushed out,” Taylor explained. “By the concert scene at the end, all but George had left.”

This was perhaps because Harrison was happiest with his performance. According to A Hard Day’s Night director Richard Lester and Stephen Soderbergh, Harrison was “the best actor of the four of them by far.”

“Ringo, because his was the showy part, he was always the odd one out, so he was given characteristics that were more sympathetic,” Lester told The Guardian. “John, I don’t think was interested and didn’t bother. Paul was too interested and tried too hard and George was always the one that was forgotten. So he just did it and got on with it.”

George Harrison met his first wife on the set of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

Harrison also could have been reflecting on his fond memories of the shoot. While filming, he met his first wife, Pattie Boyd. He asked her out on the day they met, but she refused as she had a boyfriend at the time. 

“And then I told my girlfriends and they said, ‘You’re completely mad! How could you turn him down?'” Boyd said, per Yahoo News. “And I said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, what I was thinking.'”

She broke up with her boyfriend and, the next time she saw Harrison, accepted his offer to take her out.

“Then, luckily, there was another chance to meet up with The Beatles, when we were called back for a photo shoot,” she said. “I think Dick Lester must’ve organized that, because if that hadn’t happened, I would never have seen George again. By that time, the boyfriend had gone. So I said yes.”

Two years later, the pair got married.