Best Of: ‘Hamnet’ star Jessie Buckley / Documentarian Morgan Neville

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From WHYY in Philadelphia,

I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend.

Today, Jessie Buckley,

she may win an Oscar a week from Sunday

for her starring role in Hamnet.

She's already won a Golden Globe.

She plays William Shakespeare's wife,

facing conflicts in their marriage

and the death of their son.

After portraying a grieving mother,

Buckley found out she was pregnant.

The thing that this story offered me,

that brought me into this next chapter of my life

as a mother was tenderness, you know?

And that was a word and a feeling

that I think I didn't know was what I was looking for.

Also, documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville

tells us about his new documentary,

Man on the Run,

which focuses on Paul McCartney's life and music

after the breakup of The Beatles.

And John Powers reviews a Japanese film

about a gangster son

who dreams of being a star in Kabuki Theater.

That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.

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This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Terry Gross.

The film Hamnet is nominated for eight Oscars,

including Best Actress for my guest, Jessie Buckley.

Hamnet's other nominations include Best Picture,

Best Director for Chloe Zhao,

who's also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay,

along with Maggie O'Farrell,

the author of the novel Hamnet, which the film is based on.

Buckley plays William Shakespeare's wife, Anya's Halfaway.

Little is known about Shakespeare's real wife.

The film is largely an imagined version of her.

What's true is that the couple's son, Hamnet,

died at age 11 from the plague.

In the film, he catches it from his twin sister.

Shakespeare has already left the couple's home in the country

to go to London and work on writing and staging his plays,

and has promised to bring the rest of the family

as soon as he's settled and has a little more money.

When Hamnet gets sick and it's clear his life is in jeopardy,

Anya's cause for her husband to come home,

but he doesn't make it in time.

Shakespeare and Hamnet don't get to say goodbye,

and Anya's is left to experience the horror of her son's death

without her husband.

In this scene, when Shakespeare does return,

she's angry that he came too late,

but she also feels guilty that she didn't pay enough attention

to Hamnet while she was caring for their daughter

who survived the plague.

Shakespeare is played by Paul Mescaler.

I should have paid him more attention.

I always thought she was the one to be taken away

when all the while was him.

I was full.

No, there's nothing anyone could have done to save her.

You did everything that you could.

All I did.

You weren't here.

I would have cut my heart out and given it to him,

I would have laid my life down in the ground for him,

and no one would take it.

I know. I know.

You don't know. You weren't here.

He died in agony.

He was in agony.

I ate any cry.

And he cried.

And he cried.

He was so scared and you weren't here.

The film has become known for leaving a lot of people in tears.

Buckley won a Golden Globe for her performance in Hamnet.

Other films for which she received various awards or nominations

include The Lost Daughter, Women Talking, Beast, Wild Rose, and Men.

On TV, she was a star of Season 4 of Fargo

and a star of the HBO series Chernobyl.

Her new film The Bride, as in The Bride of Frankenstein,

opened in theaters Friday.

Jessie Buckley, welcome to Fresh Share and congratulations

on your Oscar nomination and your Golden Globe win.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

My pleasure.

What were you able to learn about Shakespeare's real wife?

And how does that compare with how she's depicted in the movie?

How you depict her in the movie?

Well, I think before I'd read this book,

what had been written about Shakespeare's wife was...

It wasn't great.

I mean, it wasn't positive or there wasn't a lot.

No, it wasn't positive.

I think she was kind of given the title of being a woman

that had kept him back from his genius.

And I think what Michael Farrell so brilliantly did,

not just with Agnes and Shakespeare's wife,

but also with Hamnes.

Their son was to bring these people who, in our imaginary world,

filled Shakespeare and the plays that have lived

forever and given them status beside this great man

which is full and vibrant.

In this imaginary version of her life,

people think she must be part which,

because she was born in the woods and so was her mother.

And she knew so much about herbs and herbal medicine

and got along with animals.

She was a falconer.

So we don't know how true that is, right?

No, but I think it's interesting.

I think what is so frightening about her?

That was a question I was asked.

What is it about this woman that is other,

that people feel a need to call her a forest witch

or a daughter of a forest witch?

You know, somebody that is too much against the society at the time.

And my experience of playing this incredible woman

was her uncompromising embodiment and connection to nature

and her own elemental nature.

And I guess at that time,

it was kind of the beginning of puritism and capitalism

and paganism was kind of becoming something scary

and people were beginning to decipher themselves off,

like machines, you know,

how you could work a land and create produce

with something that at that time in history

was becoming conscious in the culture.

And yet this woman was just deeply connected to nature.

One of the producers, Pippa Harris,

is quoted in the production notes,

talking about how you embody the character of Agnes.

She says about you,

she's quite a wild child in the sense that she's very much at one with nature.

She's slightly mystical,

she believes in the soul and the spirits,

and she's a really caring person.

When you hear that, does that sound like you?

Um, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I grew up around a lot of nature.

I grew up in southern Ireland in a town called Calarney,

which has lots of mountains and lakes.

And we, there was a lot of freedom and expression

by just living in that place when we were younger.

And I think when you grew up in a landscape like that,

your mind and your soul is wild.

You know, things just grow because they want to grow.

There's no planting or formula

to the nature in that place.

And I think that was really informative to me as a child and still is.

Getting back to that quote,

do you believe in spirits

and consider yourself a little mystical?

Because I'd love to hear more about that if you care to share it.

Spirits, I do.

I believe in energy.

I believe that like you have a conversation

with somebody's energy and spirit.

Absolutely.

And I think even people who have passed that there is a spirit

in the very memory of them that lives on.

And I guess in the mystical sense is like,

I guess what that's making me think of is like,

it's about curiosity.

Isn't it?

A curiosity of an unknown and a seeking.

I don't, yeah, and I guess I like to live in that place

is to be curious about something unknown.

One of the best known scenes in the movie

is when your son has just died

and you're just like howling with grief and despair.

And I'm wondering is that something that you rehearsed a lot

or prepared for or did you try to be spontaneous about it?

Because that's a scene that really brings out everyone's tears.

No, I didn't know that that was going to happen

or come out.

It wasn't in this script.

I think really Chloe asked all of us

to dare to be as present as possible.

And of course leading off to it, you know,

you're aware that this scene is coming.

But that scene doesn't stand on its own.

By the time I met that scene,

I had developed such a deep bond with Jacobi Jew

who plays Hamlet and Paul and Emily Watson

and all the children.

We really were a family.

And Jacobi Jew who plays Hamlet is such an incredible little actor

and an incredible soul.

And we really were a team.

And I think we both recognize where we might go

but where that might end, we didn't know.

And look, the death of a child is unfathomable.

I don't know where it begins and ends.

Out of utter respect, I tried to touch

an imaginary truth of it in our story as best I could.

But there's no way to define that kind of grief.

I'm sure it's different for so many people.

And in that moment, all I had was my imagination

but also this relationship that was right in front of me

with this little boy.

And that's what came out of that moment.

You hadn't yet become a mother

but you did get pregnant, I think,

like a week before Hamlet opened.

Do I have that right?

A week after I wrapped filming.

Oh, okay.

Something was cooked.

Were you trying or was that really a surprise

that seemed so, like, the timing of it just seems amazing?

I wanted to become a mother for a long time.

And schedules, life, being in different places, work.

You know, it was hard.

And that was kind of like a beautiful thing

but also an intense thing to kind of feel that

in my own personal life beside this mother

that I was living inside in Agnes.

The thing I've realized becoming a mother

is it humbles you down to your knees

and any idea you think of yourself

in being a mother or becoming a mother

or in birth or any of it.

I mean, good luck because it's never like that.

It always brings you on a way more kind of wild journey.

I'm wondering if portraying the mother of Hamlet,

you know, and the wife of William Shakespeare,

spoke to you because you had just experienced the grief

that a mother has on her 11-year-old son dies

and now you are about to become a mother.

So were you spooked by the thought a son can die,

a child can die?

I wasn't spooked.

Not because I didn't think about it,

but I don't know, what are you going to do?

You know, like lock yourself up and not kind of...

You know, my work, I'm not scared to touch the shadowy bits.

I like them. They like help me.

I think my experience when I don't touch them

is that they show up in a more destructive kind of bigger way.

So actually, the thing that this story offered me

that brought me into this next chapter of my life

as a mother was tenderness, you know?

And that was a word and a feeling that I think I didn't know

what I was looking for.

And a mother's tenderness, it's ferocious, you know?

To birth is no joke, to be born is no joke.

And the minute something's born into the world,

you're always in the precipice of life and death.

That's our path, you know?

We all know we're going to head towards that destination, I guess.

And I wanted to be a mother so much

that overrode the thought of being afraid of us.

If you're just joining us, my guest is Jesse Buckley.

She's nominated for an Oscar for her starring role in Hamnet.

We'll hear more of our interview after a break.

I'm Terry Gross and this is Fresh Air Weekend.

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The director, Chloe Zhao, sent the cast to a coach

who uses dream analysis as a tool for insights into who you are

and who your character is.

Did you find that helpful?

Yeah, I actually introduced Chloe to this woman that we worked with.

Wow.

And I've used it as a way to create for a few years now.

I find it so helpful.

I'm not very good at linear thoughts or projections.

And I found school very difficult because it was too linear

and formulaic and I couldn't learn like that.

And with characters and work, it's the same.

I don't want to project an idea onto the women that I play

until I've lived beside them.

And then in them, I find dreams really curious things.

And when you open a book or you open the script

and the world of that script begins to kind of reflect itself around you,

you're unconscious, does stir the waters towards that world.

And you find it a very interesting and useful tool

to abstractly enter into an essence of a being

rather than projecting an idea on top of them.

And I create so much from this way of working.

I write, I collect pictures, I'm like a magpie, you know, music.

I paint, it spills out of me when I start working like that.

So I find it so useful.

And it's also just to say, it's not a new thing.

The surrealists were using it.

Dali was using it.

I'm pretty sure David Lynch used his dreams in his films.

As Fellini, there's this extraordinary Fellini book

of all of his dreams.

And he's created, it's this most beautiful book where all the characters

that he's found in his dreams are all painted in this book.

And you can see them in like eight and a half and Lestrada.

So it's not a new tool, it's just something to get curious about.

In addition to starring in Hamnet, you star in a new film called The Bride,

which is Maggie Gyllenhaal's take on The Bride of Frankenstein.

Like what if The Bride of Frankenstein was a feminist who spoke out, you know,

about misogyny and corruption.

But she's also totally wild and out of control.

Really nasty.

So it must have been such a kind of shock from going to making The Bride

to making Hamnet.

Because I think even though The Bride's opening later than Hamnet did,

I think you made The Bride first.

I made The Bride first, yeah.

And also, you know, in Bright of Frankenstein, you're reanimated.

Like you've died and you're brought back to life.

Like Frankenstein.

Yeah.

Whereas, you know, in Hamnet, that's all about a dead son staying dead,

living in spirit.

Well, kind of.

Living in spirit.

Yes.

Like Shakespeare reincarnates his son through the vessel of a story,

which is what happens at that end, you know, is when she reaches out,

she can touch the thing that she thought she'd lost

because her husband has created the greatest magic trick of her life.

When her son dies, it's so ginormous that she can't find him

until that moment when the vessel of a story can help you,

yeah, touch the things that you can't hold by yourself.

When you are making The Bride, inspired by The Bride of Frankenstein,

written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal,

you were pregnant and had to hide your pregnancy on screen.

So how did you do it?

Well, I wasn't pregnant for the main shooting sequence,

but when we came back to do a reshoot for something,

I was eight months pregnant.

So they just had to do it from the boobs up to her.

It's like just the face.

The face was my only tool to work from.

But I mean, I really loved working when I was pregnant.

I thought it was pretty wild experience, especially

because I was playing Mary Shelley.

And I was talking about a monstrosity.

And here I was with two heartbeats inside me.

And I, you know, becoming a mom and being pregnant did something.

I think for me, my experience of it, it's so real

that it really like focuses you to be...

I'm allergic to fake.

Or to disconnection.

I think since my daughter is common,

I know what that connection is,

and the real feeling of being in a relationship with somebody.

A kind of soft chat is...

I can't stomach it anymore.

Or talking around a thing.

And as an actress, very exciting to like recognize that in yourself

and really take ownership of yourself.

I remember in filming that I was really close to giving birth.

And being like, I have this amount of energy.

I will give you everything I got.

But I know there'll be a time when I cannot give you anymore.

And that's going to be the end of the day.

And actually that really focuses you on set.

And I think maybe when you're younger, you're so in, in awe

and reverence that you've been invited into this world,

which is part of where you are at that moment.

But it's also good to put in some boundaries and focus your work.

And I think I'm excited to go back and work on this other side

of becoming a mother in so many ways,

because I've shed tenet layers of skin by loving more

and experiencing life in such a new way with my daughter.

I'm also scared to work again because, you know,

it's hard to be a mother and to work.

That's like a constant tug.

Because I love what I do and I'm passionate

and I want to continue to grow and learn and fill those spaces

that are yet to be filled.

And also be a mother.

And I think every mother can recognize that tug.

Do you think if you took a break, a long one,

do you have a fear that you'd be forgotten

when you were ready to come back?

No, I don't feel afraid of that.

You're just torn between what you should do.

You know, just become a full-time mother for a while or keep acting.

I don't think I have to choose, you know.

I really don't. I think...

I'm glad to hear that. It just sounded to me like you thought you needed to.

No, I just think it's an honest feeling.

I woke up this morning. I haven't seen my daughter in four days,

and it hurts, you know. I miss her.

But I also...

I'm inspired to be around people that make me dream and imagine

and I need to do what I do.

And I think I will be a better mother to continue to be passionate

about something in my life and show my daughter that

you don't have to lose any part of yourselves.

Of course, it's hard.

But it's also a beautiful thing to miss something.

Like, I haven't filmed for nearly a year,

and I cannot wait.

Like, I'm hungry to create again.

And my daughter will come with me, you know.

She's seven months, so at the moment she can travel with us.

And it's a beautiful life.

And she meets all these amazing people.

And I have a feeling that she loves life.

And that's a great thing to see in a child.

And I hope that's something that I've imparted to her and her

the short time that she's been on this earth is that, you know, life is...

Life is beautiful and great and complex and alive.

And there's no part of you that needs to be less in your life.

You might have to work it out, but it's like...

it's worth this.

Well, that's a nice note to end on.

So congratulations again on your Oscar nomination

and your Golden Globe win for Hamnet.

And thank you so much for coming on our show.

Thanks for having me. It's a privilege.

Jessie Buckley is nominated for an Oscar for her starring role on Hamnet.

It's playing in select theaters and is available for streaming.

She also stars in the film The Bride, which opened in theaters Friday.

The new Japanese film, Coco Ho,

said box office records in its home country.

It tells the story of a gangster's son,

who dreams of being a star in Japan's famously rigorous Kubuki theater.

Coco Ho is nominated for an Oscar for Hair and Makeup.

Our critic at large John Power says,

the film carried him away into a fascinating subculture

whose demands are at once familiar and unfamiliar.

Like millions of people around the world,

I was hooked by the figure skating competition at the Olympics.

It had thralled me with its extraordinary display of prowess and grace.

But also with its fragility,

its constant sense of precariousness.

Years of hard work could go poof at any second.

As I watched, I kept thinking of the gorgeous new movie Coco Ho.

I'll explain why later.

But first, let me say that Coco Ho is set in and around the world of Kubuki,

the 400-year-old theatrical form that lies near the heart of Japanese culture.

Spanning half a century and running nearly three hours,

this quiet epic is the top-grossing Japanese live-action film of all time.

You can see why.

It's bursting with emotion and beauty.

It's costumes, hair, and makeup are dazzling.

Lee Sang-il's film tells a compelling story about friendship,

the weight of history, the quest for perfection,

and the torturous road to becoming a living national treasure,

which is what the word Coco Ho means.

When we first meet the hero, Kikuo, he's 14 and playing a female role

in an excerpt from a famous Kubuki play.

Men play all the roles in Kubuki.

His performance is seen by a Kubuki star, Henai,

that's Ken Watanabe, who's impressed by his talent.

When Kikuo's Yakuza father is murdered by a rival gang,

Henai takes him in as a protégé, teaching him to become an Onagata,

a male actor who plays female roles.

There is one snag.

Henai already has a son of the same age, Shunsuke,

who's slated to be his artistic heir,

and in the Kubuki world, artistic status passes from generation to generation.

Naturally, we expect Kikuo and Shunsuke to become rivals,

and in a way they do.

Yet as they share the sometimes cruel ordeal of their training,

they become friends and acting partners.

Each sees how the other is trapped.

Despite his fanatical dedication,

Kikuo is considered a low-born outsider,

complete with a Yakuza tattoo on his back,

that the hide-bound Kubuki culture doesn't want to accept.

In contrast, Shunsuke is expected to become a luminary like his dad.

Even though at some gut level, he doesn't even like Kubuki.

Born into a role he doesn't want, he'd rather party than practice.

We follow their entwined fates over the decades,

a sometimes melodramatic dance of triumph and humiliation,

complete with sexual rivalries and ignored children.

Played with riveting dry ice intensity by Yoshizawa Ryo,

Kikuo becomes positively foused in his desire for greatness.

While the less gifted but former likable Shunsuke,

that's the very enjoyable Yokohama Rusei,

labors to escape his destiny.

With their friendship providing the dramatic pull,

Kukuo tackles grand themes.

It paints a portrait of a late 20th century Japan,

still suffocating beneath musty ideas about birth and cultural inheritance.

And in Kikuo's struggle to become Japan's greatest Kubuki actor,

we feel the chile isolation of devoting yourself to an art form so demanding

that leaves little room for ordinary human connection.

We also have the pleasure of learning about a ravishing art alien to most of us.

Normally, when we hear the phrase Kubuki Theater in America,

often in the political realm,

it's used derisively to suggest something ritualized, empty, pro forma.

But watching Kukuo, you see how shallow this notion is.

The Kubuki scenes were shown are thrillingly performed

by Yoshizawa and Yokohama,

who each spent a year and a half training to do the film.

They make us feel the primal power in Kubuki's blend of dance,

music, and acting as it tells tales of love suicides,

or women who reveal themselves to be serpents.

Just as Olympic skaters must perform certain compulsory leaps and loops,

and are judged on how well they do them,

so Kubuki actors have certain gestures they must perform in a role,

and they are expected to do them perfectly.

Yet one can be technically flawless and still be middling.

For a skater, the true measure of greatness

is the expressive artistry of the free skate.

For a Kubuki actor like Kikuwa,

what makes you a national treasure

isn't merely doing every dance and gesture to perfection,

but imbueing them with a huge, almost mythic emotion.

Kikuwa captures how wondrous that can be,

and the pain required to get there.

John Powers reviewed the new film Kokuho.

Coming up, Morgan Neville tells us about making his latest documentary,

Men on the Run, focusing on Paul McCartney's life and music

after the breakup of The Beatles.

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A new documentary about Paul McCartney's life

after the Beatles broke up,

and the formation of his band Wings,

is now available on Prime Video.

Our next guest is the film's director Morgan Neville.

He's made documentaries about Fred Rogers,

Anthony Bourdain, and Orson Wells,

as well as many prominent musicians,

and has won an Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy.

He spoke with fresh airs and Marie Baldenaro.

Chances are Morgan Neville has made a documentary about music that you love.

He won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature

and the Grammy for Best Music Film for 20 Feet from Stardom.

His portrait of the backup singers whose voices help define rock-and-pop music

while remaining largely invisible.

His latest film is about one of the most visible musicians, Paul McCartney.

If I hear someone damning Paul McCartney,

I tend to agree with them.

So when everyone was saying,

I broke up the Beatles,

and I was just overbearing and all of that.

I kind of brought into it.

I thought that's, you know, the kind of bastard I am.

It leaves you in this kind of no man's land.

But the truth,

John had come in one day and said he was leaving the Beatles.

He said, it's kind of exciting.

It's like telling someone you want a divorce.

The film, Man on the Run,

covers a time in McCartney's life that isn't often the focus.

His life around the breakup of the Beatles.

He was newly married to Linda McCartney,

and he was trying to figure out who he was as a musician,

and as a person,

without his partnership with John Lennon,

without the band that defined him since he was a teenager.

Morgan never got access to previously unseen archival footage.

We see McCartney in home movies with his young family,

in the remote farmhouse in Scotland where they retreated.

We see him working on his early post-Beatle songs,

and on the road and on stage with his new band Wings.

You may think you already know a lot about the Beatles,

but chances are you'll still learn from Man on the Run,

which features new interviews with McCartney,

his daughters, John Sunn, Sean O'Neill,

and other heavyweights like Mick Jagger.

Morgan never's other music documentary subjects include

Ferrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Hank Williams,

Bono, Keith Richards, and Johnny Cash.

Morgan never welcome to Fresh Air.

Hi, great talking to you.

Can you tell us about some of the archival materials

that you had to access to?

I mean, it's crazy how much rare footage there was.

A lot of it never seen before.

Some home movies capture very intimate moments.

Yeah, I mean, the good thing is that Paul married a photographer,

Linda McCartney.

She not only took photos of everything,

but they had home movie cameras,

and they documented a lot of their life.

Even though they were living this rural farmer's life in Scotland,

they sure took a lot of photos and footage of it,

and the texture of that life was just amazing

to kind of see what they created and live in that world.

And it's part of the decision I made

to not have on camera interviews to do it all with audio,

was that the archive was so amazing

that I just felt like I could be immersive in it.

Near the beginning of the film,

you put text on the screen that reads,

Fall 1969.

John quits the Beatles,

but nobody knows.

Paul disappears.

He is 27 years old.

And that struck me as something, you know,

we have to remind ourselves.

The Beatles are the biggest band on the planet,

and Paul is 27 years old.

I know.

They've recorded all the music that is ever going to be Beatles' music.

By that point, they're such young men.

It's incredible to realize how much they had done by that time,

and Paul has only known being a Beatles.

I mean, since he was, you know, 15,

that was his life.

So, you know, when you go through that,

you know, it's hard to even imagine

what it would have been like going through being a Beatles.

You know, nobody had ever done it before a sense, you know,

maybe Elvis.

But the Beatles and what they did,

and how they shaped culture, you know,

it was just unimaginable, you know, before a sense.

And here he is, a 27,

and he's the one that wanted to keep the band together.

You know, John Lennon says it in the documentary,

but Paul's the one that's really kind of pushing

to get them to keep making music.

And just in 1969, they record Let It Be,

but that's January of 1969.

He gets married.

They record Appy Road,

you know, in the spring and early summer.

It comes out in August.

He has a baby.

Mary in August.

The Beatles break up in September.

And he moves to Scotland by October 1st.

So when you're functioning like that,

and then suddenly you just hit a wall,

and it's over,

there's just a sense of grief.

And I think that is absolutely what Paul was dealing with.

And that's the moment I went to begin the film, you know,

which is Paul is just suddenly at a loss

to know anything about himself.

Who am I if I'm not a Beatles?

And now he's a father and a husband.

And he says in the first interview he gives,

when they ask,

what are you going to do now that you're not a Beatles?

And he said, my only plan is to grow up.

And I thought, well, that's a great place to begin a film.

Well, Paul ends up being the band member that announces

that the band has broken up,

even though John was the first person

to sort of announce it to the group internally.

And he has to do it publicly

because he wants to move on,

because he wants to make music.

And he ends up being the person like on paper

that causes the breakup.

Oh, yeah.

You know, that was kind of the idea that the public had

that Paul was the one who sued the other Beatles,

and he quit the Beatles as the headlines say,

because he announced it first.

Even though John had left the Beatles,

but just the PR side of it was a nightmare.

And I think Paul hated having to go through that.

I mean, this was an incredibly painful period of time,

which is why I don't think he's talked about it much.

As the band was breaking up,

Paul and Linda moved to a small farmhouse in Scotland.

Let's hear a little bit from the film,

which features archival footage of Paul and Linda's singing

and descriptions of the farm.

It was just as if we've been plunked into this new life,

and we just have to figure it out.

And I say, well, let's just go get lost.

Just get away and go back to the beginning.

We'd had a baby, Mary, and then we'd had a five-year-old.

So I adopted her, and I started making music again.

That's a scene from the film, Man on the Run.

Yeah, so was at this point where he started writing music again,

and what did Paul, from your interviews,

what did you learn from Paul about that process?

I came starting to write on his own.

I mean, he had been writing Beatles songs somewhat on his own,

but he was writing them for the Beatles.

So now he wasn't. Now he was writing them for who?

For Paul McCartney, well, who's Paul McCartney as an artist?

And he has an acoustic guitar and an upright piano.

And so he's starting to figure this out.

And really, in the beginning, he's just kind of experimenting.

And he would make these little charts of how to record songs,

and sometimes he'd just be improvising.

And just singing about what his life was,

which was his new family, his wife, the farm.

And he starts writing all of these songs,

which, as Paul says in the film,

it's the best form of therapy there is,

because song is where you get to understand how you feel.

The songs tell you and help you process how you're feeling.

And so he ends up putting together this whole batch of songs very casually

until, at the very end, he has the idea for one more song,

which is the song, Maybe I'm Amazed,

which he goes into Abbey Road and does a proper job on, I guess,

though he plays all the instruments himself still at Abbey Road.

But I think he knew that song needed special treatment.

Let's hear a little bit of that song.

Here's Maybe I'm Amazed.

Maybe I'm Amazed to where you love me all the time.

Maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you.

Maybe I'm Amazed to where you put me out of time.

And hug me online, Maybe I'm Amazed to where I really need you.

Maybe I'm Amazed, Maybe I'm Amazed to where you love me all the time.

Maybe I'm Amazed to where you love me all the time.

Maybe I'm Amazed, Maybe you're the only woman that could ever help me.

Maybe won't you help it all this time?

It's maybe Emma Mays from Paul McCartney's solo album,

the least in 1970.

What did Paul McCartney tell you about writing this song in particular?

I think that there's something in that in the film.

Yeah, I mean, the song is really

a thank you to Linda, you know,

because Linda has always been a very two-dimensional character in the world,

because she didn't give many interviews at all,

and she was vilified, you know, as Yoko was vilified.

And it's interesting that, you know,

John and Paul both married these very strong women,

who are artists in their own right.

Linda was a photographer,

who are a little older than them,

who are divorced and already have children,

and they start making families and music with them.

So they become partners,

because they needed some kind of ballast for themselves,

and, you know, Linda becomes kind of the center of his life,

you know, both as his wife,

as a musical collaborator,

which is really her role as kind of his first audience.

I think the public always felt so invested

in Paul McCartney and John Lennon's relationship,

and people often have the opinion that during the 70s,

John and Paul were at odds,

but your film complicates that,

and reminds people that they were in touch throughout this time.

Yeah, I mean, they were both at odds,

but also connected, you know.

I think, you know, obviously,

at the beginning of the 70s,

they're all just trying to separate.

So, you know, there's a distance,

they all want to feel the distance,

and of course, then with the business troubles,

they are just increasingly tense with each other,

and, you know, certainly in the press,

always trying to kind of pit them against each other,

and, you know, Paul writes a song called Too Many People on Ram,

which has some kind of veiled references to, you know,

people preaching practices,

and, you know, kind of talking maybe about John's kind of lecturing

and his kind of political activism in a way that's maybe too much,

and John comes back with a song called How Do You Sleep,

which is not veiled, which is a very harsh, you know,

almost kind of character assassination song,

and, you know, saying the only thing you did was yesterday,

and it's tough, but then you see, even at that moment,

that they're still just almost fighting like brothers.

You know, I used several clips in the film

where even when they're fighting, John refers to Paul's

as best friend or as his brother, you know,

that they had this connection that allowed them to do that,

and they would still, you know, particularly as the business stuff

started to settle down, they would get together more and more.

You know, Paul always had this deep connection to John,

which I saw, you know, I didn't know how Paul would be talking about John,

and he loved talking about John.

In fact, when I went to Paul's house for one of the interviews,

I was led in to his house,

and they said it'll be back in a while,

and so I'm just kind of looking around Paul's living room.

You're standing at Paul McCartney's living room.

Yeah, by myself.

And I look on the wall, and there's a drawing by John,

and Paul comes in, and I said,

I just noticed you've got this John drawing.

He said, oh, let me show you something,

and we go on the hallway, and there are many drawings by John.

And he said, I was sitting across from John when he drew some of these,

and I just felt like this would be a good home for them here.

And he just was staring at them with such love,

that I got the chills, you know,

that John was his best friend.

It will always be his best friend.

And so to talk about John is to keep him alive and keep him in his heart,

and I think the complication of it is something that all of us,

trying to pack, but it's something that underneath everything has to be loved.

You know, there was often criticism of Paul's solo albums and his work with Wings,

but there's also a sweet moment when Seanlin and talks about how worn their copy

in their house of McCartney's first solo album was.

So, you know, even though you also feature in the documentary footage of John publicly,

maybe criticizing or saying that the music could be better,

Sean in an interview with you reveals that actually the album got a lot of play in their house.

Yeah, which I love that detail, you know, and I'm sure of it, you know,

and vice versa for Paul with John's music.

You know, I think they were always paying attention to what they were doing.

And you know, otherwise you see people asking John about Wings albums

and John, you know, becomes more generous with time and kind of understanding.

And he knows Paul's a musical genius that he has the capability of writing great music.

Yeah, I mean, one thing that's for sure throughout the documentary is like,

how prolific he is.

It's crazy. It's almost like he just needs to, it's like constantly coming out of him.

Yeah, I mean, puts out 10 records in 10 years.

But on top of that, he's doing all kinds of side projects.

I mean, he is somebody who needs to be doing something.

I asked him about it, you know, I said, are you a workaholic?

And what he said to me is, well, you don't work music, you play it.

So I think I'm a playaholic.

And I think that's true.

I mean, to this day, Paul McCartney is probably making music today, you know, and every day.

I mean, that's what he still does, because that's how he expresses himself.

And I get that, you know, if I was Paul McCartney, I'd make music every day too.

Morgan Neville, thank you so much for talking with us.

Absolutely, great talking to you.

Morgan Neville spoke with Fresh Air's Emery Bull Dignado.

His latest documentary, Men on the Run, is available on Prime Video.

His next film, Lorn, about Lorn Michaels, comes out next month.

Fresh Air Weekend is produced by Theresa Madden.

Fresh Air's executive producer is Sam Brigger.

Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham.

Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorerock,

Emery Bull Dignado, Lauren Crenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaliner, Susan Nykendi, Anna Bauman,

and Nico Gonzalez Whistler.

Our digital media producer is Molly Sevy Nesper.

Our co-host is Tanya Mosley.

I'm Terry Gross.