Julian Lennon Wasn’t a Fan of the John Lennon Scene From the Movie ‘Yesterday’ — ‘It Was Just Weird’
The movie Yesterday is a love letter to The Beatles. However, many fans disagreed about how the film paid tribute to John Lennon. Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son, enjoyed Yesterday overall but wasn’t a fan of the scene involving his father, saying he found it “weird.”
‘Yesterday’ included a surprising tribute to John Lennon
Yesterday is a 2019 film by director Danny Boyle. The movie stars Himesh Patel as Jack, a struggling songwriter who awakens one day after an accident to discover that the entire world has forgotten about The Beatles, except for him. Jack takes advantage of the situation by claiming The Beatles’ music as his own and riding a wave to stardom. However, he begins to question if it’s worth having this level of fame on someone else’s material.
The movie contains many hilarious and heartfelt moments, including a tribute to Lennon. Lennon is still alive in this universe where The Beatles never existed and resides in an isolated countryside home. Robert Carlyle plays the late Beatle and looks eerily close to what Lennon would have looked at an older age. Many felt this scene to be a touching tribute to Lennon, while others were disturbed by the uncanny valley of seeing an aged Lennon.
Julian Lennon didn’t like his father’s tribute in ‘Yesterday’
In a recent episode of Kevin Nealon’s web series Hiking with Kevin, Julian shared his thoughts on Yesterday. While he enjoyed the movie overall, he found the John Lennon scene unnecessary and “weird.”
“I actually loved that film Yesterday, until they put that weird bit of an impression of what Dad would look like in his 70s and 80s or whatever, up on a Scottish or Irish island,” Julian stated. “And it kind of threw the whole film off for me. I didn’t get—it wasn’t necessary for me, I don’t think. And it was just weird.”
According to USA Today, director Boyle knew the scene would be polarizing and referred to it as a “marmite scene” because “it divides people very clearly.”
Paul McCartney tried to sneak into a screening of ‘Yesterday’ without being noticed
Singer and guitarist Paul McCartney is another critical figure in Yesterday, as he wrote the song that inspired the title. In an interview with Billboard, the former Beatle said he was initially skeptical of the idea of the movie but was more open to it once Boyle became the director. He and his wife, Nancy Shevell, then went on a date night to a screening of it and tried not to be spotted doing so.
“That began when 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,’” McCartney said. “I didn’t think anything more of it. Then someone said Danny Boyle would direct it, and I thought, ‘They must think they can pull it off.’ And I thought nothing more of it until they asked if I wanted to see a screening. I asked Nancy, and we said, ‘Let’s go, you and me, on a date to the cinema.’”
“We were in the Hamptons in the summer, and there it was, so we got two tickets and walked in when the cinema went dark,” he continued. “Only a couple of people saw us. We were in the back row, giggling away, especially at all the mentions of Paul McCartney. A couple of people in front of us spotted us, but everyone else was watching the film. We loved it.”
