Danny Boyle has revealed that Ed Sheeran wasn’t his first choice to appear in the film Yesterday. You can see the full interview below.
The film, written by Richard Curtis and directed by Boyle, imagines a world in which everyone has forgotten the songs of The Beatles apart from one person, Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), who pretends the songs are his.
In the film, Ed Sheeran plays himself and invites Malik to appear as his support act after hearing him sing ‘In My Life’ on the television.
However, Boyle revealed in an interview with NME that Sheeran wasn’t in fact the first choice for the part, but that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin was instead.
“He teased us rotten because he found out we’d asked Chris Martin first, so he never let us forget that,” Boyle explained. “And he accused us of asking Harry Styles second, which isn’t true, but we did ask Chris Martin first, so he teases us rotten about that but he gives as good as he gets.”
Boyle said that Sheeran had a good sense of humour on set, despite being teased heavily in the script. “He’s got a good sense of humour which he needed to have otherwise it could have been quite unpleasant.” Himesh Patel added that Sheeran was “fun” and “great to work with.” You can watch the full interview here.
Boyle also shared the news that Ringo Starr and Olivia Harrison – the widow of George Harrison – sent notes to him about how much they enjoyed the film. Whilst Paul McCartney hasn’t yet seen the film according to Boyle, he also sent them a message after seeing the film’s trailer.
“You have to write to them and explain the concept so they’ll let you associate the music with it and then also we sent them the finished film, just out of courtesy.
“…We got a lovely message back from Ringo and Olivia, George’s widow. I don’t think Paul has seen it but he saw the trailer and said ‘The trailer seems to work – that’s a surprise!'”
Speaking to The Independent, the Trainspotting director said that he’s teaming up once more with screenwriter Alex Garland – who penned the script for the original movie.