Peter Jackson Says the Beatles Would Have Driven Him ‘Crazy’
Peter Jackson said his impression of working with the Beatles in 1969 was akin to “herding cats” and would have driven him “crazy.”
After taking 60 hours of footage shot by Let It Be director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and turning it into the recent three-part documentary Get Back, Jackson said his sympathies lay with the original filmmaker as he attempted to make sense of the chaos surrounding John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they worked on new music together.
“The poor guy was herding cats the whole time,” Jackson said in a recent Q&A session (via Metro). “I was just feeling so many times that I would have lost it! I mean, as much as I love the Beatles, I would have raised my voice at them a couple of times and read them the riot act because they would have driven me crazy – and Michael’s just so calm.”
Jackson noted that he "particularly enjoy[ed] seeing Michael twitch and squirm when things aren’t going quite his way. As a director, I can sympathize with that and find it kind of funny. Some of my favorite bits in the rushes and the outtakes were Michael’s stuff because I don’t play in a band – I can love the Beatles and watch the Beatles like anyone – but crucially the person I was really relating to was Michael.”
Identifying his favorite Lindsay-Hogg moment, Jackson said it was “when somebody – Paul or Ringo or someone – asks how the filming’s going, and he says, ‘Well, if the film’s going to be about chain smokers, nose pickers and arse scratchers, then it’s going to be fantastic!’”
Watch a Clip From ‘The Beatles: Get Back’