Anna Sawai thrilled to play Yoko Ono in The Beatles biopic movies
Anna Sawai will play Yoko Ono, the wife of the late John Lennon, in one of four Beatles biopics, directed by Sam Mendes.
Anna Sawai says it is very meaningful to play Yoko Ono in The Beatles biopic movies.
The 33-year-old actress portrays the 93-year-old artist-and-musician opposite Harris Dickinson, who plays Ono's late husband, John Lennon, in the upcoming collection of four interconnecting films, directed by 60 year old Sam Mendes.
Speaking about playing Ono in the biopics - which all four will be released on the same day in April 2028 - Sawai told People: "It's just exciting because [Ono’s] story is so inspirational to me, and people really don't know the true person that she was.
"She's an incredible artist. And also, she just was an independent woman and people didn't like that. They wanted John [Lennon] for themselves, and she was an easy target. And I think it's very meaningful for me to be able to tell her story."
Asked what she loves most about Ono, Sawai added: "Just how bold she is. Oh my God, I love her. She's so cool."
Following Sawai's 2024 Emmy and 2025 Golden Globe win for her performance as Lady Mariko in Shogun, the star said the last few years have felt like a "dream".
The Monarch: Legacy of Monsters cast member said: "It feels like a dream. It's everything that I wanted to do, and I get to tell the stories that are so meaningful to me.
"When I look back to a couple years ago, I was auditioning and just taking on the roles that I would get offered after auditioning. But now I have choices that I can make, and so I feel very, very lucky."
A well as Sawai and Dickinson, The Beatles biopics star Paul Mescal, 30, as Sir Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn, 32, as the late George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan, 33, as Sir Ringo Starr.
Amid Sawai being excited about the quartet of interconnected films - which tell the phenomenal rise and eventual break-up of The Beatles from the perspective of each band member - legendary Queen guitarist Sir Brian May, 78, fears the individual biopics will feel like "it's a competition between them".
May - who considers The Beatles' albums to be his "bible" - told BANG Showbiz and other assembled media at the launch of Cirque du Soleil OVO at the Royal Albert Hall in London on January 14: "I love The Beatles, The Beatles are like the Bible to me.
"But four films? I feel this horrible kind of thing that it's a competition between them or something."
